Heliodorus’s Aethiopica and the Odyssean Mnesterophonia
An Intermedial Reading
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11814798 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Aldo Tagliabue (Heidelberg University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2015 |
| Volume | 145 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 445-468 |
| Publication date | 2015-09-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | TAPA (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2575-7180 • E-ISSN: 2575-7199 |
| Publisher | Johns Hopkins University Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1353/apa.2015.a596194 |
| OpenAlex | W4379419111 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 13 |
The opening scene of Heliodorus's Aethiopica has a special ekphrastic quality, and scholars have noted that its tragic banquet recalls the Mnesterophonia in Homer's Odyssey. I argue that Heliodorus's banquet is not only a literary remaking of the Odyssean episode but also an account that stresses its pictorial quality. This new reading is suggested by the vividness of the description and by the echoes of drinking vessels and tables, the two distinctive features of the iconography of the Mnesterophonia, which was likely to be known in Heliodorus's time (third-fourth centuries c.e.). in the study of heliodorus's aethiopica, special attention has been drawn to the famous opening scene (Heliod. 1.1-2.4), in which a group of bandits reaches a beach covered with the bodies of people killed or wounded at a banquet. This tableau divides into two parts: the first is dedicated to a banquet transformed into a battlefield (Heliod. 1.1-1.8), while the second is dedicated to the protagonists of the novel, Theagenes and Charicleia (Heliod
Art · Art history · Banquet · Epistemology · Iconography · Linguistics · Literature · Quality (philosophy · Reading (process · Visual arts · Ancient Mediterranean Archaeology and History · Classical Antiquity Studies · Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies · History · Philosophy
The Classical Plot and the Invention of Western Narrative
Men, muscle, and myth
Aethiopika (Heliodorus, Third or Fourth Century)
Intermediality, Intertextuality, and Remediation
Myth and Visual Narrative in the Second Sophistic – a Comparative Approach
Verbal Aspect and Mimetic Description in Thucydides
Heliodorus. Ethiopian Story
The Odyssey and Ancient Art
Written on the Body
Heliodoros
Decoding the Ancient Novel
| Citations per year | 0.29 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2019 - 2021 (3) |
| Highly cited | No |