Before outlining the narrative, I will give as usual a list of the principal characters. These are: _Theagenes_, the young Greek hero _Chariclea_, the young heroine, supposed to be a Greek _Hydaspes_, king of Ethiopia _Persinna_, queen of Ethiopia _Calasiris_, of Memphis, priest of Isis and his sons: _Thyamis_, in exile, a pirate captain _Petosiris_, priest of Isis _Charicles_, priest of Apollo at Delphi _Alcamenes_, nephew of Charicles _Trachinus_, a pirate _Pelorus_, a pirate and officer of Trachinus _Cnemon_, a young Athenian, son of _Aristippus_, an Athenian, a stupid husband _Demaeneta_, the amorous step-mother of Cnemon _Thisbe_, the scheming maid of Demaeneta _Arsinoe_, a slave-girl, a friend of Thisbe _Nausicles_, a merchant _Thermuthis_, an officer under Thyamis _Oroondates_, viceroy of the Great King of the Persians _Mithranes_, viceroy of Oroondates _Arsace_, wife of Oroondates _Cybele_, the maid of Arsace _Achaemenes_, son of Cybele _Euphrates_, the chief eunuch of Oroondates _Sisimithres_, an Ethiopian Gymnosophist _Meroebus_, nephew of Hydaspes The opening scene of the romance is startling and mysterious. In Egypt, from a mountain near the mouth of the Nile a band of pirates get a view of the seashore. They behold a heavily laden ship without a crew, a plain strewn with dead bodies and the remains of an ill-fated banquet. A wounded youth is lying on the ground. He is being cared for by a beautiful young woman dressed in a religious garb which makes her seem a priestess or a goddess, Diana or Isis. Indeed a divine effulgence emanates from her. The pirates though at first overawed descend and collect rich booty. Their captain then courteously conveys the maiden and the youth to their pirate home. This was called “The Pasture” and was a sort of island in a delta of the Nile. Some of the pirates lived in huts made of reeds, some in boats. The water was their fortification. Their streets were winding water-ways cut through the reeds. The pirate chief assigned the care of his two captives to a young Greek, Cnemon, who was his interpreter. The prisoners were overjoyed on finding their custodian a Greek. He promised to heal the wounds of Theagenes, who had now revealed his own name and that of Chariclea, and on their urgent request, he told him his own story.