The following list consists of novels, plays, paintings and other literary and artistic pieces which feature or reference the emperor Elagabalus. Items marked with an asterisk devote considerable attention to Elagabalus and/or the persons and anecdotes connected to him.
Some of the works on this list are hard to find. Whenever I thought this was useful and the information was available to me, I have included a reference to the (publicly accessible) location of the work in question. I do not make any claims with regard to the completeness of this list.
After the main list, I have attached a second overview of Elagabalus’s Nachleben. This list categorises the same works by artistic form, referenced by date to the main list.
1407–8: Leonardo Bruni, Oratio Heliogabali ad meretrices (oration)*; Bibliothèque Nationale de France, no RES-J-2397
1529: Desiderius Erasmus, Colloquia, Senatulus (dialogue)*
1588: Jodocus van Winghe, Heliogabal und die Weisen (illustration)*
1605: Thomas Artus, L’Isle des Hermaphrodites nouvellement descouverte (pamphlet)
1666: Anonymous, woodcarving in the church of S. Pietro Martire on the island of Murano (originally in the Scuola di S. Giovanni Battista)
1667: Aurelio Aureli and Francesco Cavalli, Eliogabalo (opera)*
1667: Jean Le Pautre, La Mort d’Héliogabale (illustration)*; Bibliothèque Nationale de France, no ED-42(D)-FOL
1720: Gysbert Tysens, Bassianus Varius Heliogabalus, of de uitterste proef der standvastige liefde (play)*; Koninklijke Bibliotheek at The Hague, no 448 G 136; http://www.let.leidenuniv.nl/Dutch/Ceneton/Heliogabalus.html (accessed 6 October 2006)
1802: Anonymous (Pierre-Jean-Baptiste Chaussard?), Héliogabale ou esquisse morale de la dissolution romaine sous les empereurs (epistolary novel)*; Bibliothèque Nationale de France, no J-14970
1835: Théophile Gautier, Mademoiselle de Maupin (novel)
1836: Zygmunt Krasiński, Irydjon (play)*
1836: Edgar Allen Poe, ‘Four beasts in one: the homo-camelopard’ (short story)
1837: Touissant Cabuchet, Héliogabale (play)*; Bibliothèque Nationale de France, no YF-8479
1839: Edgar Allen Poe, ‘William Wilson’ (short story)
1845: Flaubert, La Première Éducation sentimentale (novel)
1849: Edgar Allen Poe, ‘Mellonta Tauta’ (short story)
ca. 1850: Anonymous, Heliogabulus’s Magic Tablets: A neverfailing key to the future fortunes of the enquirers; University of Oxford, Bodleian Library, BOD Bookstack, Harding A 137 (5)
1855: N.-A.-François Puaux, Dialogue des morts (dialogue)*; Bibliothèque Nationale de France, no D2-10324
1866: Simeon Solomon, Heliogabalus, High Priest of the Sun (painting)*; in private possession(?)
1868: Théophile Gautier, ‘Charles Baudelaire’ (introduction to Charles Baudelaire’s Les Fleurs du mal)
1873: Albert Castelnau, ‘Alexandrie’ (poem)*; Bibliothèque Nationale de France, no YE-17288
1876: Jean Richepin, ‘Un empereur’ (short story)*; Bibliothèque Nationale de France, no 8-Y2-638
1877: Ouida, Ariadne, the Story of a Dream (novel)
1879: William Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan, The Pirates of Penzance, or The Slave of Duty (play)
1882: Anonymous, Le Temple de Phoebé ou les martyrs sous Julien l’Apostat (novel); Bibliothèque Nationale de France, no 8-Y2-5391
1884: Joris-Karl Huysmans, À Rebours (novel)
1885: Auguste-Constant Bertrand, L’Héliogabale et la Messaline du XIXe siècle, à Paris (novel); Bibliothèque Nationale de France, no 8-Y2-8528
1887: Catulle Mendès, ‘L’empereur et les papillons’ (short story)*; Bibliothèque Nationale de France, no. 8-Y2-9999
1888: Lawrence Alma-Tadema, The Roses of Heliogabalus (painting)*; in private possession
1888: Jean Lombard, L’Agonie (novel)*
1889: Louis Jourdan, La Dernière nuit d’Héliogabale (novel)*; Bibliothèque Nationale de France, no 8-Y2-43006
1890: Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray (novel)
1891: Leo Reiffenstein, Ein Gastmahl des Heliogabal (painting)*
1892: Stefan George, Algabal (lyric cycle)*
1894: Louis Couperus, ‘Brief uit Rome’ (letter)*
1895: Georges Brandimbourg, ‘Héliogabe’ (short story)*; Bibliothèque Nationale de France, no M-945
1898: Henri Corbel, ‘La danse au temple du Soleil’ (poem)*; Bibliothèque Nationale de France, no 8-YE PIECE-5670
1898: Jean Richepin, ‘Elagabal’ (poem)*
ca. 1900: Anonymous, Héliogabale XIX ou biographie du dixneuvième siècle de la France: dediée à la grande nation en signe de sympathie par un Allemand (book with cartoons)*; Bibliothèque Nationale de France, no FOL-LA37-13
1900: Luis d’Herdy (pseud.), La Destinée (novel)*; Bibliothèque Nationale de France, no 8-Y2-52468
1901: Auguste Leroux, illustrations for the new edition of Lombard’s L’Agonie*
1902: Jean Lorrain, Les Noronsoff: Coins de Byzance (novel)
1902: Auguste Villeroy, Héliogabale, drame en vers, en cinq actes (play)*; Bibliothèque Nationale de France, no 8-Y-2350
1904: Jan de Redni, Lentulus et Ascyltos. Roman de mœurs antiques (novel)*; Bibliothèque Nationale de France, no 8-Y2-54387
1904: Arthur Westcott, The Sun God (novel)*
1905: Jacques d’Adelswärd-Fersen, Messes noires. Lord Lyllian (novel)
1905: Pol Loewengard, ‘La prière d’Héliogabale’ (poem)*; Bibliothèque Nationale de France, no. 8-YE-6470
1905–6: Louis Couperus, De berg van licht (novel)*
1906: Gustav-Adolf Mossa, Lui (painting)*; Musée des Beaux Arts Jules Cheret, Nice
1909: Jacques Nayral, ‘Elagabal’ (poem)*; Bibliothèque Nationale de France, no 8-YE-7456
1910: André Calmettes, Héliogabale (movie)*
1910: Henry Mirande, Élagabal (novel)*; Bibliothèque Nationale de France, no 8-Y2-58053
1910: Émile Sicard and Déodat de Séverac, Héliogabale: Tragédie lyrique en 3 actes (musical piece)*; Bibliothèque Nationale de France, no 8-RF-81187
1911: Louis Feuillade, L’Orgie romaine (movie)*; Dutch Film Museum at Amsterdam, tape Vv25, no 1 (0:00:00–0:09:35)
1914: Pierre Benoit, ‘Héliogabale’ (poem)*; Bibliothèque Nationale de France, no 8-Y2-64405 (19)
1920: Henry Louis Mencken and George Jean Nathan, Heliogabalus, a Buffoonery in Three Acts (play)*
1929: Paul Moinet, ‘La Vie infâme d’Héliogabale’ (short story)*; Bibliothèque Nationale de France, no B.M. *E-2011
1934: Antonin Artaud, Héliogabale ou l’anarchiste couronné (essay)*
1935: Maurice Duplay and Pierre Bonardi, Héliogabale: Orgies romaines (novel)*; Bibliothèque Nationale de France, no 8-Y2-83837
1958: Yukio Mishima, Confessions of a Mask (novel)
1960: Alfred Duggan, Family Favourites (novel)*
1966: Kyle Onstott and Lance Horner, Child of the Sun (novel)*
1969: Alberto Arbasino, Super-Eliogabalo (anti-novel)*
1970: Franco Brocani, Necropolis (movie)*
1971: Pierre Moinot, Héliogabale (play)*; Bibliothèque Nationale de France, no 16-Y-224 (105)
1972: Hans Werner Henze, Heliogabalus Imperator (musical piece)*
1973: Martin Duberman, Elagabalus (play)*
1973: Kurt Vonnegut, Breakfast of Champions (novel)
1974: Anselm Kiefer, Heliogabal (painting)*; Saint Louis Art Museum
1976–77: Frank Manley, ‘Heliogabalus’ (poem)*
1977: Emilio Locurcio, L’Eliogabalo (record)*
1981: Sylvano Bussotti, Phaidra-Elagabalus (ballet)*
1983: Anselm Kiefer, Heliogabal (painting)*
1984: Fulvio Caldini, Aria di Eliogabalo (musical piece)*
1989: Hélène Delprat, Elagabal (illustration)*; Bibliothèque Nationale de France, no DH-1 (DELPRAT, Hélène) -FT7
1989: Hélène Delprat, Héliogabale (series of illustrations)*; Bibliothèque Nationale de France, no DC-2076-FOL
1990: Devil Doll, Eliogabalus (musical album)*
1991–92: Neil Gaiman, Being an Account of the Life and Death of the Emperor Heliogabolus (comic)*; http://www.holycow.com/dreaming/stories/being-an-account-of-the-life-and-death-of-the-emperor-heliogabolous/ (accessed 13 July 2011)
1999: Durs Grünbein, ‘Bericht von der Ermordung des Heliogabal durch seine Leibgarde’ (poem)*
2001: Momus, ‘Heliogabalus’ (track on the musical album Folktronic)*
2001: Alain Pastor, Héliogabale (play)*
2002: Sky Gilbert, Heliogabalus, a Love Story (play)*
2002– 7: Gilles Chaillet, La Dernière prophétie (comic series)*
2003: Thomas Jonigk and Peter Vermeersch, Heliogabal (opera)*
2004: Jeremy Reed, Boy Caesar (novel)*
2005: Matt Hughes, Heliogabalus’ Remorse (painting)*; http://www.matthughesart.com/caesar.htm (accessed 27 September 2007)
2006: Fanny and Alexander, Heliogabalus (play)*
2006: Emma Locatelli, Le Scandaleux Héliogabale, empereur, prêtre et pornocrate (novel)*
2007: John Zorn, Six Litanies for Heliogabalus (musical album)*
2007: Martin Bladh, Heliogabalus (series of paintings)*
2008: Shawn Ferreyra, Elagabalus, Emperor of Rome (play)*
2008: Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, Roman Dusk (novel)
2010: Rorcal, Heliogabalus (musical album)*
SEVERAN FAMILY TREE
