70 research outputs found
A commentary on books 3 and 4 of the Ethiopian story of Heliodorus.
Get PDFThesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1998.The thesis consists of an introduction to and commentary on books 3 and 4 of the
Ethiopian Story of Heliodorus. The introduction explores the meagre evidence for the life
of the author, and concludes that he was probably a Phoenician living in the Syrian city of
Emesa. The nature of the personal relationship between Heliodorus and the cult of the sun,
mentioned explicitly in the final sentence of the romance, is discussed but must remain
inconclusive. References to Helios in the romance are shown to be largely literary rather
than programmatically religious. The narrative context surrounding the encounter between
the hero and heroine of the story and the latter's strange birth, which constitutes the true
opening of the romance, are investigated particularly closely. The possibility that the
author represented his heroine, paradoxically born white to the black king and queen of
Ethiopia, as what would today be termed an albino, is analysed, and the literary and cultural
implications of this evaluated. Comparative anthropological studies of this hereditary
condition in a variety of cultures show a strong connection with religious cults of the sun,
while the internal evidence in the romance (particularly the heroine 's miraculous birth, the
constrained sexuality of the hero and heroine, and the high degree of cultural alienation in
the work) further corroborate this argument.
The introduction also reviews the evidence for the date of the romance, such as the
extent of the author's knowledge of the contemporary kingdoms of Axum and Meroe, his
use of words and linguistic forms that were prevalent in the fourth century, the traces of
Christian doctrines in the romance, the comparison between the sieges of Syene and Nisibis,
and the similarity between the account of the triumphal procession of Aurelian in
Vopiscus' biography of the emperor and the presentation of ambassadors to Hydaspes.
This survey shows that there are strong arguments for the fourth century date for the
romance. The introduction concludes with a brief survey of the language and style of
Heliodorus.
The commentary provides detailed discussion of key passages for the interpretation
of the author's narratological strategy, with particular regard to the role of Kalasiris in the
plot. Other substantial notes look at the author's treatment of the conventions of romance ,
his ironical use of the superstition of the 'evil eye', his subtle characterisation, and his use
of literary topoi. The thesis concludes with appendices on the intertextual relationship
between the Homeric epics and the Ethiopian Story, the significance of the word uvn6Eoc;,
and the 'amphibolies', or double explanations for events in the narrative
War and peace in the ancient Greek novel.
Get PDFThis article investigates how war and peace are represented in Xenophon’s
Cyropaedia, Chariton’s Chaereas and Callirhoe, the Ninus fragment, Achilles Tatius’
Leucippe, Longus’ Daphnis and Chloe, and Heliodorus’ Aithiopika. With the exception
of the Cyropaedia and possibly the Aithiopika, these romances were composed at the
height of the pax Romana when warfare between nations within the Roman Empire
had declined. Nevertheless, war and battles constitute significant elements in these
narratives, although they are often set in the remote past at the time of the Persian
Empire and are frequently pastiches drawn from the historians. In Chariton, Achilles
Tatius and Heliodorus, military episodes have an important narratological function.
Attitudes to war vary: it is an intrusive element in the lives of most of the characters,
and military bravado and imperial expansionism are sometimes viewed with irony.
Occasionally the romances describe contemporary conflicts in considerable detail
The influence of Roman law on the practice of slavery at the Cape of Good Hope (1652-1834).
Get PDFThis article investigates the extent to which Roman Law and received ideas about
Roman slavery actually did form the basis on which slavery was practised and administered
in the Cape of Good Hope between 1652 and 1834. Cape slavery was
governed by plakaaten issued in Batavia as well as in Cape Town, but, particularly in
capital cases, recourse was had directly to Roman Law and to the Roman-Dutch
writers such as Simon van Leeuwen, Joost de Damhouder, Ulrich Huber, Andreas
Gail and others. These writers frequently cite actual Roman laws, especially when
considering the appropriate punishment. At this stage of our knowledge of how
Roman Law was used in these cases, it is not possible to say whether its effect was
ameliorative or pejorative, but there is little doubt that it was used both by owners
and slaves, prosecution and defence, from the beginning until the end of this period
The dream of Charikles (4.14.2) : intertextuality and irony in the Ethiopian story of Heliodorus.
Get PDFThere are strong but previously unnoticed intertextual links between the dream of Charikles in
Heliodorus (4.14.2), the portent of the eagle in Achilles Tatius (2.12.1-3), and the dream of
Penelope in Homer (Od. 19.535-69). The allusion to Achilles Tatius' Leukippe and Kleitophon
may have alerted Heliodorus' readers to the approach of an important turning-point in the
plot, but it is the Homeric link that is the primary focus. The dream of Penelope provides
moral underpinning for marriage in the Aithiopika and helps to underline the complex ironies in
Heliodorus' narrative at this crucial turning-point in the plot
Furor, dementia, rabies: social displacement, madness and religion in the Metamorphoses of Apuleius.
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The role of discourse and lexical meaning in the grammaticalisation of temporal particles in Latin.
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