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ABSTRACT: This essay examines gender and ethnicity as performative categories in the ancient Greek novel. In the Arsake episode of the Aithiopika, Heliodorus questions classical Greek stereotypes of male versus female and Greek versus non-Greek by demonstrating the fluidity of markers for these categories. Thus, characters can act more or less "manly" or "Greek," depending on their immediate situations and regardless of actual gender or ethnic identity. I argue that the novel presents gender as the more fixed of the two categories, but that every character operates within a wide range of behaviors, often contradicting the reader's expectations.
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In Heliodorus' Aithiopika, a novel from the fourth century C.E. set in the classical period,1 a dichotomy between the Greek West and the nonGreek East is a pervasive theme that unfolds in the work's preoccupation with gender and ethnicity. The novel's plot brings the traditional trope of Greek versus non-Greek culture to the forefront by featuring a journey from Greece to Ethiopia, an expedition that contains typical obstacles for travelers, such as confusing foreign customs, unusual or insurmountable geographical features, dangerous people, and unintelligible languages. Heliodorus builds on the problems inherent to "travelers' tales" by creating characters who both encourage and challenge the audience's stereotypes of East versus West and female versus male so that identifying a hero or villain is not as simple as pointing to a character's ethnicity, gender, or actions. The heroine Charikleia is a fair-skinned Ethiopian princess who was raised as a priestess of Artemis at Delphi (2.33). Her betrothed Theagenes, a Greek who traces his heritage back to Achilles (2.34-35), abandons his homeland for his lover Charikleia to help her regain her birthright in Ethiopia. Along the way, the lovers are forced to reevaluate and redefine their identities for each setting and audience in a succession of unfamiliar places.
The performance of ethnicity and gender is nowhere more starkly apparent than in the Arsake episode in books 7-8 of the Aithiopika, which relies on, but also subverts, the stereotypes of Greek versus nonGreek and female versus male. Arsake is a powerful aristocrat who rules over Persian interests in Memphis, Egypt, while her satrap husband Oroondates is away fighting the Ethiopians (7.1.4). In this scene,...