Retold by Walter Charleton (1620-1707) in , the story of the widow of Ephesus – a well-travelled lady by that time – became the starting point for digressions on the subject of love. In an intriguing mix of fiction and philosophy, Charleton used the ancient story to comment on a contemporary social phenomenon (the fashionable ideal of Platonic love) and contributed to the seventeenth-century debate about the passions. This book attempts to shed light on the at times ambiguous text by studying its various (philosophical, literary, historical and philological) contexts. Particularly the Latin translation (, 1665) is analysed as a so-far entirely neglected context that may e.g. offer insights into the reception of the story but that is also philologically interesting in its own right. Additionally, this book offers the first bilingual edition of Charleton’s and its Latin translation , as well as the first comprehensive commentary.weiterlesen