Abstract
Aristides’ own definition of the Sacred Tales as diegesis allows us to read them using narratological categories. The work contains circular or, better, spiral-like time structures. The Fifth discourse is dominated by spatial circularity, coexisting with a paradoxical indifference for the real space itself while Aristides’ attention focuses on the oneiric one. It has an argumentative structure based on illustration and accumulation; the altered spatio-temporal axis shows that Asclepius’ intervention crosses the boundaries between time and space, dream and reality. The Sacred Tales owe their simple stylistic structure, strikingly different from other discourses of Aristides, to many factors, including their psychic and religious content.