Cnemon the wronged: the effects of δίκη’s action in Heliodorus’ Aethiopica

• Autor(a) principal: Graebin, Geruza de Souza
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Classica (Sociedade Brasileira de Estudos Clássicos. Online)
• Texto Completo: https://revista.classica.org.br/classica/article/view/863
• topic: romance grego; retórica antiga; Etiópicas de Heliodoro; justiça; técnicas narrativas; Greek novel; Ancient rhetoric; Heliodorus’ Aethiopica; justice; narrative techniques

In the first book of the novel Aethiopica, Cnemon, the prisoner of the Nile pirates, becomes the interpreter of the protagonists Theagenes and Charicleia, to whom he recounts his misfortunes. Among the stories is the account of the trial to which he, an Athenian from a distinct family, was submitted on charges of attempted parricide. In the version of Cnemon, the judges are evidently taken by the πάθος and the ἦθος of the accusers, while he, as the defendant, has his speech rights curtailed. Analysis of this secondary account, which can be considered a novel within the novel, provides fundamental elements about the notion of δίκη. If, on the one hand, the immediate context of the judgment to which Cnemon makes reference leads to the conclusion that he was, in fact, harmed by human justice (Etiop., 1.13); on the other hand, the larger context of the account implies that he is protected and avenged by Δίκη (Etiop., 1.14.4). The reflection on the performance of justice, introduced in the novel via this secondary account, is taken up elsewhere in the novel, showing the use of narrative techniques for argumentative purposes by the author of the Aethiopica.