Pornographic Enargeia and Counter-Narrative Desire in the Onos

Abstract: This paper argues that the Ps.-Lucianic Onos departs from the striptease narrative logic of the canonical Greek novels by adopting a rhetorical approach to representations of sex akin to the visual rhetoric found in Roman erotic art and spectacle culture—a connection that has yet to be explored by scholars. Through close analysis of the text’s pornographic enargeia (“vividness”) in relation to serial sexual art and staged sex shows, this study aims to demonstrate that the Onos occupies a unique space in imperial Greek erotic literature by challenging prevailing narrative models and offering an alternative vision of the sexual body in fiction.