Ricerc@Sapienza

The paper analyses two passages from Thyestes and Oedipus, where the protagonists cry unexpectantly and involuntarily. In the first case, where Thyestes has a sort of metamorphoses in a werewolf, there is an exploration of all the semantic possibilities for this attitude: any of them is in part true. It is interesting the comparison with two Homeric passages, one where Odysseus manage to stop his tears, another where the unexpected crying is due to the goddess Athena. Oedipus cries after the revelation, when he represent the incarnation of rage. His attitude coincides perfectly with the one of the angry man, except for the tears which he turns out to be made of blood. This makes him looking like the women in grief, who used to scratch their cheeks. Both in Thyestes and in Oedipus, tears have also a narrative and so cognitive function: it is due to their tears that they make the plot going on (Thyestes understand the scelus, Oedipus finds the fitting punishment): so these tears are in a way a sort of meditation.