Heliodorus of Emesa, from Emesa, Syria, was a Greek writer generally dated in the 3rd century of the Common Era, and is known for the ancient Greek romance or novel called the Aethiopica (the Ethiopian Story) or sometimes "Theagenes and Chariclea". Emesa was an ancient city on the Orontes River in Syria. ... // Events The Sassanid dynasty of Persia launches a war to reconquer lost lands in the Roman east. ... As a literary genre, romance refers to a style of heroic prose and verse narrative current in Europe from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. ... DeFoes Robinson Crusoe, Newspaper edition published in 1719 A novel (from French nouvelle, new) is an extended fictional narrative in prose. ...

According to his own statement, his father's name was Theodosius and he belonged to a family of priests of the sun. According to the ecclesiastical historian Socrates Scholasticus (Hist. eccles. V. 22), the author of the Aethiopica was a certain Heliodorus, bishop of Tricca in Thessaly. It is supposed that the work was written in his early years before he became a Christian and that, when confronted with the alternative of disowning it or resigning his bishopric, he preferred resignation. But it is now generally agreed that the real author was a sophist of the 3rd century of the Common Era. Socrates Scholasticus was a Greek Christian church historian; born at Constantinople c. ... Thessaly (Θεσσαλια; modern Greek Thessalía; see also List of traditional Greek place names) is one of the 13 peripheries of Greece, and is further sub-divided into 4 prefectures. ... Jump to: navigation, search As a noun, Christian is an appellation and moniker deriving from the appellation Christ, which many people associate exclusively with Jesus of Nazareth. ... // Events The Sassanid dynasty of Persia launches a war to reconquer lost lands in the Roman east. ...

The Aethiopica

The Aethiopica was first brought to light during Renaissance times in a manuscript from the library of Matthias Corvinus, found at the sack of Buda (today the western part of Budapest) in 1526, and printed at Basel in 1534. Other codices have since been discovered. It was first translated into French by the celebrated translator Jacques Amyot in 1547. It was first translated into English in 1569 by Thomas Underdowne, who used the 1551 Latin translation of Stanislaus Warschewiczki to create his Aethiopian Historie. Jump to: navigation, search By region Italian Renaissance Northern Renaissance French Renaissance German Renaissance English Renaissance The Renaissance, also known as Il Rinascimento (in Italian), was an influential cultural movement which brought about a period of scientific revolution and artistic transformation, at the dawn of modern European history. ... Matthias Corvinus (Mátyás in Hungarian), (February 23, 1443 (?) - April 6, 1490) was one of the greatest Kings of Hungary, ruling between 1458 and 1490. ... Buda (German: Ofen) is the western part of the Hungarian capital Budapest on the right bank of the Danube. ... Budapest seen from north. ... Events January 14 - Treaty of Madrid. ... Location within Switzerland Basel (English traditionally: Basle , German: Basel , French Bâle , Italian Basilea ) is Switzerlands third most populous city (188,000 inhabitants in the canton of Basel-City as of 2004; the 690,000 inhabitants in the conurbation stretching across the immediate cantonal and national boundaries made Basel... Events February 27 - Group of Anabaptists of Jan Matthys seize Münster and declare it The New Jerusalem - they begin to exile dissenters and forcible baptize all others May 10 - Jacques Cartier explores Newfoundland while searching for the Northwest Passage. ... Jump to: navigation, search first page of the Codex Argenteus A codex (Latin for book; plural codices) is a handwritten book from late Antiquity or the Early Middle Ages. ... Jacques Amyot (October 30, 1513 - February 6, 1593), French writer, was born of poor parents, at Melun. ... Events January 16 - Grand Duke Ivan IV of Muscovy becomes the first Tsar of Russia. ... Events January 11 - First recorded lottery in England. ... Events Russia, Reforming Synod of the metropolite Macaire, Orthodoxy: introduction of a calendar of the saints and an ecclesiastical law code ( Stoglav ) Major outbreak of the sweating sickness in England. ...

The "Aethiopica" is indebted to the works of Homer and Euripides. The title is taken from the fact that the action of the beginning and end of the story takes place in Ethiopia. The daughter of Porsine, wife of Hydaspes, king of Ethiopia, was born white through the effect of the sight of a marble statue upon the queen during pregnancy. Fearing an accusation of adultery, the mother gives the babe to the care of Sisimithras, a gymnosophist, who carries her to Egypt and places her in charge of Charicles, a Pythian priest. The child is taken to Delphi, and made a priestess of Apollo under the name of Chariclea. Theagenes, a noble Thessalian, comes to Delphi and the two fall in love with each other. He carries off the priestess with the help of Calasiris, an Egyptian, employed by Persine to seek for her daughter. Then follow many perils from pirates, bandits, and others—but the chief personages ultimately meet at Meroe at the very moment when Chariclea is about to be sacrificed to the gods by her own father. Her birth is made known, and the lovers are happily married. Jump to: navigation, search Bust of Homer in the British Museum For other uses, see Homer (disambiguation). ... Euripides (ca. ... Gymnosophists is the name (meaning naked philosophers) given by the Greeks to certain ancient Hindu philosophers who pursued asceticism to the point of regarding food and clothing as detrimental to purity of thought. ... Jump to: navigation, search The theatre, seen from above Delphi (Greek Δελφοί - Delphoi; see also List of traditional Greek place names) is an archaeological site and a modern town in Greece. ... Jump to: navigation, search Apollo (Greek: Απόλλων, Apóllōn; Απελλων) is a god in Greek and Roman mythology, the son of Zeus and Leto, and the twin of Artemis (goddess of the hunt), one of the most important and many-sided of the Olympian divinities. ... Thessaly (Θεσσαλια; modern Greek Thessalía; see also List of traditional Greek place names) is one of the 13 peripheries of Greece, and is further sub-divided into 4 prefectures. ... Aerial view of the pyramids at Meroe. ...

Go here for a synopsis of the novel

The rapid succession of events, the variety of the characters, the graphic descriptions of manners and of natural scenery, and the simplicity and elegance of the style give the Aethiopica great charm. But what has been regarded as most remarkable is that the novel opens in the middle of the story ("in medias res") with a mystery that is solved for the reader only through a complex thread of retrospective narratives or dialogues in which various characters describe their adventures. This feature makes the Aethiopica stand out from all the other ancient Greek romances. In Medias Res can mean a few things. ...

Influence of the Aethiopica

Heliodorus' novel was immensely influencial and was imitated by Byzantine Greeks and by French, Italian, and Spanish writers. The structure, events and themes of the European adventure novel of the first half of the seventeenth century -- Mme de Scudéry, Gomberville, Cervantes ( in his Persiles y Sigismunda) -- were directly modeled on Heliodorus's work and this influence continued to be felt in the eighteenth century novel (especially in those having a "tale within a tale" structure). Under the Comnenian dynasty, Byzantine writers of twelfth century Constantinople reintroduced the ancient Greek romance novel, imitating its form and time period but Christianizing its content. ... Madeleine de Scudéry (November 15, 1607 - June 2, 1701), often known simply as Mademoiselle de Scudéry, was a French writer. ... Marin le Roy, sieur du Parc et de Gomberville (1600 - June 14, 1674), was a French poet and novelist. ... Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (September 29, 1547 – April 23, 1616), was a Spanish novelist, poet and playwright, best known for his immortal masterpiece Don Quixote de la Mancha, which is considered by many to be the first modern novel, one of the greatest works in Western literature and certainly the...

The 17th century French dramatist Racine claimed that Heliodorus' novel was his favorite book and when, after the author had joined the ascetic Janseanist retreat Port-Royal and the book had been repeatedly taken away from him, Racine is reported to have finally said that the loss of the book no longer mattered, as he had already memorized it. Racine is the name of several communities in the United States of America: Racine, Minnesota Racine, Missouri Racine, Ohio Racine, West Virginia Racine, Wisconsin Racine County, Wisconsin It is also the name of dramatist Jean Racine. ... Port Royal was the center of shipping commerce in Jamaica until an earthquake on June 7, 1692 largely destroyed it, causing two thirds of the city to sink into the Caribbean Sea. ...

The early life of Clorinda in Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered (canto xii. 21 sqq.) is almost identical with that of Chariclea. Torquato Tasso (March 11, 1544 – April 25, 1595) was an Italian poet of the 16th century, best known for his poem La Gerusalemme liberata (Jerusalem Delivered; 1575), in which he describes the imaginary combats between Christians and Muslims at the end of the First Crusade, during the siege of Jerusalem. ... Torquato Tasso (March 11, 1544 – April 25, 1595) was an Italian poet of the 16th century, best known for his poem La Gerusalemme liberata (Jerusalem Delivered; 1575), in which he describes the imaginary combats between Christians and Muslims at the end of the First Crusade, during the siege of Jerusalem. ...

See also

Other ancient Greek novelists:

• Chariton - The Loves of Chaereas and Callirhoe
• Xenophon of Ephesus - The Ephesian Tale
• Achilles Tatius - Leucippe and Cleitophon
• Longus - Daphnis and Chloe

This article incorporates text from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, which is in the public domain. Chariton, of Aphrodisias in Caria, the author of a Greek romance entitled The Loves of Chaereas and Callirhoe, probably flourished in the 4th century AD. The action of the story, which is to a certain extent historical, takes place during the time of the Peloponnesian War. ... Xenophon of Ephesus (fl. ... The Ephesian Tale of Anthia and Habrocomes by Xenophon of Ephesus is a novel belonging to the mid second century of the Common Era. ... Achilles Tatius (in Greek Aχιλλευς Τατιος) was a Roman era Greek writer whose fame is attached to his only surviving work, the erotic romance The Adventures of Leucippe and Cleitophon. ... Longus was a Greek novelist and romancer, and author of Daphnis and Chloe. ... Longus was a Greek sophist and romancer, and author of Daphnis and Chloe. ... Jump to: navigation, search Supporters contend that the Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica (1910-1911) represents the sum of human knowledge at the beginning of the 20th century; indeed, it was advertised as such. ... The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ...