Heliodorus (writer)

Heliodorus ( ancient Greek Ἡλιόδωρος ) is an ancient Greek writer of the 3rd — 4th century, one of the so-called erotici scriptores , the author of one of the five canonical Greek novels Ethiopica .

His name is known from the final phrase of the novel: "... composed by a Phoenician from Emesa, from the line of descendants of Helios, Heliodor, son of Theodosius." It follows that he was born or lived in the Syrian city of Emesa . XIX century philologists were inclined to consider this name a pseudonym, based on the fact that the name Heliodorus (“the gift of Helios”) suspiciously correlates with solar theology , which really takes quite a lot of space in the novel. However, according to the epigraphy, the name Heliodorus was very common at that time.

In the Church History of Socrates Scholastica (V, 22), it is asserted that Heliodorus, the author of the novel about Teagen and Hariklei, was subsequently baptized and became the Bishop of Triksk . Socrates does not date the bishopric of Heliodorus. A number of later Byzantine authors attributed it to the era of Theodosius the Great (379-395). Researchers recognize this evidence is not very reliable. In the Middle Ages, the legend told by Nicephorus Calliste , according to which the church authorities demanded that Heliodor either burn his work, or abandon his episcopal dignity and Heliodor supposedly chose the latter, became very popular. “Ethiopics” (IX, 9) contains textual borrowing from the “Life of Moses” by Philo of Alexandria (III, 24), which indicates acquaintance with the Judeo-Christian circle of ideas (in the 3rd — IVth centuries Philo's writings were popular almost exclusively among Christians).

Roman Heliodorus had a great influence on the Byzantine novel , and later on the Western European literature of the Enlightenment .