Scene di supplica nel teatro eschileo: simmetrie strutturali ed equivalenze politiche.

[Autom. eng. transl.] The tragic scenes of hikesia have been the subject of studies mainly dedicated to the scenic and formal aspects, such as the dissertations of F. Schmidt (De supplicum ad aram confugientium partibus scaenicis, Diss. Könisberg 1911), by J. Kopperschmidt (Die Hikesie als dramatische Form, Diss. Tübingen 1966, later merged into the miscellaneous volume Die Bauformen der griechischen Tragödie, edited by W. Jens, München 1971) and by PH Burian (Suppliant Drama: Studies in the Form and Interpretation of Five Greek Tragedies, Diss. Princeton 1972, with analysis of the two Edipi sofoclei, of the Supplici eschilee and euripidee, and of the Eraclidi), as well as, in more recent times, the monograph of P. Cassella (The supplication to the altar in the Greek tragedy, Naples 1999). In the context of the multiple attestations of this dramaturgical pattern, the Aeschylus Supplications and Eumenides constitute a peculiar subset, characterized by an articulated system of relationships that go beyond the general framework of the supplication scenes to involve much larger textual portions, where the parallelism is punctuated by timely thematic and lexical shots. In my opinion, such a tangle of correspondences - far more extensive and systematic than the generic analogies, already repeatedly pointed out by critics, among the songs of blessing of the respective Choirs (Su. 625 ss. And Eu. 916 ss.) - not it can simply be traced back to the topical of the genre, but it must have at its base a common ideological intent, comparable to the same historical-political context. This hypothesis appears to be confirmed by a comprehensive reading of the Supplications, a drama in which the references to current events (although much more mediated and 'hidden' with respect to the Eumenides and therefore denied by various critics including recently AF Garvie, Aeschylus' Supplices: Play and Trilogy, Bristol 20062 [Cambridge 1969] are, however, perceivable behind the mythical filter, and are even organized into a compact and coherent whole, which betrays a precise strategy on the part of the author. If this interpretative line proves to be confirmed, the recent hypothesis of S. Scullion (Tragic Dates, CQ 52, 2002, 81-101, looked favorably, among others, also by P. Sandin in Aeschylus' Supplices. Introduction and Commentary on vv. 1-523, Lund 2005), which, appealing to the well-known archaic stylistic features of the Supplicants and questioning the authority of P. Oxy. 2256, it re-proposed its backdating to the mid-seventies, before the Persians themselves.