Clitennestra, la musica e il grido della natura. Diderot ‘riduce’ su pentagramma i miti di Didone e Ifigenia

The Author proposes some reflections about reception of the theme of the sacrifice of Iphigenia in the art: indeed, in relation to its ethical or aesthetical features, this issue was treated by rhetoricians, philosophers and men of letters, in ancient and modern times. Among them, Denis Diderot often dealt with myth of Iphigenia and its availability to convert itself into the arts: the case of the ‘shout’ of Clytenmnestra, whose setting to music was considered in Entretiens sur le fils naturel, shows rhetorical backgrounds of the Diderot’s proposal.