The Reception of Ancient Cyprus in Western Culture, 2023
The present study aims to give a brief overview of the stories in which Cyprus is mentioned in Bo... more The present study aims to give a brief overview of the stories in which Cyprus is mentioned in Boccaccio's Decameron as the island of pilgrims, merchants, and lovers and to explore the possibile connections with the myths settled in Cyprus in Ovid's Metamorphoses
The article aims to investigate Cicero’s presence in three scenes of the Cena Trimalchionis: sat.... more The article aims to investigate Cicero’s presence in three scenes of the Cena Trimalchionis: sat. 35, 7 (hoc est ius cenae); 36, 7 (Carpe, carpe + urbanitas); 39, 4 (oportet etiam inter cenandum philologiam nosse). Cicero’s works – the rhetorical and philosophical ones as well as the epistolary – are cleverly used by Petronius to formulate some new and highly original table manners, presented by Trimalchio to his guests (and, indirectly, to the readers of the Satyricon) as a sort of ‘game of intelligence’.
This article offers a fresh look at the prologue written by Macrobius to his Saturnalia. It will ... more This article offers a fresh look at the prologue written by Macrobius to his Saturnalia. It will be shown that the chronological indications offered by the author with (apparent) extreme precision conceal certain inconsistencies. While some of these may find an illustrious precedent in Plato’s Symposium, others can be seen as the consequence of the particular order governing both the saturnalian time and the entire structure of Macrobius’ work.
Framing the mission of Aeneas in the underworld, Palinurus’
disappereance in the waters of the Si... more Framing the mission of Aeneas in the underworld, Palinurus’ disappereance in the waters of the Sirens at the end of Aeneid 5 and Circe’s indirect appearance at the beginning of Aeneid 7 mark the last stages of the Trojan hero’s journey. In both cases Vergil deviates and distances himself from Homer, excluding the Sirens and Circe from the narration. The aim of the article is to consider Circe’s and the Sirens’ ambiguous exclusion from the official plot of the Aeneid through a gender-informed perspective. While formally discrediting the figures of Circe and the Sirens, the author invites the reader to glimpse their presence beneath the surface of the text. If these characters, who stand for a problematic model of femina sapiens, lose body and voice, their figures are conveyed through symbols, and they end up embodying two complementary ways of reading Vergil’s epic: intertextuality (the Sirens) and semiotics (Circe).
In the "Cena Trimalchionis" Encolpius is continually faced with Trimalchio's oddities (res novae,... more In the "Cena Trimalchionis" Encolpius is continually faced with Trimalchio's oddities (res novae, sat. 27, 2). The paper aims to highlight the occurrence of a ‚scheme of the res novae' , a narrative pattern that repeats itself during the "Cena" and in which the only variation is constituted by Encolpius' reactions to Trimalchio's jokes: while the host is never tired of testing his guests' intelligence with (mostly gastronomic) enigmas, Encolpius moves from amazement to skepticism to the desire of competing with Trimalchio in foreseeing his plans. Encolpius' suppositions mainly link Trimalchio's stratagems to the world of the theatre and of the Saturnalia: following his footsteps modern critics often used the same references to explain Trimalchio's eccentric ideas. The present essay will show that the point of view of the narrator, Encolpius, is not to be confused with the strategy of Trimalchio, who takes over the imaginary of the theatre and of the Saturnalia only to overthrow them in search of a totally new and ‚not foreseeable' transgression.
Immagini e immaginazione. Leopardis Bilder – Reflexionen von Bild und Bildigkeit, 2019
Il contributo si sofferma su alcuni puntuali riscontri del Nachleben di Giacomo Leopardi nella ta... more Il contributo si sofferma su alcuni puntuali riscontri del Nachleben di Giacomo Leopardi nella tarda produzione di Italo Calvino. Dopo una premessa generale sulla grande importanza teorica rivestita dal poeta recanatese nella definizione dei concetti di «esattezza» e di «infinito/indeterminatezza» nelle Lezioni americane, si passerà al confronto tra due dei carmi più noti di Leopardi, Il passero solitario e L’infinito, e due capitoletti di Palomar, «Il canto del merlo» e «Il prato infinito». Il ravvicinato riscontro testuale permetterà di individuare nelle meditazioni che Palomar conduce nel suo giardino non già delle vaghe reminiscenze dei due idilli leopardiani, bensì gli ipotesti nascosti su cui si reggono entrambi i capitoletti del romanzo.
Eneas. La trayectoria transatlántica de un mito fundacional (Romanica), 2019
Le Metamorfosi di Ovidio rappresentano, come H noto, il primo testo narrativo della letteratura l... more Le Metamorfosi di Ovidio rappresentano, come H noto, il primo testo narrativo della letteratura latina e mondiale nel quale l’Eneide virgiliana viene avvertita e reinterpretata come ‘tradizione’, ovvero come classico da imitare e con cui porsi in dialogo: con il poema ovidiano, dunque, inizia la ‘storia della ricezione’ dell’Eneide stessa. Il confronto, del resto, era obbligato, se si considera che le Metamorfosi, ripercorrendo la storia del mondo dalle origini dell’universo ai tempi di Augusto, andavano inevitabilmente a coincidere con la materia virgiliana per un ‘segmento’ spazio-temporale importante: il viaggio che conduce Enea da Troia al Lazio e al sorgere della futura potenza romana, insomma, non poteva essere ignorato. Almeno formalmente.
The present article cross-references the treatment of the figures of Romulus and Numa in Liv. i a... more The present article cross-references the treatment of the figures of Romulus and Numa in Liv. i and Ov. met. xiv-xv. The comparison aims to highlight how Ovid enters into a challenging dialogue with his model, selecting and dilating, among the episodes of the biography of Romulus and Numa treated by Livy, only those that the historian had explicitly judged as fanciful and unreliable. On the one hand, therefore, there will be further demonstration of the vital osmosis between poetry and historiography; on the other hand, however, it will be pointed out how fundamental the specificities of every literary genre are in identifying the value and function that the two authors attributed to their own work.
The article aims to investigate the use of the adjective lepidus in the Miles gloriosus , beginni... more The article aims to investigate the use of the adjective lepidus in the Miles gloriosus , beginning with the analysis of the senex lepidus Periplectomenus and his aristia in 3.1. Two meanings of the word will be pointed out: on the one hand, lepidus ist the key-word that underlines the way by which the comic effect is reached in the play; on the other, it represents a way of life – and, indirectly, a method of education, as we can observe in Terence’s Adelphoi . After Plautus, this model will be actively reused in the republican age by Cicero and Catullus before disappearing in the imperial age, in which, instead, the functions and meanings of lepidus will be strictly reduced and the word will be employed just as marker to introduce funny tales.
The article aims to explore the connections between the fifteenth book of
Ovid’s Metamorphoses an... more The article aims to explore the connections between the fifteenth book of Ovid’s Metamorphoses and the Bellum civile sung by Eumolpus in Petronius’ Satyricon. Not only structural and thematic analogies, but also the recurrence of key-figures such as Hercules and Caesar support the thesis of a very close link between the two texts. Eventually, it will be shown that Ovid’s Metamorphoses represent for Petronius both an important model and «anti-model» in the construction of an epic poem which only apparently takes side against Lucan’s Pharsalia.
In Ov. Pont. 1.2.27-40 the poet underlines the difference between the fate of Niobe and of the
He... more In Ov. Pont. 1.2.27-40 the poet underlines the difference between the fate of Niobe and of the Heliades, whose metamorphoses put an end to their suffering, and his own endless sorrow. The choice of these myths seems to be a réécriture and a correction of the Metamorphoses version, where Niobe and the Heliades, instead, are among the few cases of metamorphosed beings that continue to suffer after the transformation.
The narration of the episode of Actaeon in Ovid's Metamorphoses is introduced by two verses (Met.... more The narration of the episode of Actaeon in Ovid's Metamorphoses is introduced by two verses (Met. III 141-142), in which – strangely enough for the Ovidian style in the poem – the narrative voice gives a judgement about the punishment inflicted by Diana on the innocent Actaeon. The article aims to explore three different hypotheses that can explain such unusual comment on the events: revision during the exile, interpolation, intertextual allusion to a different literary tradition, in which Actaeon was not so innocent.
The Baron in The Trees is written in an Italian that might be called standard. However, this essa... more The Baron in The Trees is written in an Italian that might be called standard. However, this essay focuses on the many passages in which the hero speaks quite a few foreign languages, especially classic ones, to prove that the novel can indeed be associated with ‘literary multilingualism’, in other words a variety of idioms that matches the vastness of literary interests of the main character. Having established how the weight of such interests affects the language of the novel, the essay explores the concept of ‘extended tradition’ that comes to the fore in the novel, prompted by the realisation of a paradoxical situation: Calvino makes Cosimo meet real historical figures and famous fictional characters, as if both were part of the historical background of the plot. In the attempt to understand what concept of literature can support such a choice, this article finds in the universal character of the epos the model the author enacts in the most individual genre ever, fiction.
Il programma religioso d’età augustea si fonda, come è noto, su due tendenze a prima vista oppost... more Il programma religioso d’età augustea si fonda, come è noto, su due tendenze a prima vista opposte eppure tra loro complementari: l’integrazione di culti stranieri e la riscoperta di dèi e rituali del Lazio antico e primitivo. Scopo di una tale sinergia è quello di far di Roma un impero ecumenico, aperto agli apporti dei popoli conquistati, ma contemporaneamente orgogliosamente consapevole delle proprie origini e della propria identità. L’attenzione che Ovidio e Properzio dedicano alle figure di Vertumno e di Giano rientra sicuramente nella seconda delle tendenze appena menzionate. Tuttavia, ad un’indagine più approfondita, si scopre che la natura stessa delle due divinità le rende le figure ideali per esprimere il progetto augusteo nel suo insieme: l’interrelazione tra antico e moderno, tra locale e universale, tra autoctono e straniero.
The paper aims to extend Costa’s essay investigating the influence of some great Roman models
on ... more The paper aims to extend Costa’s essay investigating the influence of some great Roman models on the develop of some basic themes of Seneca’s philosophy, that emerge from Ep. 82 and 95 (with a few words also about other epistles). Regarding the first issue, namely the critique of the excesses of abstraction in Stoics’ syllogisms, I propose some references to Cicero (for the recovery of some key-words as interrogatiuncula) and Horace (due to the influence of a certain ‘bionismo’ in Sat. II 3 and I 4). Then, with regard to the second issue, the degradation of modern times, in which virtue must reach ever more complex forms of speculation, I suggest an intertextual reading between Seneca and Seneca the Elder (Con. 2, 1, 18).
The Reception of Ancient Cyprus in Western Culture, 2023
The present study aims to give a brief overview of the stories in which Cyprus is mentioned in Bo... more The present study aims to give a brief overview of the stories in which Cyprus is mentioned in Boccaccio's Decameron as the island of pilgrims, merchants, and lovers and to explore the possibile connections with the myths settled in Cyprus in Ovid's Metamorphoses
The article aims to investigate Cicero’s presence in three scenes of the Cena Trimalchionis: sat.... more The article aims to investigate Cicero’s presence in three scenes of the Cena Trimalchionis: sat. 35, 7 (hoc est ius cenae); 36, 7 (Carpe, carpe + urbanitas); 39, 4 (oportet etiam inter cenandum philologiam nosse). Cicero’s works – the rhetorical and philosophical ones as well as the epistolary – are cleverly used by Petronius to formulate some new and highly original table manners, presented by Trimalchio to his guests (and, indirectly, to the readers of the Satyricon) as a sort of ‘game of intelligence’.
This article offers a fresh look at the prologue written by Macrobius to his Saturnalia. It will ... more This article offers a fresh look at the prologue written by Macrobius to his Saturnalia. It will be shown that the chronological indications offered by the author with (apparent) extreme precision conceal certain inconsistencies. While some of these may find an illustrious precedent in Plato’s Symposium, others can be seen as the consequence of the particular order governing both the saturnalian time and the entire structure of Macrobius’ work.
Framing the mission of Aeneas in the underworld, Palinurus’
disappereance in the waters of the Si... more Framing the mission of Aeneas in the underworld, Palinurus’ disappereance in the waters of the Sirens at the end of Aeneid 5 and Circe’s indirect appearance at the beginning of Aeneid 7 mark the last stages of the Trojan hero’s journey. In both cases Vergil deviates and distances himself from Homer, excluding the Sirens and Circe from the narration. The aim of the article is to consider Circe’s and the Sirens’ ambiguous exclusion from the official plot of the Aeneid through a gender-informed perspective. While formally discrediting the figures of Circe and the Sirens, the author invites the reader to glimpse their presence beneath the surface of the text. If these characters, who stand for a problematic model of femina sapiens, lose body and voice, their figures are conveyed through symbols, and they end up embodying two complementary ways of reading Vergil’s epic: intertextuality (the Sirens) and semiotics (Circe).
In the "Cena Trimalchionis" Encolpius is continually faced with Trimalchio's oddities (res novae,... more In the "Cena Trimalchionis" Encolpius is continually faced with Trimalchio's oddities (res novae, sat. 27, 2). The paper aims to highlight the occurrence of a ‚scheme of the res novae' , a narrative pattern that repeats itself during the "Cena" and in which the only variation is constituted by Encolpius' reactions to Trimalchio's jokes: while the host is never tired of testing his guests' intelligence with (mostly gastronomic) enigmas, Encolpius moves from amazement to skepticism to the desire of competing with Trimalchio in foreseeing his plans. Encolpius' suppositions mainly link Trimalchio's stratagems to the world of the theatre and of the Saturnalia: following his footsteps modern critics often used the same references to explain Trimalchio's eccentric ideas. The present essay will show that the point of view of the narrator, Encolpius, is not to be confused with the strategy of Trimalchio, who takes over the imaginary of the theatre and of the Saturnalia only to overthrow them in search of a totally new and ‚not foreseeable' transgression.
Immagini e immaginazione. Leopardis Bilder – Reflexionen von Bild und Bildigkeit, 2019
Il contributo si sofferma su alcuni puntuali riscontri del Nachleben di Giacomo Leopardi nella ta... more Il contributo si sofferma su alcuni puntuali riscontri del Nachleben di Giacomo Leopardi nella tarda produzione di Italo Calvino. Dopo una premessa generale sulla grande importanza teorica rivestita dal poeta recanatese nella definizione dei concetti di «esattezza» e di «infinito/indeterminatezza» nelle Lezioni americane, si passerà al confronto tra due dei carmi più noti di Leopardi, Il passero solitario e L’infinito, e due capitoletti di Palomar, «Il canto del merlo» e «Il prato infinito». Il ravvicinato riscontro testuale permetterà di individuare nelle meditazioni che Palomar conduce nel suo giardino non già delle vaghe reminiscenze dei due idilli leopardiani, bensì gli ipotesti nascosti su cui si reggono entrambi i capitoletti del romanzo.
Eneas. La trayectoria transatlántica de un mito fundacional (Romanica), 2019
Le Metamorfosi di Ovidio rappresentano, come H noto, il primo testo narrativo della letteratura l... more Le Metamorfosi di Ovidio rappresentano, come H noto, il primo testo narrativo della letteratura latina e mondiale nel quale l’Eneide virgiliana viene avvertita e reinterpretata come ‘tradizione’, ovvero come classico da imitare e con cui porsi in dialogo: con il poema ovidiano, dunque, inizia la ‘storia della ricezione’ dell’Eneide stessa. Il confronto, del resto, era obbligato, se si considera che le Metamorfosi, ripercorrendo la storia del mondo dalle origini dell’universo ai tempi di Augusto, andavano inevitabilmente a coincidere con la materia virgiliana per un ‘segmento’ spazio-temporale importante: il viaggio che conduce Enea da Troia al Lazio e al sorgere della futura potenza romana, insomma, non poteva essere ignorato. Almeno formalmente.
The present article cross-references the treatment of the figures of Romulus and Numa in Liv. i a... more The present article cross-references the treatment of the figures of Romulus and Numa in Liv. i and Ov. met. xiv-xv. The comparison aims to highlight how Ovid enters into a challenging dialogue with his model, selecting and dilating, among the episodes of the biography of Romulus and Numa treated by Livy, only those that the historian had explicitly judged as fanciful and unreliable. On the one hand, therefore, there will be further demonstration of the vital osmosis between poetry and historiography; on the other hand, however, it will be pointed out how fundamental the specificities of every literary genre are in identifying the value and function that the two authors attributed to their own work.
The article aims to investigate the use of the adjective lepidus in the Miles gloriosus , beginni... more The article aims to investigate the use of the adjective lepidus in the Miles gloriosus , beginning with the analysis of the senex lepidus Periplectomenus and his aristia in 3.1. Two meanings of the word will be pointed out: on the one hand, lepidus ist the key-word that underlines the way by which the comic effect is reached in the play; on the other, it represents a way of life – and, indirectly, a method of education, as we can observe in Terence’s Adelphoi . After Plautus, this model will be actively reused in the republican age by Cicero and Catullus before disappearing in the imperial age, in which, instead, the functions and meanings of lepidus will be strictly reduced and the word will be employed just as marker to introduce funny tales.
The article aims to explore the connections between the fifteenth book of
Ovid’s Metamorphoses an... more The article aims to explore the connections between the fifteenth book of Ovid’s Metamorphoses and the Bellum civile sung by Eumolpus in Petronius’ Satyricon. Not only structural and thematic analogies, but also the recurrence of key-figures such as Hercules and Caesar support the thesis of a very close link between the two texts. Eventually, it will be shown that Ovid’s Metamorphoses represent for Petronius both an important model and «anti-model» in the construction of an epic poem which only apparently takes side against Lucan’s Pharsalia.
In Ov. Pont. 1.2.27-40 the poet underlines the difference between the fate of Niobe and of the
He... more In Ov. Pont. 1.2.27-40 the poet underlines the difference between the fate of Niobe and of the Heliades, whose metamorphoses put an end to their suffering, and his own endless sorrow. The choice of these myths seems to be a réécriture and a correction of the Metamorphoses version, where Niobe and the Heliades, instead, are among the few cases of metamorphosed beings that continue to suffer after the transformation.
The narration of the episode of Actaeon in Ovid's Metamorphoses is introduced by two verses (Met.... more The narration of the episode of Actaeon in Ovid's Metamorphoses is introduced by two verses (Met. III 141-142), in which – strangely enough for the Ovidian style in the poem – the narrative voice gives a judgement about the punishment inflicted by Diana on the innocent Actaeon. The article aims to explore three different hypotheses that can explain such unusual comment on the events: revision during the exile, interpolation, intertextual allusion to a different literary tradition, in which Actaeon was not so innocent.
The Baron in The Trees is written in an Italian that might be called standard. However, this essa... more The Baron in The Trees is written in an Italian that might be called standard. However, this essay focuses on the many passages in which the hero speaks quite a few foreign languages, especially classic ones, to prove that the novel can indeed be associated with ‘literary multilingualism’, in other words a variety of idioms that matches the vastness of literary interests of the main character. Having established how the weight of such interests affects the language of the novel, the essay explores the concept of ‘extended tradition’ that comes to the fore in the novel, prompted by the realisation of a paradoxical situation: Calvino makes Cosimo meet real historical figures and famous fictional characters, as if both were part of the historical background of the plot. In the attempt to understand what concept of literature can support such a choice, this article finds in the universal character of the epos the model the author enacts in the most individual genre ever, fiction.
Il programma religioso d’età augustea si fonda, come è noto, su due tendenze a prima vista oppost... more Il programma religioso d’età augustea si fonda, come è noto, su due tendenze a prima vista opposte eppure tra loro complementari: l’integrazione di culti stranieri e la riscoperta di dèi e rituali del Lazio antico e primitivo. Scopo di una tale sinergia è quello di far di Roma un impero ecumenico, aperto agli apporti dei popoli conquistati, ma contemporaneamente orgogliosamente consapevole delle proprie origini e della propria identità. L’attenzione che Ovidio e Properzio dedicano alle figure di Vertumno e di Giano rientra sicuramente nella seconda delle tendenze appena menzionate. Tuttavia, ad un’indagine più approfondita, si scopre che la natura stessa delle due divinità le rende le figure ideali per esprimere il progetto augusteo nel suo insieme: l’interrelazione tra antico e moderno, tra locale e universale, tra autoctono e straniero.
The paper aims to extend Costa’s essay investigating the influence of some great Roman models
on ... more The paper aims to extend Costa’s essay investigating the influence of some great Roman models on the develop of some basic themes of Seneca’s philosophy, that emerge from Ep. 82 and 95 (with a few words also about other epistles). Regarding the first issue, namely the critique of the excesses of abstraction in Stoics’ syllogisms, I propose some references to Cicero (for the recovery of some key-words as interrogatiuncula) and Horace (due to the influence of a certain ‘bionismo’ in Sat. II 3 and I 4). Then, with regard to the second issue, the degradation of modern times, in which virtue must reach ever more complex forms of speculation, I suggest an intertextual reading between Seneca and Seneca the Elder (Con. 2, 1, 18).
I libri 14-15 delle ‘Metamorfosi’ presentano il problematico approdo della narrazione del poema n... more I libri 14-15 delle ‘Metamorfosi’ presentano il problematico approdo della narrazione del poema nel ‘Latium vetus’, cornice di racconti che ritornano al passato mitico greco. Il presente volume vuole riflettere su questa difficile interazione tra ‘grecità’ e ‘romanità’ in una prospettiva un po’ diversa rispetto a quella che si è consolidata negli studi ovidiani più recenti: come viene presentato, il mito greco? E chi se lo racconta? Come influisce l’ambientazione sul destino dei personaggi della cornice?
Dalla prospettiva degli ‘ultimi tre miti’ di argomento amoroso del poema il libro traccia un percorso che porta ad un ribaltamento graduale dei rapporti di forza tra ‘contenuto’ e ‘contenitore’ del racconto: se il mito greco sfuma in lontananza, reso immortale da una fama che lo condanna all’immutabilità, un neonato mito italico prende forma nei giardini di un Lazio che diventa il luogo adatto per mettere in scena storie senza un passato e senza un ‘futuro’ già scritti. Il poeta che, per eccellenza, ha forzato tutti i limiti del raccontabile nella variazione del già noto si ritrova a valicare i confini di quella stessa tradizione in cui tutti l’hanno sempre visto così a suo agio.
eds. Elena Giusti and Victoria Rimell, Special issue of the journal Vergilius, 2021
Do we still need, as Elaine Showalter predicted, ‘even more drastic re-estimations of the old mas... more Do we still need, as Elaine Showalter predicted, ‘even more drastic re-estimations of the old masters?’ Vergil, so-called ‘Father of the West’, has not escaped scrutiny by feminist criticism, yet feminist approaches to Vergil, or readings alert to reading his works through the lens of gender, still represent a tiny portion of modern scholarship. And unlike Homer or Ovid, he has traditionally not been seen as fertile territory for feminist philosophy. This special volume of Vergilius, which has its origins in the Vergilian Society’s Symposium Cumanum 2019 on the same theme, asks how ever-evolving contemporary feminisms might engage in new dialogues with the Aeneid, Eclogues and Georgics, and aims to reassess, through Vergil, the role and potential of feminist modes of reading within classical philology.
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disappereance in the waters of the Sirens at the end of Aeneid 5 and Circe’s indirect appearance at the beginning of Aeneid 7 mark the last stages of the Trojan hero’s journey. In both cases Vergil deviates and distances himself from Homer, excluding the Sirens and Circe from the narration. The aim of the article is to consider Circe’s and the Sirens’ ambiguous exclusion from the official plot of the Aeneid through a gender-informed perspective. While formally discrediting the figures of Circe and the Sirens, the author invites the reader to glimpse their presence beneath the surface of the text. If these characters, who stand for a problematic model of femina sapiens, lose body and voice, their figures are conveyed through symbols, and they end up embodying two complementary ways of reading Vergil’s epic: intertextuality
(the Sirens) and semiotics (Circe).
infinito». Il ravvicinato riscontro testuale permetterà di individuare nelle meditazioni che Palomar conduce nel suo giardino non già delle vaghe reminiscenze dei due idilli leopardiani, bensì gli ipotesti nascosti su cui si reggono entrambi i capitoletti del romanzo.
judged as fanciful and unreliable. On the one hand, therefore, there will be further demonstration of the vital osmosis between poetry and historiography; on the other hand, however, it will be pointed out how fundamental the specificities of every literary genre are in identifying the value and function that the two authors attributed to their own work.
represents a way of life – and, indirectly, a method of education, as we can observe in Terence’s Adelphoi . After Plautus, this model will be actively reused in the republican age by Cicero and Catullus before disappearing in the imperial age, in which, instead, the functions and meanings of lepidus will be strictly reduced and the word will be employed just as marker to introduce funny tales.
Ovid’s Metamorphoses and the Bellum civile sung by Eumolpus in Petronius’ Satyricon.
Not only structural and thematic analogies, but also the recurrence of key-figures such
as Hercules and Caesar support the thesis of a very close link between the two texts.
Eventually, it will be shown that Ovid’s Metamorphoses represent for Petronius both
an important model and «anti-model» in the construction of an epic poem which only
apparently takes side against Lucan’s Pharsalia.
Heliades, whose metamorphoses put an end to their suffering, and his own endless sorrow. The choice of these myths seems to be a réécriture and a correction of the Metamorphoses version, where Niobe and the Heliades, instead, are among the few cases of metamorphosed
beings that continue to suffer after the transformation.
essay explores the concept of ‘extended tradition’ that comes to the fore in the novel, prompted by the realisation of a paradoxical situation: Calvino makes Cosimo meet real historical figures and famous fictional characters, as if both were part of the historical background of the plot.
In the attempt to understand what concept of literature can support such a choice, this article finds in the universal character of the epos the model the author enacts in the most individual genre ever, fiction.
on the develop of some basic themes of Seneca’s philosophy, that emerge from Ep. 82 and 95
(with a few words also about other epistles). Regarding the first issue, namely the critique of the
excesses of abstraction in Stoics’ syllogisms, I propose some references to Cicero (for the
recovery of some key-words as interrogatiuncula) and Horace (due to the influence of a certain
‘bionismo’ in Sat. II 3 and I 4). Then, with regard to the second issue, the degradation of
modern times, in which virtue must reach ever more complex forms of speculation, I suggest an
intertextual reading between Seneca and Seneca the Elder (Con. 2, 1, 18).
disappereance in the waters of the Sirens at the end of Aeneid 5 and Circe’s indirect appearance at the beginning of Aeneid 7 mark the last stages of the Trojan hero’s journey. In both cases Vergil deviates and distances himself from Homer, excluding the Sirens and Circe from the narration. The aim of the article is to consider Circe’s and the Sirens’ ambiguous exclusion from the official plot of the Aeneid through a gender-informed perspective. While formally discrediting the figures of Circe and the Sirens, the author invites the reader to glimpse their presence beneath the surface of the text. If these characters, who stand for a problematic model of femina sapiens, lose body and voice, their figures are conveyed through symbols, and they end up embodying two complementary ways of reading Vergil’s epic: intertextuality
(the Sirens) and semiotics (Circe).
infinito». Il ravvicinato riscontro testuale permetterà di individuare nelle meditazioni che Palomar conduce nel suo giardino non già delle vaghe reminiscenze dei due idilli leopardiani, bensì gli ipotesti nascosti su cui si reggono entrambi i capitoletti del romanzo.
judged as fanciful and unreliable. On the one hand, therefore, there will be further demonstration of the vital osmosis between poetry and historiography; on the other hand, however, it will be pointed out how fundamental the specificities of every literary genre are in identifying the value and function that the two authors attributed to their own work.
represents a way of life – and, indirectly, a method of education, as we can observe in Terence’s Adelphoi . After Plautus, this model will be actively reused in the republican age by Cicero and Catullus before disappearing in the imperial age, in which, instead, the functions and meanings of lepidus will be strictly reduced and the word will be employed just as marker to introduce funny tales.
Ovid’s Metamorphoses and the Bellum civile sung by Eumolpus in Petronius’ Satyricon.
Not only structural and thematic analogies, but also the recurrence of key-figures such
as Hercules and Caesar support the thesis of a very close link between the two texts.
Eventually, it will be shown that Ovid’s Metamorphoses represent for Petronius both
an important model and «anti-model» in the construction of an epic poem which only
apparently takes side against Lucan’s Pharsalia.
Heliades, whose metamorphoses put an end to their suffering, and his own endless sorrow. The choice of these myths seems to be a réécriture and a correction of the Metamorphoses version, where Niobe and the Heliades, instead, are among the few cases of metamorphosed
beings that continue to suffer after the transformation.
essay explores the concept of ‘extended tradition’ that comes to the fore in the novel, prompted by the realisation of a paradoxical situation: Calvino makes Cosimo meet real historical figures and famous fictional characters, as if both were part of the historical background of the plot.
In the attempt to understand what concept of literature can support such a choice, this article finds in the universal character of the epos the model the author enacts in the most individual genre ever, fiction.
on the develop of some basic themes of Seneca’s philosophy, that emerge from Ep. 82 and 95
(with a few words also about other epistles). Regarding the first issue, namely the critique of the
excesses of abstraction in Stoics’ syllogisms, I propose some references to Cicero (for the
recovery of some key-words as interrogatiuncula) and Horace (due to the influence of a certain
‘bionismo’ in Sat. II 3 and I 4). Then, with regard to the second issue, the degradation of
modern times, in which virtue must reach ever more complex forms of speculation, I suggest an
intertextual reading between Seneca and Seneca the Elder (Con. 2, 1, 18).
Dalla prospettiva degli ‘ultimi tre miti’ di argomento amoroso del poema il libro traccia un percorso che porta ad un ribaltamento graduale dei rapporti di forza tra ‘contenuto’ e ‘contenitore’ del racconto: se il mito greco sfuma in lontananza, reso immortale da una fama che lo condanna all’immutabilità, un neonato mito italico prende forma nei giardini di un Lazio che diventa il luogo adatto per mettere in scena storie senza un passato e senza un ‘futuro’ già scritti. Il poeta che, per eccellenza, ha forzato tutti i limiti del raccontabile nella variazione del già noto si ritrova a valicare i confini di quella stessa tradizione in cui tutti l’hanno sempre visto così a suo agio.