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Cueva: Analogue of the Hero of Heliodorus' Aethiopica 103 The Analogue of the Hero of Heliodorus' Aethiopica Edmund P. Cueva Contrary to the rules of novelistic composition, HeUodorus' Aethiopica starts in medias res, and employs throughout its narrative foreshadowing, flashback , and story lines borrowed from Homer and the tragic corpus. The epics supply the largest number of story lines while tragedy supplies the second largest.1 In this paper I argue that the subtext created by the tragedy story lines supply the reader with the tragic and mythological analogue and identity of Theagenes, the hero of the novel.2 The Aethiopica is the longest, most complicated and creative of all the ancient Greek novels. Heliodorus, while constructing this terribly complex work, plants false clues that at first glance seem to hinder the unfolding of the story, increase the novel's complexity and make the reader second-guess the information supplied by the novelist. In actuality, the false clues make it one of me more schematically and narratologically challenging of the ancient novels. Moreover, by fashioning a story with uncertainties, speculation, twists and 1 Forexample: E. Med.l3ll: 1.8.7; S. Aj. 293 and E. Heracl. 476: 1.21.3; E. Hec. 612: 2.4.3; E. Or. 1625: 2.18.4; A. Pers. 599 and S. OT 1527: 3.15.3; E. Phoen. 625: 4.6.7; S. OT 1409: 4.107; E. Hipp. 439: 4.105; E. Ion 927ff.: 5.20.1; E. AIc. 301: 575.3; A. Ch. 64: 5.27.3; S. Aj. 131f.: 7.5.2; E. Hipp. 802: 8.157. The large number of lines from tragedy has inspired much scholarly work, beginning with J.W.H. Waiden, "Stage-Terms in Heliodorus' Aethiopica," HSCPh 5 (1894) 1-44. See also E. Feuillatre, Études sur les Éthiopiques D'Heliodoré (Paris 1966); R. Rocca, "Eliodoro e i due«Ippoliti» euripidei," Materiali e Contribua per la Storia délia Narrativa Greco-Latina 1 (Perugia 1976) 25-31; G. Anderson, Eros Sophistes (Chico, CA 1982) 33-40; and T. Paulsen, Inszenierung des Schicksals (Trier 1992). 2 For useful basic material on the function of analogue in the ancient Greek novel see G. Steiner, "The Graphic Analogue from Myth in Greek Romance," ICS 58 (1969) 123-37. 104Syllecta Classica 9 (1998) turns, missing identities, deaths and resurrections, HeUodorus makes the reader "an active participant in the actuation of the text."3 The reader, in other words, must solve problems of manifest natures by taking a dynamic role in the search for answers to certain questions. In addition, the points of view of the reader and fictional character(s) are manipulated by the author in order "to contrast and highlight states of relative knowledge and ignorance," which are orchestrated to result in "neither pure suspense nor pure surprise, but rather states of partial knowledge: provocative uncertainties, riddling oracles, puzzles and ambiguities ."4 This "incomplete cognition" of the reader is the "fundamental principle of HeUodoros' narrative technique."5 I shall show that Heliodorus employs "incomplete cognition" when it comes to the decoding of the hero's character and his mythological analogue. /. A Tragic Opening, Theatrical Intent and Dubious Clues The opening scene of the novel takes place at daybreak, and its first actors (??d?e? kv dp???? ??st??????, "men in piratical gear" [1.1.1]), quickly appear; they survey a scene staged not only for them but also for the reader a beach full of dead and half-dead bodies. This is not a typical battle scene, for included among the gore are the remains of a feast turned deadly: tables, some overturned and held by dead men, some used as weapons in an unexpected battle, others used as hiding places to no avail. The casualties lay scattered in various poses: one brought down by an axe, another beaten to death with a club, yet another burned to death. The majority of the dead are slaughtered by arrows. Heliodorus concludes this opening scene with a brief summation employing stage terms: KaI µ????? e?d??· d da?µ?? èxri µ????? t?? ?????? d?es?e?ast?, ????? a?µa? µ???a?, ?a? s?µp?s???? p??eµ?? ?p?st?sa?, f????? ?a? TTÓTOUS, ap??/da? ?a? sfa...

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