Terms for Homeland in the Writings of the Emperor Julian and in the Aethiopica of Heliodorus
Year: 2022
Type: article
Abstract: In his writings the emperor Julian states that he has three homelands: Constantinople, Athens and Rome, and yet he refers to his youthful relegation to Macellum as an exile and he more than once approvingly deploys the sayings of the Cynic philosopher, Diogenes, that he was without a home and that he was a citizen of the universe. At the same time, Julian believed that human salvation was possible and that the soul could escape this world and ascend to heaven. Similarly, in the Aethiopica of Heliodorus, all the major characters (apart from the Ethiopians Hydaspes and Persinna) experience exile from their earthly homelands. Yet here too the possibility of a return to a remote, otherworldly home is suggested. Heliodorus enigmatically makes use of an allusive neologism (ἡ ἐνεγκοῦσα, or ‘motherland’), in contrast with the traditional term ἡ πατρίς (‘fatherland’), to refer to a philosophical ‘place of birth’, particularly in the case of the main characters, Theagenes and Chariclea.
Source: Akroterion
DOI: 10.7445/66--1034
Author: J Hilton
Institution: University of the Free State
Language: English
Topic: Classical Antiquity Studies
Subfield: Anthropology
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $54
OpenAlex ID: W4285536170