La μάχη παραποτάμιος nell’epica latina. Saggio di analisi tematologica

This study defines some operational concepts (theme, motif, topos, and expressionism) essential for defining the phenomena and interpreting the continuity of the subject μάχη παραποτάμιος (Il. 21, 1-382) in the history of Latin epic. The starting point of the investigation is the conversion and fixation, into a single composite motif (here: the Motif), of the separate Homeric “elements”—the “redness/occlusion” of the river Xanthus’s currents. The original elements, selected and combined to create an emblem of the Homeric subject, ultimately become emblems of the Latin way of interpreting the epic. The Motif, probably developed by Accius, recurs from Catullus to Claudian, with variations that document an uninterrupted poetic contest in nuce, that is, in the always restricted space in which the Motif is treated. The phenomena are observed and analyzed according to their occurrence in contexts that reproduce the original situation (the Trojan War) or in different contexts. This transposition is documented in the Aeneid and the Pharsalia (and to a lesser extent in the Metamorphoses), through disseminations of the Motif that offer insights into the extensive rewritings of the Homeric scene in Silius and Statius’s Thebaid. These rewritings are often cited in this research but are not the subject of analysis, as they have been exhaustively addressed in recent contributions.