Conflitti generazionali sulla scena antica e contemporanea. Ferete vs Admeto nelle riscritture teatrali del mito di Alcesti

The conflict between father and son in the third episode of Euripides’ Alcestis has met with varying success in the history of the reception of this myth. The negative judgment prevailed in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when the general trend was to ennoble the characters (see e.g. Charles Perrault, Pier Jacopo Martello, Christoph Martin Wieland). When not ignored, Pheres underwent a profound metamorphosis, as in Alceste II, the last drama of Vittorio Alfieri, where he is represented as ready to sacrifice himself for his son, and competes in virtue with Alcestis. With the exception of Robert Browning (Balaustion’s Adventure, 1871), the embarrassment in accepting the selfishness of Pheres, or the harsh reaction of Admetus, persists at least until the Seventies (Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Robert Prechtl, Marguerite Yourcenar, Alberto Savinio, Corrado Alvaro, Maurice Valency). Only in recent years modern playwrights have staged Pheres’ refusal to die in all its rawness, recovering and sometimes exacerbating the conflict between father and son (Giovanni Raboni, Ted Hughes).