Ricerc@Sapienza

Our aim is to investigate the use of myth in Greek literature from a twofold perspective: on the one hand, the reworking of traditional myth as a means of reinterpreting current events; on the other hand, the opposite procedure in which current events are treated in the same way as traditional myth. Both perspectives are already identified by Isocrates (Paneg. 8) and Plato (Phaedr. 267b) - the latter referring to the teachings of Tisias and Gorgias -, who speak of the need to «actualise ancient events and to make current events ancient». The investigation should involve ancient literary theory and then move on to the practices of authors of different literary genres. The aim will be to identify the techniques through which well-known events are modulated and altered to serve contingent needs, in accordance with the practice of modulation du paradigme (Nouhaud). Although this practice has been studied mainly for ancient oratory, it nevertheless finds its application in other genres as well: epic, tragedy, historiography, medical literature. Among the questions that need to be answered are the following: what are the rhetorical strategies through which a recent event was presented as an exemplary event? How is it possible to present events relatively close in time as exemplary events, not dissimilar to traditional myths? Is it by chance that this process of mythologising the present finds a parallel in contemporary art? Is there a limit to the process of actualising the traditional myth, as would seem to be implied in the case of Euripides, whose habit of introducing situations from everyday life into the tragic narrative («everyday realism») provoked the reaction of his contemporaries and later literary theorists? By examining the situation in different literary genres and using the category of «intentional history» developed by H.-J. Gehrke, the present investigation aims to clarify these and other issues, better defining the relationship of the Greeks to their past.