A relationship between Achilles Tatius and Christianity has been imagined from at
least as early as the tenth century when the Suda claimed that
he had converted to Christianity and been ordained as a bishop. Modern
scholarship has found this highly improbable; nevertheless, attempts to explore
connections between his late second-century c.e. novel,
Leucippe and Clitophon, and early Christianity continue. In
recent decades, within a context of renewed interest in the ancient novel,
scholars of early Christianity have found a wealth of material in the novels to
illuminate the generic development and meaning of Christian narratives in the
New Testament and beyond. Less attention, however, has been given to the ways in
which the novels respond to and incorporate themes from Christianity. Achilles
Tatius's etiological myth of wine and its associated harvest festival
in Leuc. Clit. 2.2 represent a particularly striking point of
contact between Christianity and the Greek novel. In the first section below, I
systematically review the narrative and ritual parallels between Leuc.
Clit. 2.2 and the Christian Eucharist and conclude that they are
too striking to be accidental or to have gone unnoticed by an ancient reader
with knowledge of Christianity. Although these similarities have been pointed
out, their meaning and consequences have received comparatively little attention
from scholars either of the novel or of early Christianity. Thus, in the
subsequent sections of this study I contextualize these parallels within
second-century Christian and non-Christian literary and religious culture. My
contention is that an exploration of the relationship between Leuc.
Clit. 2.2 and the Christian Eucharist will provide valuable insight
both into the larger project of Achilles Tatius and into the relationship
between early Christianity and its contemporary context, particularly the Second
Sophistic.
