Il lamento di Eribea: Sofocle, Aiace 624-34

Textual analysis of the second strophe of the first stasimon of Sophocles’ Ajax. In particular, a more careful assessment of the traditional meanings of the funerary lamentation typologies alluded to at vv. 627-34 allows to better emphasize the description of Eriboea’s planctus, in relation to the performance context of the stasimon and the dramatic construction by Sophocles. The transmitted text of the last section of the strophe is not only well explainable but also extremely rich in terms of meanings, and better inserted in its context than modern conjectures accepted in some recent editions show