The contribution starts from an interpretation of Latin declamation as a from of Roman mythopoiesis. Just as it happens in the field of myth, schools of rhetoric produced culturally "strong" tales, which were useful to negotiate and re-negotiate rules and values of Roman society. From this point of view, in order to highlight both an analogy between myth and declamation and the sharing of literaty motifs, an analysis of pseudo-Quintilian's "Minor Declamation" 299 and of Seneca the Elder's "Controversy" 10,3 is proposed. In both cases, which hinge on he so called "parental dilemma", the declaimers hint at famous "fabulae" such as the story of Antigone, who violates the law of the city in order to ensure her brother and her bethroted. Through the re-writing of those myths as practised in the declamation schools, "fabulae" undergo a process of "Rmanization" of both the plot and, most of all, the roles and the relationships among the characters, who are re-defined according to the Roman rules of kinship and its hierarchies
Il contributo propone una riflessione sulla possibile interpretazione della declamazione latina come una sorta di mitopoiesi romana. Proprio come accade nel mito, in quelle aule di un tribunale fittizio venivano prodotti racconti culturalmente “forti” utili, in quanto tali, a negoziare e rinegoziare regole fondamentali della società romana. In questa prospettiva di ricerca, mirata a cogliere oltre ad un’ analogia funzionale tra mito e declamazione, anche una condivisione di motivi letterari, si inserisce la proposta di lettura della declamazione minore pseudo-quintilianea 299 e della controversia senecana 10,3. In entrambi i casi, fondati su un “dilemma parentale”, è possibile individuare un dialogo a distanza con " fabulae" note come quella di Antigone, figlia del parricida Edipo e tragica protagonista della scelta di dare sepoltura al fratello e di Orazia, vittima infelice del contrasto tra il fratello e lo "sponsus". Ma l’operazione culturale presupposta da questi esercizi di riscrittura del mito praticati in ambito declamatorio, sottopone quelle "fabulae" ad un processo di romanizzazione del canovaccio narrativo e soprattutto della dinamica dei ruoli tra i personaggi che vengono ridefiniti alla luce di nuove gerarchie nel sistema della parentela.
Declamazione e mito
BRESCIA, GRAZIANA
2015-01-01
Abstract
The contribution starts from an interpretation of Latin declamation as a from of Roman mythopoiesis. Just as it happens in the field of myth, schools of rhetoric produced culturally "strong" tales, which were useful to negotiate and re-negotiate rules and values of Roman society. From this point of view, in order to highlight both an analogy between myth and declamation and the sharing of literaty motifs, an analysis of pseudo-Quintilian's "Minor Declamation" 299 and of Seneca the Elder's "Controversy" 10,3 is proposed. In both cases, which hinge on he so called "parental dilemma", the declaimers hint at famous "fabulae" such as the story of Antigone, who violates the law of the city in order to ensure her brother and her bethroted. Through the re-writing of those myths as practised in the declamation schools, "fabulae" undergo a process of "Rmanization" of both the plot and, most of all, the roles and the relationships among the characters, who are re-defined according to the Roman rules of kinship and its hierarchiesI documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.