In the ‘eupolideans’ of Clouds II, evoking the beginning of his own artistic career, Aristophanes identifies himself with a παρθένος who, being unmarried, had to ‘expose’ her own ‘creature’ (the Banqueters staged by the poet in his first comedy in 427 b.C.), which was ‘picked up’ by another παῖς (the director Kallistratus) and ‘brought up’ by the public: the same public that – as the poet claims – inexplicably repudiated Clouds I, four years later. Within the same passage, Aristophanes represents this comedy (in the new version) as a new Elektra, who goes to her father’s grave hoping to find the hair lock that will reveal the presence of her brother Orestes. Due to its high metaphorical and allegorical value, this parabatic passage plays a very peculiar role in the canonical repertory of personifications of poetry, and particularly of comedy, that can be found in the surviving plays of Aristophanes as well as in the fragments of other authors of the archaia.
Personificazioni dell'arte poetica e metafore parentali: la maternità letteraria tra commedia e filosofia
IMPERIO, Olimpia
2012-01-01
Abstract
In the ‘eupolideans’ of Clouds II, evoking the beginning of his own artistic career, Aristophanes identifies himself with a παρθένος who, being unmarried, had to ‘expose’ her own ‘creature’ (the Banqueters staged by the poet in his first comedy in 427 b.C.), which was ‘picked up’ by another παῖς (the director Kallistratus) and ‘brought up’ by the public: the same public that – as the poet claims – inexplicably repudiated Clouds I, four years later. Within the same passage, Aristophanes represents this comedy (in the new version) as a new Elektra, who goes to her father’s grave hoping to find the hair lock that will reveal the presence of her brother Orestes. Due to its high metaphorical and allegorical value, this parabatic passage plays a very peculiar role in the canonical repertory of personifications of poetry, and particularly of comedy, that can be found in the surviving plays of Aristophanes as well as in the fragments of other authors of the archaia.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
