Skip to content
Wellsprings
Heliodorus of Emesa

Heliodorus of Emesa

c. 300 CEc. 375 CE · Emesa

Heliodorus of Emesa was a Greek novelist, generally dated to the 3rd or 4th century CE, from Emesa in Syria. He wrote the 'Aethiopica' (Ethiopian Story), the longest and most admired of the surviving ancient Greek novels, a tale of the separated lovers Theagenes and Charicleia notable for its intricate, non-linear narrative structure. It strongly influenced later European fiction.

See Heliodorus of Emesa’s journey on the map →

Life journeyclick any stop, or use ←/→

Stop 1 of 1

EmesaSyria

We know they were here, but the specifics of what they did at this stop aren’t recorded yet in our corpus.

About Emesa

Emesa, modern Homs in western Syria, was a city on the Orontes that rose to prominence under Rome, notably for its cult of the sun god Elagabal. It was the home city of the novelist Heliodorus, author of the Aethiopica, who describes himself as a Phoenician of Emesa.

See other sages who lived in Emesa

The world in their lifetime

Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Heliodorus of Emesa’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.

Works(1)