La principessa, il sacerdote e il medico. Note sulla rappresen¬tazione del mal d’amore nelle Etiopiche di Eliodoro (3.7-11, 4.6-7)

Abstract

This article provides an analysis of lovesickness in Heliodorus’ Aethiopica: in picturing prin­cess Charicleia as lovesick, the novel shows the influence of several models, both literary and medical. As a result, Heliodorus’ representation appears to be close to the Hippocratic Corpus in relation to pathology, whereas the physician Acesinus diagnoses Charicleia’s illness relying on differential diagnosis, that is on a Galenic method. In the final part the therapeutic ap­proach of the priest Calasiris may express a view of lovesickness as a mental illness.