79Transcending Earthly Bounds: Revelatory Frameworks in Dialogic Literature

This paper explores uses and transformations of revelatory myth in ancient dialogic texts of the early imperial period. To shed light on their literary and intellectual background, the first part of the paper examines existing evidence of pre-imperial developments in this tradition, discussing Plato’s myth of Er and its subsequent reworkings (Aristotle, Heraclides of Pontus, Clearchus, Cicero) which set the foundation for the imperial-period writers engaged with it. The second part of the paper investigates different refigurations of revelatory myth in imperial dialogues, from dialogic episodes in Plutarch’s De genio Socratis and De sera numinis vindicta to full-fledged revelatory dialogues (the Hermetic Poimandres ), as well as less straightforward reworkings (the Tablet of Cebes ), including in parodic dialogues (Lucian’s Charon ).