Intertextual Strategies and Problematising Love in Heliodorus’ Aithiopika

Abstract

In this study, I focus on the analysis of the intertextual references identified in the seventh book of Heliodorus’ Aithiopika (VII 9, 5) and Sappho’s so-called Hymn to Aphrodite (1 V.). This textual relationship has so far not been considered by scholars, yet both the theme of unrequited love and the roles of the characters, as well as the structural analogy and the lexical parallels, point to the work by Sappho as deliberately exploited inspiration for the passage of Heliodorus’ novel discussed here. Then, I consider the role of this intertextual relationship in the context of the broader intertextual system in the Aithiopika. This system includes the story of Demainete in the first book of the Aithiopika (I 9–17) and Euripides’ Hippolytus. By comparing the story of Demainete, Arsake, Phaedra and Sappho, we gain a perspective from which the issue of problematising love becomes evident, and the reader is encouraged to a deeper reflection on this problem. This is essential because when analysing the scope and function of the love theme in the plot of the Aithiopika, one must conclude that it is surprisingly limited.