Il nome delle cose. A proposito di una recente nuova teoria sulla morte di Eschilo

As is well known, ancient sources recount the circumstances of Aeschylus’ death among the most singular: having moved to Gela, he was allegedly struck on the head by a tortoise dropped by an eagle. Recently, Concetta Cataldo has sought to argue, however, that such sources may have misconstrued the original information: the term χελώνη would not have referred to a real ‘tortoise’, but rather to a stage machine for lifting weights; ἀετός, on the other hand, would not have been related to an ‘eagle’, but to a ‘pediment’ or ‘fronton’, specifically as a part of theatrical scenery. In essence – according to C. Cataldo – Aeschylus would have died ‘on the stage’, struck by a scenic element (ἀετός) precariously raised aloft by a stage apparatus (χελώνη). The present paper aims to demonstrate the untenability of this thesis.