‘Stracci’, a character forged by Pier Paolo Pasolini for the medium film La ricotta, is influenced by ancient topics more than it has been until now pointed out. This occurs not only because of the relationship – already known by means of Plautine comedy – between slaves and crucifixion, but also because of the choice of director to turn fiction into reality. Indeed, ‘Stracci’ is an actor charged with role of a thief condemned to crucifixion like those thieves condemned with Christ: nevertheless, he is really crucified. Two millenniums before, an actor named Ardalion (and many others like him) performed a similar realistic ending as close of feigned crucifixion: in fact, he should have played, for a mime, a role of a Christian condemned to die, but he converted himself into a true martyr of the Christian faith.

L’indagine mira a recuperare, andando a ritroso e scegliendo personalità medievali e preumanistiche (Abelardo, Boccaccio e Petrarca), la presenza di atteggiamenti polemici che accomunano autori pagani e autori cristiani nella loro crociata ‘antimatrimoniale’. Il dato interessante è che questi atteggiamenti, pur promossi dall’esigenza di salvaguardare l’‘otium’, cui l’intellettuale/filosofo ha diritto per poter praticare la sua azione culturale ed educatrice, mirano a focalizzare, in un empito di misoginia, gli svantaggi che l’ipotesi di una vita di coppia può arrecare, in conseguenza dei difetti tradizionalmente attribuiti al sesso femminile. La stessa produzione patristica, grazie agli interventi di Tertulliano prima e di Gerolamo dopo, attinge all’inventario di questi luoghi comuni antifemministi che la cultura classica aveva approntato (cfr., e. g., l’aureolus liber di Teofrasto, la tirata di Periplectomeno nel miles gloriosus di Plauto o i frammenti di un ipotetico de matrimonio attribuito a Seneca), introducendo un orizzonte particolarmente caro alla cultura cristiana, ossia la preferenza che la ‘mulier’ deve accordare alla dimensione di donna vergine rispetto a quella, pur sempre onorevole, di donna maritata. Fra commoda e incommoda, insomma, gli autori pagani e gli autori cristiani trovano un ‘singolare’ punto di incontro, che darà vita a un acceso dibattito di favorevoli e contrari al matrimonio, dibattito destinato ad avere una enorme fortuna anche nella letteratura rinascimentale.

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.

This work through the classical sources to research the processes of resemanticization of ancient fabulae when they enjoy literary and figurative associations, often difficult to explain. This occurs in the connection between the myth of the Danaids, condemned to unnecessarily fill jars with holes, the story of a man bitten by snake “thirst” (dipsade) and the disease of diabetes, also indicated by the name of this snake. This connection arises from pertusum dolium of the Danaids: it recalls the image of the siphon/διαβήτης us the body of the patient with διαβήτης, unable to retain fluids ingested, as well as afflicted by a relentless thirst.

This work through the classical sources to research the processes of resemanticization of ancient fabulae when they enjoy literary and figurative associations, often difficult to explain. This occurs in the connection between the myth of the Danaids, condemned to unnecessarily fill jars with holes, the story of a man bitten by snake ‘thirst’ (dipsade) and the disease of diabetes, also indicated by the name of this snake. This connection arises from pertusum dolium of the Danaids: it recalls the image of the siphon / διαβήτης us the body of the patient with diabetes, unable to retain fluids ingested, as well as afflicted by a relentless thirst.

The miles mask and, in particular, the miles gloriosus mask in the Latin theater (e.g. Pirgopolinice in Plautus’ Miles gloriosus and Trasone in Terence’s Eunuchus) could be funny not only with the continued use of hyperbole, but also with the performance of a personal infantia in dicendo; in other words, this paper tends to highlight some vitia elocutionis (barbarism, solecism, anacolouth) that characterize the speaking of the soldier in the scene. Thus emerges a special infantia militis, who becomes a vehicle for humor.

Examining the relevance of intersemiotic translation for the analysis of the rewriting of myth, the author introduces the debate on the metamorphosis of Glaucus presented at the conferenceperformance in Naples (14th October 2011): the contribution is complemented by the registration of the conference presentations (V. Viparelli, C. Calenda, A. Saccone, G. Cipriani, G.M. Masselli) and of an excerpt from Ercole Luigi Morselli’s Glaucus freely adapted by G. Mancini.

In the early Christian era, overthe migration of medical teachings fromhandbook to handbook,several processes of refinement occurred: for instance, prose form was converted into the poetic one.In this case, along with the metric arrangement, an expressive and vividvocabulary (i.e. a terminology generally and commonly considered ‘poetic’) was adopted in order to make this kind of rewriting emotional and to provide the technical-medical language with a stylistic surface.An example of this approach wassupplied by Plinius maior and Quintus Serenus with regard to their use of two seemingly similar words (sanguis and cruor).

Supplied by Livy with the typical features of femme fatale, the character of Sophonisba was curiously reshaped through the adaptations provided by Petrarch, Corneille and then Alfieri. Indeed, Alfieri reduced Sophonisba’s sensual traits and, on the contrary, highlighted her patriotic qualities: so doing, he paid less attention to her suicide, that had been long considered – within the intellectual imagery – similar to that of another female character, although mythical and not historical: Dido.

A classic discloses its longevity and its capability to produce other texts through both its rewritings and different languages employed to imitate it; and a classic, however, always reveals itself recens. In this instance, Ovid’s Epistula heroidum written by Ariadne to Theseus has been firstly translated in a performative way and, then, given its aptitude for ‘entering the scene’, it has been adapted and rearranged, in terms of notes and words, as a modern song and, in terms of gestures as well, as a piece of dance. Through this experiment, our aim has been to produce an example of the theatrical reception that Ovid’s works already enjoyed at the time of Ovid himself, as is well known.

The description of Vercingetorix’s surrender in Caes. Gall. VII,89 had a wide reception, not only in Latin literature, but also in Francesco Petrarch’s literary production, whose the indirect tradition, however, has not always deserved due consideration. On several occasions, Petrarch reports the scene, setting the stage, along with the version handed down by Plutarch, for further re-use of the Gallic leader’s heroic profile both from a pro-Roman perspective and from a pro-French one. This is testified by many reinterpretations, dating back even to recent times, of the figure of the leader of the anti-Roman revolt in 52 BC in painting, film and theatre works.