Il tema della 'incauta promessa' nell'Ippolito di Euripide

MUREDDU, PATRIZIA

2014-01-01

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Abstract

At Hippol. 612 – in its cryptic brevity – Euripides expressed the theme of the incautious promise, thus training a spotlight on a commitment made involuntarily. At the same time, he made it clear that the automatic fulfilment of one of the gifts of Poseidon, the curse of Hippolytus, turned out to be disastrous for Theseus himself. The line therefore justly became the symbol of the Hippolytus: attacks by comic poets, quotes from contemporaries, and subsequent citations all pointed towards a more ‘secular’ and considered use of oaths.