L'ingresso del falso philos: la scena di Ferete nell'Alcesti di Euripide e i suoi modelli drammatici

The scene between Pheretes and Admetus in Euripides' Alcestis is to be considered as a dramatic realization of the entrance of a kakòs phílos. It presents many analogies with other similar situations in tragedies in which much stress is laid upon the relations of philia among personages and/or the Chorus, such as the entrance of Menelaos in Orestes 356ss., Jason in Medea 446ss., and, most of all, Oceanus in Prometheus Bound 284ss. A comparative analyses of these scenes permits us to reconstruct a dramatic pattern with many 'typical motifs': e. g. the delaied - and sometimes unexpected - arrive of the false friend, his emphatic professions of philia which are soon contradicted by his successive words and behaviour, the refusal of his offering by the protagonist, the increasing of the contrast between the two until the troublesome intruder is thrown out of the stage.