Las Etiópicas: los amores de Teágenes (Marco Antonio) y Cariclea (Cleopatra), contados a sus hijos, por Heliodoro

Abstract

In spite of the negative Imperial propaganda, Heliodorus, author of the Aithiopika, commentator of Homer and scholiast of Aristophanes, might have been inspired by the famous romantic love of Marc Antony and Cleopatra for his narrative. The action is set in Egypt and the couple had adopted Osiris and Isis as symbols of their royal status. The name of the female protagonist, “Chariclea”, is perhaps an evocation of that of Cleopatra, as it is her father's, “Charicles”. Heliodorus, who can be identified with the rhetor comes of Horace, Sat. I, 5, 2-3, belonged to the circles of power at Rome. He could have dedicated his narrative to Marc Antony and Cleopatra's children, Alexander Helios, Cleopatra Selene and Ptolemy Philadelphos, who, at the death of their parents, had become part of the Imperial family under the care of Octavia, the future emperor's sister. Until his downfall at Actium, where he literally gave the power to Octavianus, Marc Antony was important enough at Rome for this rhetor and writer to pay homage to him with his innovative prose, where he has recreated the best of Greek epic and drama