"In the neigbourhood of Mytilene, the principal city of Lesbos, Lamon, a goatherd, as he was one day tending his flock, discovered an infant sucking one of his goats with surprising dexterity. He takes home the child, and presents him to his wife Myrtale; at the same time he delivers to her a purple mantle with which the boy was adorned, and a little sword with an ivory hilt, which was lying by his side. Lamon having no children of his own, resolves to bring up the foundling, and bestows on him the pastoral name of Daphnis. "About two years after this occurrence, Dryas, a neighbouring shepherd, finds in the cave of the Nymphs, a female infant, nursed by one of his ewes. The child is brought to the cottage of Dryas, receives the name of Chloe, and is cherished by the old man as if she had been his daughter. "When Daphnis had reached the age of fifteen and Chloe that of twelve, Lamon and Dryas, their reputed fathers, had corresponding dreams on the same night. The Nymphs of the cave in which Chloe had been discovered appear to each of the old shepherds, delivering Daphnis and Chloe to a winged boy, with a bow and arrows, who commands that Daphnis should be sent to keep goats, and the girl to tend the sheep. Daphnis and Chloe have not long entered on their new employments, which they exercise with a care of their flocks increased by a knowledge of the circumstances of their infancy, when chance brings them to pasture on the same spot. Daphnis collects the wandering sheep of Chloe, and Chloe drives from the rocks the goats of Daphnis. They make reeds in common, and share together their milk and their wine;--their youth, their beauty, the season of the year, everything tends to inspire them with a mutual passion: at length Daphnis having one day fallen into a covered pit which was dug for a wolf, and being considerably hurt, receives from Chloe a kiss, which serves as the first fuel to the flame of love. "Chloe had another admirer, Dorco the cowherd, who having in vain requested her in marriage from Dryas, her reputed father, resolves to carry her off by force; for this purpose he disguises himself as a wolf, and lurks among some bushes near a place where Chloe used to pasture her sheep. In this garb he is discovered and attacked by the dogs, but is preserved from being torn to pieces by the timely arrival of Daphnis.