'Impia Medea'. Per uno studio 'contrastivo' delle emozioni alla luce della teoresi aristotelica sull'ὀργή enucleata nella "Retorica"

One of the most striking literary female portrayals which we have inherited from the classical world is the character of Medea, whose dramatic story has been a source of inspiration for many literary authors, ancient and modern. Perhaps the most celebrated version of the myth of Medea is the version which Euripides presented at the City Dionysia festival of 431 BC in Athens. However, the myth was exploited already in archaic Greek literature. In my paper I offer a new argument to explain and clarify the emotional contrast which existed between the θυμός and the βουλεύματα in the soul of the Euripidean heroine. I do this by using the contrasting paradigm of the Homeric Achilles and by focussing on the doctrine on anger as articulated in Aristotle’s Rhetoric.