Euripide ʻlettoreʼ di Eschilo
Il caso dei Sette contro Tebe
Abstract
This paper examines the dialogue between Euripides and Aeschylus, starting from two Euripidean passages (Suppl. 846-56 and Pho. 748-52) that reveal a conscious distancing from the Aeschylean hypotext of the Seven Against Thebes. The analysis then broadens into a wider historical and cultural reflection, showing how the same mythical figures, the Seven, were employed differently by the two tragedians to reflect upon the political and social realities of their respective times. Whereas Aeschylus, in Seven Against Thebes, depicts the heroes as figures driven by excessive violence and hybris, Euripides, in the Suppliant Women, praises them for their civic and moral virtues, with a clear didactic purpose, within the framework of a funeral oration (which may echo the model of the Athenian epitaphios logos).
open access | peer reviewed
Submitted: Nov. 26, 2025 | Accepted: Dec. 16, 2026 | Published Feb. 27, 2026 | Language: it
Keywords Aeschylus • Suppliant Women • Seven Against Thebes • Phoenician Women • Intertextuality • Euripides
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