The representation of reading in 'Philip the Philosopher's' essay on Heliodorus

The twelth-century reading of Helidorus' Aethiopica transmitted under the name of "Philip the Philosopher", may claim to be the first extant critical essay on a work of prose fiction, and as such is of some importance in literary history. This article examines the construction of the text's speaker, Philip, as a reader, and the imagery which he uses to represent the act of reading and the activity of the text.