Strategie narrative e dispositivi stilistici nel canto della rovina della polis: riflessioni all’incrocio tra epica ed elegia

The paper considers various types of representation of the terror for the fall of the city, which is a pervasive and constant theme throughout Greek culture. Starting with an overview of P.Oxy. 42.3065, a private letter about the consequences a citizen suπered after the ruin of his city, in this case the city of Alexandria, the paper examines some specific cases of the rep- resentation destruction of the cities in two poetic genres, epic and elegiac poetry, whose structural and formal similarities, as well as their peculiarities, assure a variety of narrative frames for this subject-matter, with continous reverberations of tradi- tional motifs and new approaches.