This volume ‘is dedicated to John Morgan … in boundless gratitude for over forty years of Heliodorean inspiration and insight’ (p. 6), and it contains an introduction and seventeen chapters on Heliodorus’ Aethiopica, the latest and most sophisticated extant ancient Greek novel. Since in recent decades nobody has written more about Heliodorus than Morgan, no other subject could have been more appropriate for a Festschrift dedicated to this scholar. The editors, along with thirteen renowned contributors from all over the world, use this occasion to enrich the studies of Heliodorus and of the ancient Greek novel in general.
Due to the considerable length and narratological complexity of the Aethiopica, most extant studies on Heliodorus take the form of close readings of a limited number of sections, such as the opening scene, Cnemon's novella, the narrative of Charicleia's conception or her recognition in Meroe. This approach is challenged by the editors: by assigning each contributor a different book of the Aethiopica and inviting enough scholars to cover its ten books, Repath and Whitmarsh encourage readers to appreciate the richness of the novel in its entirety. Moreover, the contributions shed new light on three common approaches to Heliodorus (intertextuality, narratology and its subfield of characterisation), venture into less explored research areas and include original close readings.
Whereas the Aethiopica's debt to Homer and Plato is a cornerstone of Heliodorean scholarship, several chapters discuss less studied instances of intertextuality: E. Bowie (Chapter 2) combines intertextuality with intervisuality; Repath (Chapters 15 and 18) and Whitmarsh (Chapter 17) explore both intratextuality and intrageneric intertextuality; Bowie (Chapter 2) again and Whitmarsh (Chapter 8) discuss Herodotus’ influence on Heliodorus; R. Hunter (Chapter 13) identifies a Hellenistic intertextual technique in Heliodorus’ ‘adorning a reworking of a Homeric scene with echoes of another very similar Homeric scene’ (p. 176). As for characterisation, contributors expand upon the influential discussion of K. De Temmerman (Crafting Characters [2014]): A. Billault (Chapter 6) focuses on paradoxical elements within Cnemon's characterisation; F. Zeitlin (Chapter 14) combines gender, ethnicity and class and identifies cultural hybridity in Heliodorus’ portrayal of Persians; D. Konstan (Chapter 12) draws from discussions of character change in ancient literature and reads Charicleia's separation from Theagenes in Book 6 as a sign of an ‘emotional and moral collapse’ (p. 167). Finally, H. Morales (Chapter 3) draws on G. Deleuze and F. Guattari's ‘assemblage theory’ to argue that ‘Charicleia comprises figures, and facets of figures, of the prostitute, goddess …, priestess, and martyr’ (p. 33), whereas M. Paschalis (Chapter 9) highlights Heliodorus’ ‘composite picture of Odysseus’ (p. 124), one that on account of his lack of kleos differs from his Homeric counterpart. As for narratology, contributors go beyond structuralism: J. Grethlein (Chapter 4) combines narratology with Heliodorus’ aesthetic reflection on apate; S. Montiglio (Chapter 11) focuses on emotional readerly responses; R. Webb (Chapter 16) argues that the siege of Syene, which she reads as an ekphrasis of the tropos, triggers readers’ ‘twofold imaginative effort, picturing both the process of construction and its result’ (p. 234).
Three contributions adopt less common scholarly approaches to Heliodorus. S.M. Trzaskoma (Chapter 5) discusses the late antique and Byzantine reception of Theagenes’ second lament (Hld. 2.4), with a focus on how Psellus imitates it to describe his grief over his mother's death (Encomium 1499–506); L. Kim (Chapter 7) reinterprets Calasiris’ account of Homer's origin (Hld. 3.14) in order to stress the prophet's attribution of an ‘allegorical logic’ (p. 81) to Homer's life and the Aethiopica as a whole; K. Dowden (Chapter 10) focuses on ethos, namely on ways in which sections of Book 5, with its focus on pirates and Calasiris, ‘test the ethical insight of narrator and of narratee’ (p. 131).
The volume also contains innovative close readings. Bowie (Chapter 2) argues that Polygnotus’ painting of Odysseus’ victory against the suitors, displayed at Plataea and mentioned by Pausanias (9.4.1–2), enriches the opening scene's evocation of the Mnesterophonia and ‘invites readers to be alert to the Greek-barbarian polarity’ (p. 11). Grethlein (Chapter 4) offers a reassessment of Thisbe, arguing that her deception of other characters in the Cnemon novella ‘illustrates the danger to which the reader of the Aethiopica is exposed’ (p. 51). Whitmarsh (Chapter 8) rereads Charicleia's escape from Delphi with Theagenes in Book 4 in light of the Constantinian decree (320 ce), according to which the abduction of a girl was a crime regardless of whether she had given consent, and, if she had, she was held liable as participant in the crime (Codex Theodosianus 9.24.1–2). Montiglio (Chapter 11) identifies instances of stupefied speechlessness as a feature reinforcing the novel's theatricality and argues that at the beginning of Book 6 (Hld. 6.4.1) this motif draws readers’ attention to the unexpected turns of the novel's second half. Repath (Chapter 15) adds to the dense metaliterary discussion of Heliodorus’ Nile, the passage describing the river's bend (Hld. 8.14.3), which he takes as a symbol of ‘the theme of digression and return which is characteristic of the narrative technique of the first half of the novel’ (p. 216).
Given its variety of approaches and close readings, the book's impact extends beyond Heliodorus to the study of the ancient Greek novels in general. Scholarship on this genre is experiencing a new phase of its history. Whereas in the 1970s scholars of Greek literature ‘used to dismiss the Greek romances’ (p. 1), nowadays there is a vast production of research on the Greek novels, as could be witnessed, for example, in September 2022 at the successful Sixth International Conference on the Ancient Novel with the theme ‘Roads Less Travelled’, organised by K. De Temmerman and E. Bracke at Ghent University. This impressive growth of research, which examines Latin and Christian fiction as well, poses new questions to ancient novel specialists, not least about the future of this subfield of Classics. The Ghent conference proposed a number of ‘Roads Less Travelled’ within novelistic scholarship, including ecocritical and sensorial approaches, cognitive studies and reception of the ancient novel in Byzantium.
The volume contributes to this turn in novelistic scholarship in at least two ways. To begin with, starting with its introductory chapter, the volume offers surveys of the main scholarly contributions on Heliodorus and key aspects of other Greek novels (e.g. pp. 4–6, 9, 80, 215). For example, Whitmarsh identifies the following focuses within research on Heliodorus’ Aethiopica: handling of narrative, fictionality, allusion, aesthetic experience, ethics and race (pp. 4–5). Moreover, some contributors offer detailed critical assessments of previous studies, such as Bowie's careful review of M. Telò's and A. Tagliabue's analyses of the opening scene (p. 9) and Morales’ use of the assemblage model to challenge Morgan's interpretation of Thisbe as ‘anti-Charicleia’ (Chapter 3). It is to be hoped that future publications on the Greek novels will continue this critical reflection on existing scholarship and develop it further, both by revisiting past readings and by addressing broad and theoretical questions, such as how have we handled intertextuality in the study of the Greek novels? Or which of the existing contributions may present the danger of over- or under-interpretation? Or which readers did scholars have in mind as they offered their interpretations?
In light of the complexity of Heliodorean intertextuality, which is carefully highlighted by this volume, the first question especially merits investigation. As I argued in my monograph on Xenophon of Ephesus (Paraliterary Story [2017], pp. 11–18), most scholars have applied to the Greek novels the model of intertextuality used in Latin poetry, and yet ‘novelistic intertextuality’ typically differs with respect to medium (prose), historical and cultural context, and sophistication. Such a comprehensive study of intertextuality would be a timely contribution, given the current interest in the subject within Classics, as seen at the conference ‘Arts of Allusion: Greek Intertextuality over Time’ organised by R. Höschele, P. Bing and A. Faulkner in Toronto in September 2022.
Trzaskoma's chapter (Chapter 5) models a promising way to tackle the second of the above questions. After offering an intratextual analysis of Theagenes’ lament at 2.4, Trzaskoma finds confirmation of this reading in Psellos’ references to multiple laments from the Aethiopica (p. 64). Trzaskoma shows how paying attention to the late antique and Byzantine reception of ancient novels can help to illuminate scholarly readings and to limit the risk of under- or over-interpretations.
The second way in which the volume contributes to the current turning point in novelistic scholarship is through its inclusion of allegory and ethos within the study of the Aethiopica. In so doing, the volume points to one main ‘less travelled’ approach to the novel, which, if it were to become more popular, would enrich the novelistic field in years to come by offering serious readings of these ancient texts. Since R. Merkelbach's reading of the Aethiopica as a mystery text (Roman und Mysterium [1962]) and its convincing refutation, it has been difficult for novelistic scholars to discuss the presence of religion and philosophy within ancient Greek fiction as signifying something beyond the metaliterary; perhaps influenced by comparison with modern novels, entertainment was and is still considered to be the default purpose of ancient Greek novels. Following the few exceptions to this trend (K. Dowden, CQ 46 [1996]; T. Whitmarsh, Narrative Identity [2011], passim; J. Morgan and I. Repath in: S. Panayotakis and M. Paschalis, Slaves and Masters [2019], pp. 139–60), some contributors to the volume challenge this belief, as they identify hints at a more profound level of understanding within Heliodorus’ Aethiopica, drawing either from Neoplatonic allegory (Kim, pp. 100–1), characters’ acknowledgement of divine forces (Dowden, p. 140), ‘symbolism derived from religious cults and related rituals’ (Konstan, p. 171) and the ‘universal significance’ of Charicleia's story (Repath, p. 263). Other scholars may fruitfully explore these hints further, shedding additional light on ways in which ancient novels could have been read for more serious purposes. The forthcoming monographs on Heliodorus by B. Kruchió (Multidimensional Narration) and E. Capettini (Fabric of The Self) will likely contribute to this trend, the former through its study of the epistemological influence of Neoplatonism and Christianity on the Aethiopica, the latter by exploring the novel's contribution to ancient reflection on selfhood through its focus on genealogical inheritance, kinship bonds and lived experience. With respect to religion, J. Kindt's work on storytelling (Revisiting Delphi [2016]) could offer a productive model for the study of the ancient Greek novels’ contribution to religion.
‘Each generation finds new treasure in the Aethiopica’ (p. 5). These words from this volume's introduction found clear instantiation in 1978, when John Morgan completed his Ph.D. dissertation on Heliodorus; these same words have become true again through this rich volume, which opens up new research avenues and questions for the novelistic field as a whole.
