to a narrative’s plot7—a view that has proven to be influential. Such a minimization of the role of characters might explain why Mieke Bal, a literary critic, could write just thirty years ago that “in the course of the long history of Western criticism and poetics, characters have never been described in a satisfactory way theoretically.”8 The question of whether characters, especially in the ancient world, are simply types in support of the plot, or whether they assume more individuality, continues