Usi e funzioni della τις-Rededa Omero a Sofocle (Soph.Ai.500-5 edEl.975-85)

Abstract

In Ai. 500-5 and El. 975-85 Sophocles resorts to a typical epic pattern: the so-called τις-Rede or tis-speech, a rhetorical device used by Homer when a character, usually fearing public opinion, speculates about what ‘someone’ might say about a certain conduct. Since among the tragedians Sophocles seems the most accurate in the formal re-use of this motif and the most skilled in its appropriation, this paper analyses the cited passages through the lens of the ‘epic colouring’, in order to show how the Homeric model is dealt with on the tragic stage.