Samuel Lee Wolffs Analysis of Heliodorus: Aethiopica, or Theagenes and Chariclea (11>) [A, B, etc.

, designate portions of the story for convenience in referring to them as wholes. Roman numerals designate book and chapter of the original text.] A. The daughter of Hydaspes and Persina, King and Queen of

Ethiopia, was born white (IV. viii), her mother at the moment of conception having gazed intently upon a painting of white Andromeda. Persina, fearing lest this explanation should not satisfy the jealousy of her husband, exposed the child, who was saved (II. xxxi) by Sisimithres, an Ethiopian nobleman and gymnosophist, forbidden by his philosophical tenets to abandon any living thing. With the child he found and preserved a ring and other jewels (IV. viii), as well as fillets upon which were inscribed the reasons for her exposure. He had her reared by shepherds. When she was seven years old (II. xxx, xxxi) he took her with him to Catadupi - the Cataracts of the Nile - upon an embassy committed to him by Hydaspes. Orondates, Viceroy of Egypt under the Great King, was disputing with Hydaspes the title to the City of Philae and to the emerald mines near it on the border between Egypt and Ethiopia. Sisimithres, perhaps fearing the consequences to himself and his ward of the uncompromising claims he must make on behalf of Hydaspes, entrusted the child, with her (12>) jewels and tokens, to one Charicles, a priest of Apollo. As Charicles had recently lost his own wife and daughter (II. xxix), he had left Delphi to seek consolation in travel, and

now happened to be at Catadupi. He accepted the charge (II. xxxii). Sisimithres's prudence was justified by the event, for Orondates ordered him out of Catadupi at once on pain of death. [We hear no more of him till the very end of the story.] With Charicles the child returned to Delphi, received the name Chariclea, and herself became a priestess of Diana (II. xxxiii). B. (a) When Chariclea had arrived at marriageable age, there came to Delphi two persons - the Memphian Calasiris, a priest of Isis (II. xxvi), and Theagenes - a Thessalian, a descendant of Achilles (II. xxxiv). Calasiris in his temple had been tempted by the charms of Rhodopis a courtesan (II. xxv), and wished to fly from the temptation; moreover, having divined that there would be a deadly combat between his sons, he wished to avoid the fulfilment of the prediction; and, finally, he deemed Delphi an appropriate place of retirement for one of his priestly caste (II. xxvi). Theagenes had come to celebrate memorial rites (II. xxxiv) in honor of his ancestor Pyrrhus, the son of Achilles. Having made friends with Calasiris, Charicles partly told him, and partly by showing him Chariclea's tokens enabled him to discover for himself (IV. viii), the story given in A. Further, he requested the wise Egyptian's aid (II. xxxiii) in persuading Chariclea to take a husband, prefer-(13>)-ably Charicles's nephew Alcamenes. But Theagenes and Chariclea had seen each other at the games and ceremonies, and had already fallen in love with each other (III. v; IV. i-iv). Each now confided in Calasiris (III. xvii; IV. iv, v, xxiii) ; and an oracle (II. xxxv) and several dreams and divine voices (III. xi; IV. xiv, xvi) predicted their ultimate union, and sanctioned their immediate flight under his protection. While Chariclea therefore upon his advice (IV. xiii) feigned consent to her marriage with Alcamenes, Calasiris took passage for the three (IV. xvi) with some Phoenician

mariners who chanced to be sailing from Delphi to Carthage. Under his instructions Theagenes abducted Chariclea, and joined Calasiris (IV. xvii-xviii), who put the pursuers on a false scent (IV. xix). The three sailed away together (V. i). The lovers agreed (IV. xviii) to remain virgin till their nuptials could be formally celebrated, and meanwhile gave themselves out as brother and sister, and Calasiris as their father (V. xxvi). B. (b) The captain of the Phoenician vessel became enamoured of Chariclea (V. xix), and both she and Calasiris deemed it best to feign consent to the marriage, postponing it, however, till their arrival at Memphis (V. xx). The ship wintering at Zacynthus (V. xviii), our trio lodged with Tyrrhenus a fisherman. Though so near Ithaca, they neglected to pay their respects to Odysseus, whose offended shade appeared in a vision (V. xxii) to threaten Calasiris. Trachinus, a pirate of the neighbourhood, desired both (14>) Chariclea and the richly laden ship, and confided to Tyrrhenus his plan of attack (V. xx). Tyrrhenus warned his guests, who at once re-embarked (V. xxi-xxii). Nevertheless Trachinus overtook them, seized the vessel with its freight, and allowing the Tyrian captain and his crew to depart in the boats, kept our trio prisoners (V. xxiv-xxvi). Upon his offering marriage to Chariclea, she again dissembled. A storm drove them to the Heracleotic mouth of the Nile, where they landed, and Trachinus prepared for an immediate wedding (V. xxvii-xxix); whereupon Calasiris devised a stratagem. He persuaded Pelorus, Trachinus's lieutenant, that Chariclea loved him (V. xxx), and inflamed him with the sight of her in bridal array, so that Pelorus disputed with his captain the distribution of the booty, and, as the first to board the captured ship, claimed Chariclea for himself (V. xxxi). The feast turning into a fight, most of the pirates, including Trachinus,

were killed; Pelorus in a hand-to-hand combat with Theagenes was sorely wounded and put to flight; and Calasiris was separated from Theagenes and Chariclea, who remained together on the shore (V. xxxiixxxiii). [Here the story opens, in mediis rebus.] C. (I. i-iii) While Chariclea tended the wounds of Theagenes, there

supervened a small band of Egyptian robbers, who seized the pair. Very soon, however, a larger band came up, under the command of one Thyamis. D. (I. xix; VII. ii) Thyamis was the eldest (15>) son of Calasiris.

Shortly after Calasiris's departure from Memphis, Arsace, sister of the Great King and wife of Orondates, had become enamored of Thyamis. She solicited him, but he resisted. His younger brother Petosiris, desiring to succeed instead of Thyamis to the priestly office of his father, traduced Thyamis to Orondates, who banished him from Memphis. Thyamis had become chief of the bandits known as " Herdsmen." E. He now took Theagenes and Chariclea from their first captors,

conducted them to his retreat among the marshes of the Delta, treated them honourably (I. v-vii), and proposed to marry Chariclea, who again feigned consent (I. xix-xxvi). Their captivity was lightened by the companionship of Cnemon, a young Athenian, who spent the night in telling them F (a). F.(a) (I. ix-xvii) Cnemon was the son of Aristippus, who took Demaeneta as his second wife. Enamoured of her stepson, she solicited him, and

upon his refusal, plotted to ruin him. First she feigned illness and falsely accused Cnemon of kicking her: thus she had him beaten by his father. Then she made her slave girl Thisbe gain his affection and confidence, and persuade him to believe that Demaeneta had a paramour who was to visit her on a certain night. Cnemon with drawn sword broke into the chamber and confronted his father. Aristippus in the belief that his son had attempted parricide accused him to the Assembly, which banished him. The love-sick Demaeneta thereupon re-(16>)-lented; and desiring his return bitterly blamed Thisbe for having been but too compliant. In fear for herself, Thisbe determined to entrap her mistress. Cnemon, she said, was not abroad, but hiding in the outskirts of Athens, where he kept a slave-girl Arsino, a friend of Thisbe's: Demaeneta, if she would, might in the dark take this girl's place. Demaeneta consented to the assignation, and Thisbe actually procured from Arsino the use of her house. Meanwhile Thisbe told Aristippus that at Arsino's house Demaeneta was to meet a paramour. Aristippus broke in and caught his wife Thisbe slamming a door and pretending that the lover had escaped. Demaeneta, on the way back to Athens in the custody of her husband, threw herself into a pit and ended her life. Aristippus reported all to the Assembly, which barely exonerated him. F. (b) (II. viii-ix) Now it happened that Thisbe ousted Arsino from the affections of one Nausicles, a merchant, and Arsino in her jealousy revealed her rival's stratagem to Demaeneta's relatives. They brought the matter again before the Assembly, which found that Demaeneta was innocent, and that, as Aristippus had been instrumental in procuring her death, he must be banished and his goods confiscated. The witness he needed to clear him, Thisbe, was absent, having gone abroad with Nausicles.

F. (c) (VI. ii) These facts came to the knowledge of Cnemon, who, faithful to his father, set out in search of Thisbe in order to reinstate him. Cnemon was captured by pirates, (17>) but escaped, and made his way to Egypt, where he was taken prisoner by Thyamis. G. That night Thyamis dreamed (I. xviii) that Isis in her temple

appeared to him and said, "I deliver this maiden to you, but though you have her you shall not have her, but shall kill your guest; yet she shall not be killed." This dream he interpreted to suit his wishes. The next day (I. xxvii-xxx) he was suddenly attacked by the robbers who had first seized Theagenes and Chariclea, and who had meanwhile gathered reinforcements. For safety he made Cnemon place Chariclea in the cave where he kept his treasure. Desperately pressed by his enemies, and determined that no one else should have her, he entered the cave, and in the dark stabbed a woman whom he took to be Chariclea. H. This woman was really Thisbe (II. xiv). On her travels with

Nausicles she had been captured by Thermuthis, the lieutenant of Thyamis, and, like Chariclea, had been placed in the cave. When Cnemon and Theagenes rejoined Chariclea there, they found on Thisbe's body (II. vi) a letter written by her to Cnemon, whom she had seen to be a fellow-captive, protesting (II. x) the genuineness of her love for him despite her treachery, and imploring him to save her from her barbarous lover. Cnemon thereupon told F (b) (II. viii-ix). That night (II. xvi) Chariclea dreamed that a ruffian gouged out her right eye: a dream interpreted by Cnemon as portending the death of her father.

K. (I. xxxiii) Thyamis was taken alive by (18>) his enemies, who designed to deliver him to his brother at Memphis for the sake of reward. This reward Petosiris had offered in order both to get Thyamis back into his power and to set at rest the rumour that he had killed Thyamis. L. Thermuthis (II. xii) escaped from the hostile band, found Thisbe

dead in the cave, joined Theagenes, Chariclea and Cnemon, told them his part of H (II. xiv), and set out in search of Thyamis (II. xviii). He insisted upon Cnemon's bearing him company, who complied, upon Theagenes's suggestion that he might easily desert Thermuthis whenever he would. So Cnemon, agreeing to rejoin Theagenes and Chariclea at the town of Chemmis, went with Thermuthis, but soon, pretending to fall behind by reason of sickness, contrived to leave him alone (II. xix-xx). Thermuthis falling asleep was stung by an asp and died. Meanwhile, Theagenes and Chariclea, disguised as beggars (II. xix; V. iv), also set out for Chemmis. M. (II. xxi) On the banks of the Nile near Chemmis, Cnemon encountered Calasiris, who had wandered thither from the Heracleotic mouth of the Nile (see B ad fin.). Here also Nausicles, in the course of his search for Thisbe, had placed his headquarters, and had taken as a guest Calasiris, similarly engaged in a search for his adopted children (II. xxii). Now Calasiris extended to Cnemon the shelter of Nausicles' house, and there told Cnemon A and B (a) (II. xxv-xxxvi; III entire; IV entire; V. i). N. Nausicles himself was absent (II. xxiv). (19>) He had bribed Mithranes, the lieutenant of Orondates, to send a detachment of troops in search of Thisbe, and was now with them. They met (V. v-vii) and

captured Theagenes and Chariclea. Mithranes, designing to send Theagenes as a present to the Great King, dispatched him to his commander Orondates, then at Memphis (V. ix). Chariclea was promptly claimed as Thisbe by Nausicles (V. viii), who whispered to her that her safety depended upon her acknowledging that name. She did so, and Nausicles took her to his house at Chemmis, unbeknown to his guests. That night (V. ii-iii) Cnemon overheard her lamenting her fate and calling herself Thisbe; and he was sore afraid. Next day she was restored to Calasiris (V. xi-xv), to whose claim Nausicles yielded her. Calasiris told B (b) (V. xvi-xxxiv); Cnemon, F (c) (VI. ii). O. (VI. iii-viii) Thyamis managed to make his escape (see K) and to gather another band from the town of Bessa. With this he attacked Mithranes' force, and took Theagenes. These facts were learned by Calasiris, Chariclea, Nausicles and Cnemon on their way to redeem Theagenes from Mithranes. They returned to Chemmis. There Nausicles offered Cnemon his daughter to wife. Cnemon took her gladly, and threw in his lot with his father-in-law, who was about to go to Greece. [This is the last of Cnemon and of Nausicles.] P. (VI. xi-xv) Calasiris and Chariclea disguised as beggars made their way to Bessa to (20>) find Theagenes. Arriving at sunset, they learned from an old woman that Mithranes had sought to punish the Bessenes for their attack, but had been defeated and killed: and that the insurgents under Thyamis, in order to strengthen themselves against the Great King, from whom they could no longer hope for pardon, had now proceeded to attack Memphis itself - Orondates being absent upon an expedition into Ethiopia: Theagenes, then, was to be found towards Memphis. The old woman retired, and now believing herself

unobserved, raised the dead body of her son, slain in the fight, and by her spells compelled it to prophesy: "She herself should shortly die a violent death; the priest then present might if he made haste prevent the fatal outcome of a combat between his sons; the maiden would be united with her lover." Seeking to destroy the witnesses to her necromancy, the witch stumbled, and fell upon the point of a spear that stuck up from the field. Thus she died. Q. Arrived before the walls of Memphis (VII. i-iii), Thyamis and Theagenes, now grown friends, called for a parley, and demanded Thyamis's restoration to the priesthood. In the absence of Orondates, his wife Arsace as regent came to the walls, and beheld the two young men. Straightway her old desire of Thyamis gave place to new desire of Theagenes (VII. iv). Yet she so far favoured Thyamis as to grant that his quarrel with Petosiris should be decided by single combat between them. Petosiris re-(21>)-luctantly accepted his brother's challenge, tried to run away, and was chased round the walls by Thyamis (VII. v-vi). Theagenes, unarmed, accompanied Thyamis: so that Arsace became still more passionately enamored of Theagenes' grace as a runner. At the moment when Thyamis was about to strike (VII. vi-vii), arrived Calasiris with Chariclea. The old man threw off his rags, appeared in his sacred garb, stopped the combat, and reconciled his sons. Theagenes, not recognizing Chariclea in the beggar-girl before him, rebuffed and struck her when she tried to embrace him; but she murmured their countersign Pythius and exhibited her torch: whereupon he knew her and completed this scene of recognition. Received enthusiastically by the Memphians (VII. viii), who flocked about them, they all entered the city in a sort of triumphal procession.

Calasiris now inducted Thyamis into the priesthood, resigned his own robes, and died (VII. viii, xi), perhaps of joy in this consummation. (Thus verifying an oracle he had received upon his arrival at Delphi: that he should soon possess a piece of Egyptian ground.) His funeral rites made it unlawful for any but priests to enter the precincts of the temple for seven days. Thus Thyamis was rendered unable to keep Theagenes and Chariclea there under his own protection, and they were left to the designs of Arsace (VII. ix-xv). She lodged them well in the palace, and, assisted by her old chamber-woman, Cybele, (22>) who acted as gobetween, gradually acquainted Theagenes with her wishes. He repeatedly refused her (VII. xix, xxii, xxv) despite Chariclea's advice (VII. xxi) to him to feign compliance and at a public audience gave her scant respect. Cybele's son, Achaemenes (VII. xv-xvi), formerly an officer under Mithranes, had been given charge of Theagenes to take him to Orondates. Now he recognized him; and, seeing Chariclea too, fell in love with her. When his mother, who had failed to persuade Theagenes, was in fear of Arsace's threats, he offered Arsace a sure means of forcing Theagenes to comply (VII. xxiii-xxiv), provided she would promise him "Theagenes' sister" to wife. She consented, and he thereupon told her that Theagenes was in reality her slave, as he had been taken in war and was destined for her husband to send to her brother the Great King. Arsace now made Theagenes her servant at table. But when she told him that she had granted "his sister" to Achaemenes, he pretended that his resistance was overcome (VII. xxv-xxvi), requested private audience with only Cybele as witness, revealed Chariclea's real relation to himself, and urged that as Arsace had promised Achaemenes not "Chariclea," but "Theagenes' sister," she might lawfully disavow her supposed promise. He himself, he said, would yield as soon as she did so. Thus he again raised himself into high favour, still further inflamed Arsace (VII.

xxvii) by his grace in serving her at table, and frustrated Achaemenes. Informed by his (23>) mother (VII. xxviii), Achaemenes at once posted off to Orondates (VII. xxix) who was then preparing a campaign against the Ethiopians over the still unsettled question of Philae and the emerald mines (see A). Him he told of Chariclea's beauty, and of Arsace's conduct toward Theagenes. Orondates forthwith sent peremptorily for both the prisoners (VIII. i-iii). Meanwhile Theagenes had resumed his resistance, and at the instigation of Cybele had been imprisoned and flogged (VIII. iii, v-vi) by order of Arsace. It was in vain that Thyamis (VIII. iii-v), now at liberty after the period of ritual seclusion, requested Arsace to turn the lovers over to his care. She declined to give them up. Theagenes in his cell continually called upon the name of Chariclea (VIII. vi); whereat Cybele conceived the idea that if Chariclea were put out of the way, Theagenes would yield. With Arsace's permission, therefore (VIII. vii-viii), she attempted to poison Chariclea. But the slave-girl who offered the cups accidentally interchanged them, and Cybele drank the poison. Yet even as she died, her malice worked: by signs she charged Chariclea with poisoning her. Arsace had Chariclea imprisoned (VIII. ix) and on the next day arraigned; who defied her, but declared that if Theagenes were, as she supposed, dead, she would acknowledge the crime, that she too might die. Thereupon she was condemned to the stake. But the stone Pantarbe in her ring kept her unscathed in the midst of the flames. Pitying her beauty and manifest (24>) innocence, the people rescued her; but Arsace recaptured her and harangued them to the effect that she had been saved by witchcraft only: next day they should come and themselves should have an opportunity to condemn her upon all the evidence. Meanwhile, as an additional torment, that she might behold

her lover's sad plight, she was committed to the cell occupied by Theagenes; but they regarded this course as a favour, and spent the night in talk. Chariclea related (VIII. xi) that on the previous night Calasiris had appeared to her in a vision and bidden her be of good cheer, for Pantarbe would save her. Theagenes related that Calasiris had on the same night appeared to him and predicted that on the morrow the lovers should escape and soon reach Ethiopia. The fulfilment of the first prediction made them look confidently for that of the second. Indeed, that very night (VIII. xii-xv) Orondates's deputy arrived, and, showing his authority, removed the prisoners and conducted them towards Orondates. On the way a messenger overtook them to announce that Arsace upon learning of their removal had killed herself. Later a messenger from the front met them with the news that Orondates had gone to Syene, which was threatened by the enemy (VIII. xvi-xvii). Travelling in that direction, the lovers were shortly captured by a scouting party of Ethiopians, who conveyed them to the army of Hydaspes. Hydaspes was besieging Orondates in Syene (IX. i-xxii). By means of great trenches and (25>) earthen dykes he surrounded the city with the waters of the Nile, which, insulating it, rose against its walls, and threatened to break through and drown the inhabitants. Orondates capitulated, offering to surrender Syene, as well as Philae and the emerald mines, and to undertake no further hostilities, if he were allowed to depart with his army to Elephantis. Meanwhile he dispatched two messengers thither. Pending negotiations, Hydaspes granted a truce, and by new feats of engineering led off the waters of the Nile. Then, by night, Orondates and his army treacherously made their escape by

means of planks laid across the mud-ring, and at Elephantis joined the main force of Persians, prepared by the messengers he had sent. Returning with all his troops, he retook Syene, which was guarded by only a small garrison. Then Hydaspes fought a great battle, and defeated and captured Orondates, but spared him, forgave his treachery, and (IX. xxv) made him Viceroy under himself. With the other prisoners Theagenes and Chariclea (IX. xxiii-xxiv) were presented to Hydaspes, who, by reason of their exceeding beauty, reserved them to be sacrificed when they should reach Ethiopia. Chariclea, though Theagenes urged her, and though Hydaspes related a dream he had had which showed him a daughter of his own like Chariclea in appearance, would not then disclose her identity. She was determined to wait till she should be in her mother's presence, whose instinct could not fail to identify her. (26>) Here and now her tokens might be misunderstood, and might be supposed to be stolen. To Mero, then, the prisoners were taken - Hydaspes's capital; where they were met by Persina, with the priestly gymnosophists, and great numbers of the Ethiopian people (X. i-vi), all rejoicing in the victory. When led forth to the sacrifice, Theagenes and Chariclea (X. vii) astonished all by their beauty and courageous bearing. Chariclea particularly appealed to the sympathy of Persina, who hoped that in the trial of chastity which was to establish the purity of the victims she might fail and so be saved. Not so (X. viii, ix): she leaped upon the heated golden bars of the altar, but remained unscathed. So too did Theagenes. And now the president of the gymnosophists, no other than old Sisimithres, declined to make, or to countenance by his presence, a human sacrifice, and with his band was about to withdraw, when

Chariclea (X. x-xv), hearing the King address him as Sisimithres, saw that the moment had come, and begged him to remain. In his presence she then disclosed her identity; offering in evidence her inscribed fillets, which Persina acknowledged at once; her striking resemblance to the pictured Andromeda; the ring Pantarbe, which Hydaspes recognized as the betrothal ring he had given his wife; and a black mark which Sisimithres remembered to have seen on the arm of the child he had found. Chariclea (X. xi) claimed exemption, for that only foreigners might be sacrificed. Hydaspes, only too ready to grant it (27>) upon personal motives, yet felt obliged to offer, in a long speech to his people, to sacrifice his daughter nevertheless for their sake, lest the gods be wroth with them all. But the multitude unanimously refused (X. xvi, xvii). Thus was Chariclea saved. In the most absurdly mock-modest, round-about, underhand, and self-contradictory fashion, she proceeded (X. xviii-xxii) to give her parents incomprehensible hints about her true relations with Theagenes, now imploring his preservation, now demanding that she alone might wield the knife to sacrifice him, until Hydaspes actually thought her mad. To give her time to recover, he took the opportunity to receive the ambassadors who had come to congratulate him. One of them was his nephew Merobus (X. xxiii-xxiv), whom he at once betrothed to Chariclea. Merobus presented to Hydaspes a gigantic athlete (X. xxv), a champion racer, boxer and wrestler, whose challenge nobody accepting, he received a prize by default. Among the other gifts was a camelopard (X. xviii-xxx). This strange and terrifying creature so frightened a sacrificial bull and two white horses that they broke loose and galloped about. In the confusion, Theagenes, whose keepers had relaxed their guard, leaped upon one of the horses, and, without

attempting to escape, pursued the bull and drove him in a team with his own mount; at length, having tired him out, he leaped upon him and dragged him to the ground by the horns. The people shouted acclaim, and demanded that (28>) he be matched with the wrestler. Him too he felled (X. xxxi-xxxii). The King then crowned Theagenes victor, who made the same petition as Chariclea had made, that she be the one to wield the knife. This request was refused, and he was being led to the altar (X. xxxiii), when who should appear but Charicles! Ever since Chariclea's elopement he had been wandering in search of her, and had now traced her to Egypt, whence he had taken this last step by the aid of Orondates, from whom he bore (X. xxxiv) a letter to Hydaspes. Seizing Theagenes (X. xxxv-xxxvi), Charicles demanded his punishment for the abduction of Chariclea and the sacrilege done to the temple of Diana at Delphi! Theagenes admitted the charge (X. xxxvii). Chariclea welcomed Charicles (X. xxxviii), and begged him to punish her for her disobedience to him, enjoined though it was by the gods. Persina, now convinced that our lovers were man and wife, so assured Hydaspes. He turned for advice to Sisimithres, who in a loud voice, that the people might hear and approve (X. xxxix-xli), declared that the gods had manifested clearly their unwillingness to receive this or any other human sacrifice: let the custom, then, be abolished, and this young couple be formally wedded. The people again shouted approval; and so, with the consent of all, Theagenes and Chariclea proceeded to the celebration of their nuptial rites. [Source: Samuel Lee Wolff, The Greek Romances in Elizabethan Prose Fiction. Columbia University Press, 1912, pp. 11-28. Available online at The Open Archive (archive.org).]

NB

Check p. 20 against a good copy of the original.