Eschilo, Prometeo 330-334: testo e interpretazione.

In Prom. 330 s. Prometheus gives the following answer to Oceanus, who has offered to act as intermediary between him and Zeus: ζηλῶ σ' ὁθούνεκ' ἐκτὸς αἰτίας κυρεῖς, / πάντων μετασχὼν καὶ τετολμηκὼς ἐμοί. Line 331 looks suspicious not only for linguistic reasons but also because we have no other information of a partnership of Oceanus to the side of Prometheus in a struggle against Zeus (see on the contrary l. 234, where the protagonist says that he was the only one to protect the human race). The tendency of the last editors is to put l. 331 between cruces, indicating their doubts and perplexities in the apparatus or in the comment. The difficulties can be resolved with two very simple corrections. πάντων μετασχεῖν (Weil) οὐ (Denniston) τετολμηκὼς ἐμοί. The corruption is easy to explain palaeographically: first there was the change from μετασχεῖν to μετασχών (favored by the following participle), and then the adaptation of the syntax with the alteration of οὐ in καί. With this solution: 1) the grammatical problems are resolved; 2) the representation of Oceanus would be consistent with all other literary sources that insist on his exclusion from the Titans' war against Zeus. 3) the lack of τόλμη of the old god would be coherent with what we know of the false philoi characters in Greek tragedy (such as Pheres in Alcestis, Jason in Medea and Menelaus in Orestes), for which the ἀψυχία or ἀνανδρία is a characteristic feature of the ethos, usually blamed by the protagonist.