Reading and Rewriting : Euripides in Clement of Alexandria
- Massa, Francesco University of Fribourg
-
2020
Published in:
- Euripides-Rezeption in Kaiserzeit und Spätantike / Schramm, Michael. - 2020, p. 335-350
English
The paper analyses the Euripidean quotations in Clement of Alexandria, in order to explore the different rhetorical strategies used by the Christian author. Quantitative analyses revealed that Euripidesʼ texts are frequently quoted (117 passages according to Stählin edition): only Plato and Homer are more popular in Clement. In the late second-century Alexandria, Euripidean tragedies are not only a key reference in the Graeco-roman paideia; in Clement’s works, Euripides also plays a cultural role in the dialogue between “Pagans” and “Christians”. To take just one example, in the last book of the Exhortation to the Greeks, Clement evokes some images taken from Euripides’ Bacchae to call for conversion to Christianity: Pentheus and Tiresias are encouraged to return to Christian moderation and to reject Dionysian wine and madness on the basis of a re-reading and on a re-writing of the Bacchae.
- Faculty
- Faculté des lettres et des sciences humaines
- Department
- Département d'histoire
- Language
-
- English
- Classification
- History
- License
- License undefined
- Identifiers
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- RERO DOC 330323
- DOI 10.1515/9783110677072-018
- Persistent URL
- https://folia.unifr.ch/unifr/documents/309238
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