eprintid: 23520
rev_number: 16
eprint_status: archive
userid: 2382
dir: disk0/00/02/35/20
datestamp: 2017-09-22 07:32:23
lastmod: 2019-09-09 13:20:46
status_changed: 2017-09-22 07:32:23
type: article
metadata_visibility: show
creators_name: Tagliabue, Aldo
title: Heliodorus' reading of Lucian's Toxaris
subjects: ddc-470
subjects: ddc-480
subjects: ddc-870
subjects: ddc-880
divisions: i-70900
abstract: This article demonstrates that Cnemon’s story in Heliodorus’ Aethiopica intertexts with
the novella of Deinias in Lucian’s Toxaris. The closeness of three textual parallels, along
with a subtle use of characters’ names, proves that Heliodorus is deliberately recalling
Toxaris. The focus of this intertextuality is Chariclea, the courtesan of Deinias’ story.
This immoral figure is a striking counterpart to the lustful Demaenete, the main character
of Cnemon’s story and the first immoral lover of the Aethiopica. At the same time,
the evocation by Heliodorus of a lustful woman who has the same name as the protagonist
Chariclea, paradoxically enriches the characterization of the latter as chaste.
Furthermore, this subtle evocation of Chariclea seems to have metaliterary implications
as well. In the Aethiopica Chariclea stands for the entire novel: Heliodorus appears
to define the nature of his text in opposition to Lucian’s Toxaris and to the different kind
of fiction it represents. Heliodorus’ definition of his own novel by means of establishing
a contrast with other texts is an important function of his intertextuality with Imperial
literature and possibly sheds new light on the status of ancient fiction as a whole.
date: 2015-01-01
publisher: Brill
id_scheme: DOI
fp7_project_id: AncNar 312321
ppn_swb: 1656766167
own_urn: urn:nbn:de:bsz:16-heidok-235209
language: eng
bibsort: TAGLIABUEAHELIODORUS20150101
full_text_status: public
publication: Mnemosyne
volume: online
pagerange: 1-23
citation:   Tagliabue, Aldo  (2015) Heliodorus' reading of Lucian's Toxaris.  Mnemosyne, online.  pp. 1-23.      
document_url: https://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/23520/1/Tagliabue%2C%20Heliodorus%20Lucian.pdf