The third century Greek author Heliodorus is widely credited for penning one of the first adventure novels. Heliodorus' Ethiopian Romance, or Aethiopica as it was known in its original translation (it is also sometimes known as Theagenes and Chariclea after the names of the main romantic protagonists) is a self-evidently fictitious tale that depicts the struggle of two star-crossed lovers. Of course, the title characters are destined to marry in the end, but only after their fortunes are temporarily separated by evildoers and by fate. The most common name of novel gets its title from the continent where it begins and ends. .

             The reader learns that Ethiopian girl Chariclea is the daughter of the king and queen of Ethiopia, King Hydaspes, and Queen Persinnia. However, Chariclea does not know her true, royal identity. The reader first meets Chariclea in disguise, not just as a woman, but as a human being. Weeping over the fact that she fears her lover is dead, bandits at first take her for a goddess, then decide that only a woman could experience such grief, despite her apparent refinement and beauty. Religion is thus part of the worldview of the novel from the very beginning of the in media res scene that sets off the drama of the Ethiopian Romance. .

             This depiction of the polytheistic nature of religion of the ancient world shows that religion was not simply unconfined to one god but that people worship many gods, depending on their nationality, and further recognized that every nation and ethnic tribe has a different pantheon of patron deities. It is a polytheism of tolerance and acceptance of alternative faiths, as well as an acknowledgment of the existence of other religions. In the novel, religion is at once personal and tribal in its significance (one must thank one's patron god when one wins at war, for example), but religion is also something that must be respected by all peoples, given the religious and national connections that span across the known globe of the ancient world.