Reading for Clues: Detective Narratives in Heliodorus' Aithiopika

Abstract

This thesis examines the narrative strategies of one of the longest and most complex Late Antique prose fictional narratives, Heliodorus’ Aithiopika, through the lens of modern detective narrative. It argues that the various kinds of lying by the characters of the former parallel the conventions, aspirations, and narrative strategies of the latter in order to establish a precedent for the backwards construction of meaning and reading for clues in antiquity. To this end, I look at the puzzling blood-bath of the introductory scene (Chapter 2), as well as the narrative arcs of three of the novel’s characters, Knemon, a seeming buffoon who turns into an unexpected murderer (Chapters 3 and 4), Kalasiris, an overeager religious interpreter of oracles (Chapter 5), and Charikleia, a female protagonist of rare rhetorical prowess (Chapter 6). The establishment of such a precedent has two goals: first, to get a better grasp of the narratological challenges that Heliodorus presents with his inconsistencies of plot brought about by the characters’ lying. Second, with the help of clues from within these webs of lies, to understand the characters’ motivations and the reasoning behind their actions in order to decipher their rhetorical strategies and ethical outlooks. By reading the story in this way, this study argues, the reader can account for the openness of interpretation in a text that invites her to a difficult but rewarding challenge for the construction of meaning. Ultimately, the reader undertakes a process of reading the Aithiopika that presents an alternative to the standard reading practices of ancient fiction and in part anticipates the modern genre of detective fiction.