The first short story in European literature, Long's Daphnis and Chloe is not just an artless erotic story about the beauty of a shepherd's life, it expresses the ancient philosophy of love with unprecedented force. Without this work, the image of Antiquity is not complete; it can be called an artistic study of how love turns from an unconscious feeling into a reasonable creative force. Reading Daphnis and Chloe is a kind of psychological experiment and at the same time an introduction to the highest concepts of classical philosophy. In the 20th century, Daphnis and Chloe were embodied in various arts, from ballet to cinema. This edition includes a translation of the short story by the outstanding Russian writer D. S. Merezhkovsky, and his own article about Long. A modern scientific view of the work is presented in the introductory article by prof. A.V. Markov.Publisher's layout saved in a4.pdf format.