SOURCE: Sandy, Gerald N. “Manipulating the Story.” In Heliodorus, pp. 33-74. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1982.

In the following essay, Sandy analyzes Heliodorus's literary techniques, particularly his skill in the presentation of characters, which includes advancements in integration, motivation, multi-dimensionality, and subtlety.

Plotting

Heliodorus's appropriation of the methods of the stage—the insistence that each character will tell and enact his own story in full view on the “stage”—necessitates the interlocking of the various strands of the web of intrigue: the paths of the principal characters must cross and recross in order to facilitate shared experiences and exchanges of information that touches on all.

The role of Thisbe in the complex plot will illustrate Heliodorus's masterly “stage” management. As noted previously (chapter 3), Cnemon and Theagenes during the attack on Thyamis's stronghold race off to the cave where Thyamis imprisoned Chariclea, there finding the corpse believed to be that of...