Rivisitazioni comiche del mito nel dramma attico del V sec. a. C.

In the 5th century BC the Greek myth, which had already been systematically arranged by epic poetry, undergoes different types of comic or parodic reworking. The most significant is satyr play, where the satyr chorus, inserted in a story originally concerning only gods and heroes, provides the opportunity for amusing situations. In the only fully preserved example, Euripides’ Cyclops, the comic remake is also carried out through a characterization of the protagonist which combines barbaric elements derived from the Homeric tale with a certain intellectualism typic of avant-garde contemporary sophistic. Other examples are represented by Epicharmus’ Doric farce and by “satyric” comedies written in the years 440-30, like Cratinus’ Dionysalexander; in the latter, the choice of the mythical frame is not due to parodic intentions, but to the need of dealing with matters of contemporary politics in an indirect and allusive way.