Les Boukoloi ou le monde instable

Abstract

In Heliodorus’ Aethiopica, cowherds constitute a group of unstable identity, a feature that affects both the characters that come in contact with them and the narrative where they appear. The geographical contous are blurred, the narrative loses sight of certain characters in the course of their soujourn in the Land of the Cowherds and even the status of the figures who partake of their existence is challenged on a social and moral level. The status of cowherd is at once suffered and accepted, and the narrative slips relects the ambiguity around certain figures that the novelist only allows us to glimpse.

Keywords

• Greek novel
• Heliodorus
• narratology