Vita e Pensiero

In her article Mortifera vestis, Nova succeeds in showing that Aeschylus innovates in making Agamemnon’s fatal robe an overgarment rather than a chiton. His objective was probably to associate Agamemnon strongly with the ideas of great wealth and luxury. Nova is also right to argue that Seneca’s version of Agamemnon’s murder is based, directly or indirectly, on a pre-Aeschylean account. Her other propositions are not persuasive...

This study discusses the mode of the murder of Agamemnon, involved in the mortifera vestis, and also the murder’s place and their meaning emerging from the entire context. The analysis of image and the semantic reconstruction take into account the Athenian context of production, the function of the vase and the potential recipients...

The interpretation Simone Weil gives to Greek authors is marked by an unprecedented originality, can’t be cast into any cultural mould, and can’t be traced back to any foregoing author, excepted perhaps some of the Greek Church Fathers...

In P.Oxy. 2260, col. I (from Apollodorus’ treatise About the Gods, 2nd c. BCE) Athena’s epithet δολιχάορος is rejected, since a correct etymology of it is inconsistent with the iconography of the goddess. A new reading of the papyrus offers a more correct analysis of this very passage. The comment aims also to show how much Apollodorus ows to his teacher Aristarchus, from the antiquarian point of view (the armour of the Homeric heroes) as well as from the rhetorical one (which is confirmed by many Aristonicean scholia). Significantly, P.Oxy. 2260 attests the use of the term τρόπος in a rhetorical sense, thereby predating the hitherto first known occurrences of it (Philodemus and Cicero). The Hellenistic debate on the poetic term ἄορ (Philetas; Callimachus) is also reconstructed, as well as the ancient interpretations of Apollo’s epithet χρυσάορος. Finally, some reflections on the categories used by Apollodorus in interpreting the divine epithets...

The article aims at explaining the meaning of propositio and divisio in the Interpretationes Vergilianae of Ti.Cl. Donatus. The first part investigates into the definitions of the these technical terms in the rhetorical literature of the classical period and of Late Antiquity, particularly in Cicero’s and Quintilian’s works...

Fascicolo annuale del 2015

The study examines some Etruscan urns, one Apulian oinochoe and a Roman sarcophagus illustrating a peculiar account of Agamemnon’s and Aigisthos’ murder. Subsequently, the difficult issue of identifying some of the characters represented therein is considered, also relying on the comparison with the fragments of Pacuvius’ Dulorestes...

The article discusses the final part of Seneca’s Agamemnon and, through a critical review of the study of Isabella Nova, attempts to clarify Seneca’s contribution to the topic of the killing of Agamemnon. In fact, Nova did not discuss the text of the Latin author, even though the words she uses as a title are a quotation from Seneca...