Heliodoros (Author)

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Heliodoros ( Greek  Ἡλιόδωρος Hēliódōros , German also Heliodorus ) from Emesa was a late ancient Greek author.

Life

According to his own statement, Heliodorus was the son of a Theodosius from the family of the Helios priests of Emesa. He probably lived in the 3rd century; but the second half of the 4th century is also discussed in research as the time of writing his work. The dates of life and the time of writing his novel are controversial.

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The Ethiopica in a manuscript from the possession of Cardinal Bessarion , who is one of the oldest text witnesses. Venice, Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana , Gr. 410, fol. 94v (12th / 13th century)

Heliodorus is the author of the Aithiopika ( Αἰθιοπικά ), a Greek novel in ten books, which tells the wonderful fate of the Ethiopian king's daughter Chariklea and the Thessalian Theagenes . The novel was already highly valued in late antiquity, but especially in the Middle Byzantine period. This estimate is justified from formal - the novel uses a complex narrative structure with complementary, repeatedly interrupted and inserted narratives - as well as linguistic aspects. In addition, the novel not only avoids frivolity, but also shows uplifting features, for example in the loyalty and chastity of the two protagonists , which is why the author was wrongly identified with a bishop Heliodorus of Trikka in Thessaly. In the 14th century, Xanthopulos expanded the attribution history by claiming that the Bishop of Trikka had been asked to burn his work, otherwise he would lose his episcopate. Heliodoros refused and accepted the loss.

Since the novel could nonetheless be read as an erotic novel, there were several reasons for defense and interpretation. According to a Byzantine allegory of a "philosopher Philip", the archetypes of the four cardinal virtues appear in the novel and Chariklea is understood as a connection between soul and nous . The "philosopher" Philippos is the monk Philagathos of Cerami , who lived in southern Italy in the 12th century. In the 15th century , Johannes Eugenikos also interpreted the novel allegorically and relates this allegory to the allegorical interpretation of the eroticism of the Song of Songs in Christian theology.

The novel is considered the best (and sometimes one of the last) novels of late antiquity. Heliodorus was a model for numerous novelists, especially of the Baroque . Motifs from his novel also provided the template for Giuseppe Verdi's opera Aida .

expenditure

  • Heliodori ethiopica. Edited by Aristides Colonna. Typis Regiae Officinae Polygraphicae, Rome 1938. 2 vol.
  • Héliodore Les Éthiopiques (Théagène et Chariclée; Collection Budé) , ed. by Robert M. Rattenbury and Thomas W. Lumb, trans. by Jean Maillon, 3 vols., Paris 2 1960 ( 1 1935).

Translations

  • Aethiopica historia. Translation by Johannes Zschorn. Strasbourg 1559. Reprint: Lang, Bern et al. 1984, ISBN 3-261-03177-8
  • Theagenes and Charikleia. A novel from the Greek of Heliodores. Translated by Karl Wilhelm Göttling. Andrea, Frankfurt a. M. 1822
  • Heliodor's ten books of Aetheopian history. Translated from the Greek by Friedrich Jacobs. Publishing house of JC Metzler'schen Buchhandlung, Stuttgart 1837.
  • Heliodorus: Ethiopian Stories. Translated from the Greek by Theodor Fischer. 2 vols. Hoffmann, Stuttgart 1867f.
  • Heliodorus: The Ethiopian Adventures of Theagenes and Charikleia. Translation by Horst Gasse. Reclam, Stuttgart 1972. ISBN 3-15-009384-8
  • Heliodoros: The Adventures of Beautiful Chariklea. Translation by Rudolf Reymer (1950). Artemis & Winkler, Munich 2001 (Library of the Old World), ISBN 3-7608-4087-6 . With an afterword by Niklas Holzberg .

literature

Overview representations

Investigations

  • Reinhold Merkelbach : Roman and Mystery in Antiquity . Beck, Munich / Berlin 1962, p. 234 ff.
  • Laura Mecella: L'enigmatica figura di Eliodoro e la datazione delle Etiopiche . In: Mediterraneo Antico 17/2, 2014, pp. 633–658

reception

  • Eberhard Lindhorst: Philipp von Zesen and the novel of late antiquity. A contribution to the theory and technique of the baroque novel. Göttingen 1955 (dissertation; reprint 1997; material-rich study on the influences of Heliodor on the German baroque novel)

Web links

Wikisource: Heliodor  - Sources and full texts

Remarks

  1. ^ Socrates Scholastikos , Historia ecclesiastica V, 22.
  2. ↑ Nikephoros Kallistos Xanthopulos, Historia ecclesiastica XII. In: Migne: Patrologia Graeca 146,860. See also Hans-Georg Beck: Byzantinisches Erotikon. Beck, Munich 1986, p. 167.
  3. ↑ Edited by Aristide Colonna , pp. 366-370. See also: Herbert Hunger: The high-level profane literature of the Byzantines. Handbook of Classical Studies: Dept. 12, Byzantine Handbook: Part 5, Vol. 2. Beck, Munich 1978, ISBN 3-406-01428-3 , p. 121.
  4. ^ Richard Goulet: Philippe le Philosophe. In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques , Vol. 5/1, Paris 2012, p. 310 f.
  5. ↑ Protheoria to Heliodorus Aithiopika. Edited by H. Gärtner. In: Byzantinische Zeitschrift 64, 1971, pp. 322-325.
personal data
SURNAME Heliodorus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Greek author
DATE OF BIRTH 3rd century or 4th century
DATE OF DEATH 3rd century or 4th century