A new sixth-century reader of Heliodorus' Aethiopica?

Abstract

It is well known that the Aethiopica of Heliodorus continued to be read throughout the late Greek and Byzantine periods. Besides short biographical notices of the author by church historians such as Socrates (Hist. Eccl. 5.22) and Nikephoros Kallistos Xanthopoulos (Hist. Eccl. 12.34), there are, inter alia, an allegorical interpretation of the novel of uncertain date (5th or 12th century) and authorship (the author calls himself 'Philip the Philosopher' in the text, but this does not adequately identify him), a couple of short references to the novel in the 9th century by Photius (Bib. cod. 50a, 73b),3 a comparison between Heliodorus and Achilles Tatius by Michael Psellus in the 11th century, and an allegorical protheoria by Johannes Eugenikos in the 15th.