The dream of Charikles (4.14.2) : intertextuality and irony in the Ethiopian story of Heliodorus.

Abstract

There are strong but previously unnoticed intertextual links between the dream of Charikles in Heliodorus (4.14.2), the portent of the eagle in Achilles Tatius (2.12.1-3), and the dream of Penelope in Homer (Od. 19.535-69). The allusion to Achilles Tatius' Leukippe and Kleitophon may have alerted Heliodorus' readers to the approach of an important turning-point in the plot, but it is the Homeric link that is the primary focus. The dream of Penelope provides moral underpinning for marriage in the Aithiopika and helps to underline the complex ironies in Heliodorus' narrative at this crucial turning-point in the plot.