L’Euripo sulla rotta di Troia, secondo Euripide. Correnti alterne del destino o venti d’opposte doxai?

Abstract

In his Iphigenia at Aulis, Euripides places his characters on the stage of Euripus, a sea strait which – since ancient times – had had a strong symbolic value: it was crossed by opposing currents and so represented the place of change, also in the metaphorical sense of changes of mind. As J. Morwood remarked in A Note on the Euripus in Euripides’ Iphigenia at Aulis, in this tragedy Euripides appropriates this metaphorical interpretation and uses the geographical and mythical context of the Euripus to emphasize the mental changes his characters go through. This article aims to go more deeply into Morwood’s brief note, showing how mention of the Euripus is never casual or accidental in Iphigenia at Aulis, but always substantial: Euripides wants to stage the changeability not only in his characters’ psychology and ethics, but also in their destinies and in the Gods’ actions, and takes advantage of the geographical setting for this specific aim. Thus, every reference to the Euripus in this drama (from Agamemnon’s words in the Prologue to Iphigenia’s lament in the fourth episode), assumes an allusive value, even if it seems apparently banal, and maybe also refers, implicitly, to sophist attitudes.