Le tragedie frammentarie di Eschilo e il Ciclo epico. Analisi e riflessioni di un gruppo di lavoro

The article shows the results of the work of an undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate research group during the cycle of seminars on Aeschylus. The research proposes a reassessment of the complex relationship between Aeschylus’ tragedies on Theban and Trojan myths and the epic poems which were parts of the respective cy- cles. It has been underlined that the evident common aspects as well as the differences between the two literary genres can be contextualized in Athens during the VI century BC. Indeed, the political program of the Pisistratids promoted festivals, which became a decisive occasion for the direct relationship among the different literary genres per- formed there. In this perspective, then, also the Aeschylean tragedies on Theban and Trojan myths were influenced to a great extent by the rhapsodic performances of the epic cycles. Such dialectical frame provided Aeschylus with the way to adapt the tra- ditional epic subject-matters to the new dramatic strategies and to the expectations of the variegated audience during the Panathenaic festivals.