Papers by Francesco Moles
Cuadernos de Filología Clásica. Estudios griegos e indoeuropeos, 2024
This paper takes into examination the testimonies and the fragments of Euripides’ Peleus and trie... more This paper takes into examination the testimonies and the fragments of Euripides’ Peleus and tries to draw some conclusions as regards the reconstruction of the play.
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Sileno 49.1/2, pp. 137-155, 2023
This paper discusses the interpretation of some apparently comic elements in Euripides’ fragmenta... more This paper discusses the interpretation of some apparently comic elements in Euripides’ fragmentary Scyrians and argues that they might be considered among the earliest expressions of the playwright’s experimentalism.
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Archivi delle emozioni 3.2, 2022
This paper reconsiders Bellerophon's characterization in Euripides' fragmentary Bellerophon. It i... more This paper reconsiders Bellerophon's characterization in Euripides' fragmentary Bellerophon. It is generally assumed that in this play the hero-who ended up being punished by the gods for his ὕβρις after he flew to heaven to demonstrate their inexistence-was portrayed in a completely different way from the Stheneboea, where he embodies the model of the chaste young hero destined to glory. As a matter of fact, a more careful exam of the fragments from the Bellerophon suggests that the fallen hero's emotions-pain, disappointment, anger, hopelessness towards humans as well as gods-might rather be expression of the very same heroic and moral idealism he displays in the Stheneboea, where he is marked by his αἰδώς. Thus, from the public's point of view, the main character of the Bellerophon should not be regarded as a reprehensible θεομάχος, but, like Heracles in the Heracles or Neoptolemus in the Andromache, as a pitiful victim of disquieting gods.
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Rivista di Cultura Classica e Medioevale, 2023
The reconstructions of Sophocles’ Polyxena attempted so far do not seem dramaturgically persuasiv... more The reconstructions of Sophocles’ Polyxena attempted so far do not seem dramaturgically persuasive. In fact, they are sometimes flawed as regards the relationship of the play with the other sources about the myth. Therefore, after reconsidering all the evidence, this paper proposes a different reconstruction of the scenes that the fragments let us outline: a quarrel between Agamemnon and Menelaus (fr. 522 Radt2), one or two appearances of Achilles’ ghost (fr. 523 Radt2 and De Sublimitate, 15, 7), Agamemnon’s complaint about his leadership (fr. 524 Radt2), and prophecies regarding the difficult νόστος of the Greeks (frr. 525-526 Radt2). It is also proposed that fr. tr. ad. 637 Kannicht-Snell, usually assigned to an Iphigenia or an Ajax the Locrian, might as well be assigned to this play.
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M.F. Sousa e Silva, S. Marques Pereira (eds.), "Heroes and Anti-Heroes", Roma, pp. 205-232, 2022
This paper takes into consideration all the attestations of arete referred to women within Euripi... more This paper takes into consideration all the attestations of arete referred to women within Euripides' extant production. This enquiry allows us to outline two different uses of the word, depending on the playwright's artistic needs: a concrete one, related to traditional ethics and influenced by contemporary philosophy, and an abstract one, related to traditionally male heroism.
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Invigilata Lucernis 44, pp. 97-110, 2022
This paper takes into examination the narrative significance of night scenarios in Statius’ Achil... more This paper takes into examination the narrative significance of night scenarios in Statius’ Achilleid. Specifically, the analysis of four night scenes (ll. 195-250, 619-644, 698-818 931-955) will show how the poet, largely drawing upon the poetic tradition, uses this scenario to frame what should be hidden and some emotional moments. Hence, in the poem the night works as a space of loneliness, fragility, violence, and femininity, in contrast to the heroic space of the daylight.
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A. Di Natale, C. Basile (a cura di), ATTI DEL XIX CONVEGNO DI EGITTOLOGIA E PAPIROLOGIA SIRACUSA, 1-4 OTTOBRE 2020, pp. 413-425, 2022
This paper discusses the information provided by P.Oxy. 2077 for the reconstruction on Sophocles'... more This paper discusses the information provided by P.Oxy. 2077 for the reconstruction on Sophocles' fragmentary Scyrians, in particular as regards a μηχάνημα likely taking place in the play.
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N. Bruno, M. Filosa, G. Marinelli (eds.), Fragmented Memory Omission, Selection, and Loss in Ancient and Medieval Literature and History, Berlin-Boston, De Gruyter, 2022
This paper analyzes how Euripides reworked the myth of Achilles at Scyros in the Scyrians, one of... more This paper analyzes how Euripides reworked the myth of Achilles at Scyros in the Scyrians, one of his lost tragedies. After a brief discussion about the sources and the structure of the Scyros-episode, I focus on the dramatist’s treatment of the theme of heroism, which emerges from frr. 683a and 880 Kn., where Odysseus makes use of traditional heroic topoi in order to persuade Achilles to leave. By means of a comparison between what we can infer about Achilles’ characterization in the play and other Euripidean heroic models or antimodels, I try to outline an evolution in the playwright’s poetics and ideology about this topic. By doing so, we may find new insight into the dating of the tragedy, usually placed in the first part of Euripides’ career, but on very uncertain grounds.
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Sileno, 2021
Based on linguistic observations and previously unconsidered loci paralleli, this paper proposes ... more Based on linguistic observations and previously unconsidered loci paralleli, this paper proposes a partially different critical text and interpretation of fr. 555 R.2 from Sophocles’ Scyrians and tries to solve the issue of its placement in the play.
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M. de Poli (a cura di), Il teatro delle emozioni: l'ira, 2021
Basing on Aristotle’s description of wrath in Rhetoric (2.1378a30-1378b9) and on Thucydides’ άξίω... more Basing on Aristotle’s description of wrath in Rhetoric (2.1378a30-1378b9) and on Thucydides’ άξίωσις τῶν ὀνομάτων ἐς τὰ ἔργα caused by war (3.82-84), this paper takes into consideration Euripides’ representation of such emotion as regards young characters whose life has been affected by the Trojan war. In particular, I focus on Andromache, Electra and Orestes in order to demonstrate how Hermione, Orestes and Electra developed wrathful and vengeful characters due to the lack of noble education through familiar examples: their excessive behaviour mirrors moral confusion and social disorder, which are direct consequences of war times. Furthermore, also basing on the application of the deus ex machina, I try to outline a pessimistic evolution in Euripides’ treatment of these ‘problem kids’, which goes hand in hand with the historical context and the playwright’s increasing distrust towards Athenian politics and human nature.
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Frammenti sulla scena (online) 1.1, 2020
The few fragments of Sophocles’ Scyrians we have left and the lack of sources certainly traceable... more The few fragments of Sophocles’ Scyrians we have left and the lack of sources certainly traceable back to it make it very hard for us to reconstruct the plot of the play, which dealt with the fetching of Neoptolemus from Scyros by Odysseus and probably Phoenix. Some more information might come from the fr. 555b Radt2, which is part of a papyrus (P.Oxy. 2077) published by Hunt in 1927. In particular, scholars thought it might point to a μηχάνημα somehow played out during the drama: Pfeiffer (1933), followed by some others, guessed it was a plan to hide Neoptolemus from the Greeks who were looking for him, while Carden (1974) proposed that it could be a plan conceived by Odysseus to carry out his task and bring Achilles’ son to Troy. None of them, however, tried to really understand how this supposed μηχάνημα could fit in the play. Thus, the aim of this paper is to reconsider some old studies and proposals about the Scyrians in order to deepen some aspects and possibly open new research paths: in particular, I will propose an overall reconstruction of the play and I will make some considerations about the placement of the preserved fragments. Also, based on them, on the other literary and artistic sources about the myth and on what we know about Sophocles’ production, I will make some remarks about the characters, the themes, the dating, the tradition and the reception of the play.
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La palingenesi del Classico, KEPOS 2/2019, a cura di G. Battaglino, A.F. Caterino, A. Di Meglio, F. Favaro, A. Marini, 2020
In three of his works, D’Annunzio talks about his visit to the Compianto sul Cristo Morto by Nicc... more In three of his works, D’Annunzio talks about his visit to the Compianto sul Cristo Morto by Niccolò Dell’Arca, sculpted in the second part of the 15th century and preserved in Bologna. The aim of this paper is to analyse these passages in order to show how his description of this work of art, whose subject is inspired by the Gospels, combines classical reminiscences and his modern sensibility. Religion and Aestheticism – which finds expression in literature, art and music – coexist in a mystical vision meant to describe the writer’s initiation to music.
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Looking at Beauty to Kalon in Western Greece: Selected Essays from the 2018 Symposium on the Heritage of Western Greece (Fonte Aretusa), eds. H.L. Reid and T. Leyh, 2019
It was probably born in Western Greece the Palinode by Stesichorus, one of the most controversial... more It was probably born in Western Greece the Palinode by Stesichorus, one of the most controversial works of the archaic Greek literature because of an ʻalternativeʼ narration of the Helen’s abduction famous episode. The meagreness of surviving fragments does not allow us to say anything sure about the role of the woman’s celebrated beauty in the poem, which, however, certainly provided the basis for Euripides’ masterful revision in the Helen. Eἰ καλὸν τὸ δυστυχές: when in the prologue, line 27, Helen says these lapidary words, it is the beginning of a shocking rework of a mythical character whom the literary the tradition, as well as Euripides’ tragedy itself, had canonized as the ἀρχὴ κακῶν. By means of a lexical and thematic analysis of the several references to beauty in the Helen, this paper has the purpose to highlight the significance of the euripidean revolution, whereby τὸ καλόν is not just the exterior aspect anymore, but it acquires a philosophical meaning as the reason of scission between being and appearing, between fame and reality. So, despite the clear intertextuality, exactly the role entrusted to τὸ καλόν expresses the remarkable gap separating Stesichorus’ poem and Euripides’ tragedy, the first one originated by the the requirements of the poet’s likely Locrian or Crotonian audience, the second one well integrated in the historical and cultural season of the 5th century end and in the ultimate Euripides’ artistic experimentalism.
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Il teatro delle emozioni: la paura. Atti del 1° Convegno Internazionale di Studi (Padova, 24-25 maggio 2018), a cura di M. De Poli, 2018
Ever since the Homeric poems, Helen’s proverbial beauty had to face the sense of fear and hostili... more Ever since the Homeric poems, Helen’s proverbial beauty had to face the sense of fear and hostility aroused by her own figure, as proved by some terms used by Homer connecting the heroine with fear, hatred and death. Through the centuries, this feature came to V century Attic tragedy: in particular, it was retrieved by Aeschylus in the Agamemnon and, above all, by Euripides in several plays. This paper aims to highlight how Helen’s characterisation as image of fear turns out to be a real Leitmotiv in the Euripidean production, especially in the plays where she is physically present on the scene. This is made clear by the terms related to this semantic field and referred to her, as well as by other characters’ attitude towards her. Thus, Helen is constantly perceived as a danger because of her ambiguity and otherness, which make her an exotic character, frequently associated to magic and supernatural. Moreover, such a topical portrayal is also supported by the heroine’s ‘scandalous’ characterisation in the Helen: for the first time, the Tyndarides, generally impudent and smart, is tormented by fear because of her misleading reputation.
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PhD Thesis by Francesco Moles
This thesis takes into examination the theme of heroism in Euripides’ theatre. In particular, thi... more This thesis takes into examination the theme of heroism in Euripides’ theatre. In particular, this is analysed based on three aspects, linked to different, but interconnected, methodological approaches: narratology (in particular, the construction of plots and characters), rhetoric (in particular, the topoi of the beautiful/outrageous death and the imitation of the paternal model) and lexicon (in particular, the terms related to the concepts of ἀρετή, ἀνδρεία, κλέος and τιμή). The work consists of four chapters, preceded by a foreword and an introduction aimed, respectively, at making explicit the objectives of this research and at illustrating its methodological assumptions as regards the definition of ‘heroism’ and ‘hero’ in ancient Greek culture. The first chapter then examines the narratology, rhetoric, and lexicon of heroism in Greek literary production up to the 5th century BC (excluding Euripides), in order to highlight its peculiarities and different declinations in relation to the various social categories: men/women, young/old, noble/non-noble. From this chapter emerges an almost uncontested supremacy of noble young males in the ‘literary’ representation of heroism: in fact, even the rare examples of members of other social groups characterised by an exceptional heroic temper can be traced back to this paradigm. The following three chapters are, instead, dedicated to the analysis of each of the three aspects in Euripides’ production: the second chapter thus investigates the construction of plots and characters in Euripides’ theatre from the basic narrative patterns of myth and the literary tradition on each myth; the third chapter investigates the occurrences of the two selected topoi in his entire corpus; the fourth chapter investigates the occurrences of the selected terms in the entire corpus. The combination of the anthropological, narratological, rhetorical-stylistic, and linguistic approaches yields a comprehensive, multidimensional, yet coherent and unitary picture of heroism in Euripides. The theme runs through the tragedian’s whole production, inextricably linked to the evolution of the historical-political and socio-cultural context in which the poet operated. The ductility of the narratological patterns, the continuous rework of plot and character models, the creation of heroic paradigms distant from the epic-aristocratic idealism and adapted to the socio-ethical specificities of the characters involved, the variations, expansions and shifts in the application of the rhetorical topoi and in the use of the semantic nuances of the terms of the heroic lexicon highlight the close connection between the evolution of Euripides’ dramaturgy and the reality of his time. In particular, the analysis of his works does not reveal a constant and systematised idea of heroism in which one could safely recognise the poet’s thought; however, at every level of analysis it seems possible to detect a progressive accentuation of Euripides’ pessimism in his reflection on the subject.
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MA Thesis by Francesco Moles
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BA Thesis by Francesco Moles
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Calls for papers by Francesco Moles
(Italian version below). CfP for a conference to be held at the University of Parma on 3rd-4th Ap... more (Italian version below). CfP for a conference to be held at the University of Parma on 3rd-4th April 2023. Deadline for submission of abstracts 16th December 2022.
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Conferences and Workshops by Francesco Moles
This is the finalised programme for Staging Emotion in Euripides conference to be held at the Uni... more This is the finalised programme for Staging Emotion in Euripides conference to be held at the University of Leiden on the 19th-20th December 2022.
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Papers by Francesco Moles
PhD Thesis by Francesco Moles
MA Thesis by Francesco Moles
BA Thesis by Francesco Moles
Calls for papers by Francesco Moles
Conferences and Workshops by Francesco Moles