La metempsicosi del viandante: percorsi lessicali e topica sepolcrale, dagli epigrammi greci alla lirica italiana

Abstract

In ancient times, the theme of the wanderer was prominent among the topoi of sepulchral poetry. The literary shift from ancient epigraphs to sepulchral epigrams contained in Alexandrian syllogies caused a progressive change in the use of such themes, which eventually morphed into sepulchral motifs which are recognizable in lyric poetry even centuries later. Through an anthological selection of Italian poems, the aim is to investigate the presence of the wanderer in Italian lyric poetry, as well as the transformations which progressively redefined this figure’s memorial function and its ambiguous location between the world of the living and of the dead.