Il coro del re. Capo e comprimari nella storiografia e nell’epos fra IV e III secolo a.C.

The paper investigates court thiasoi and banquet scenes as well as the general councils of the Macedonian army in the historiography on Alexander and the Successors and in Apollonius’ Argonautica in order to show parallels in the representation of the relations between the king and his entourage. The studied cases (Alexander in Asia; Ptolemy in Memphis; Jason in the Argonauts’ councils) allow a reappraisal of the work of the historian Cleitarchus and the poet Apollonius Rhodius and show a common portrait of the leader as primus inter pares. In epic as in historiography, the leader is chosen by the hetairoi on the ground of his outstanding leading skills and his role as a religious chief makes him play a function similar to that of a priest in a thiasos.