This brief epitome of the plot shows its simplicity and its coloring. The scene is pastoral and a unity of place is observed which distinguishes the romance. All the action takes place in the country near Mytilene. Only for the episode of the search for Chloe’s parents do the characters move to the city and their sojourn there is short.[224] The main events of the plot are the double exposures, the adoption and the recognitions of Daphnis and Chloe and their common life as shepherds. The plot contains the usual features of a romance but virtually all are adapted to the pastoral tone and there is a change in their relative importance. The chief interests are the same as in the other romances: love, adventure, religion. But love is in its springtime: it buds and blossoms in the lives of two innocent children as the eternal miracle of nature.[225] The adventures are for the most part simple country disasters: Daphnis falling into a trap-ditch set for a wolf; a fair garden wantonly destroyed by a jealous rival. There are to be sure two kidnappings, but the rescues are speedy and magical. Daphnis is saved from the Tyrian pirates by the music of a shepherd’s pipe. Chloe’s return by the Methymnaeans is compelled by Pan himself. Even war is conducted with noble generosity and given a peaceful solution as if in a golden age.
Adventure indeed plays a far smaller part in the romance than does religion. Worship is heartfelt and a part of life. The gods honored are deities naturally worshipped in the country: the Nymphs, Pan, Dionysus and Eros. They are ever-present.
Longus in his Preface says that he made these four books as a votive to Eros, the Nymphs and Pan. The baby girl was exposed, nursed by a sheep and found by a shepherd in the cave of the Nymphs.[226] At critical moments in the lives of the hero and heroine the Nymphs appear in visions to guide or save. In Book I Lamo and Dryas, the foster-fathers, had the same dream the same night: they saw the Nymphs consign Daphnis and Chloe to the care of a young winged boy who touched both with the same arrow and bade each tend the flocks.[227] After Chloe was kidnapped by the Methymnaeans from the very cave of the Nymphs, the three goddesses appeared to Daphnis in a vision by night and told him not to fear, for Pan of the pine-tree would rescue the maid.[228] Again when for his poverty Daphnis saw that Chloe was to be betrothed to some richer suitor, the Nymphs appeared and told him where to find a purse of silver.[229] Finally Chloe’s noble parentage was discovered by the direction of the Nymphs and Eros who appeared to Dionysophanes in his sleep and bade him make a wedding feast in Mytilene and at it pass Chloe’s tokens about to all the guests.[230]