Document Type
Post-Print
Publication Date
2017
Abstract
In this article, I take a new look at the problem of Calasiris’ ‘duplicity’ as depicted in the long autobiographical narrative he delivers to Cnemon in Books 2-5 of Heliodorus’ Aethiopica. A close parallel for Calasiris’ self-presentation can be found in an unlikely source: the medical case histories of the doctor Galen. Through a comparison of Calasiris’ narrative with those of Galen, I demonstrate that both narrators employ similar ‘deceptive’ strategies to showcase their observational and deductive skills to their audience. Calasiris’ foregrounding of such ‘rational’ methods and his downplaying of the prophetic power that others attribute to him suggest that, despite the Aethiopica’s religious trappings, its ideal reader is a secular one.
DOI
10.1163/1568525X-12342501
Publisher
Koninklijke Brill NV
City
Leiden, The Netherlands
Repository Citation
Kim, L. (2017). The trouble with Calasiris: Duplicity and autobiographical narrative in Heliodorus and Galen. Mnemosyne, 72(2), 229-249. https://doi.org/10.1163/1568525X-12342501
Publication Information
Mnemosyne