«Amara fu la τιμωρία di mio figlio»
Indagini sulla ‘vendetta’ nei Persiani di Eschilo
Abstract
This article investigates the issue of revenge in Aeschylus’ Persians from a renewed perspective that combines philology and ancient Greek law, exploring the relationship between law and violence in fifth-century Athens. By examining the ‘retaliatory’ vocabulary within the play, derived both from Homer and the language of the Attic courts, this paper enforces a new interpretation of τιμωρία (first attested in Aeschylus), starting from its etymological link with τιμή and illustrating its connections with (Athenian) subjective rights and their violation by Xerxes, guilty and responsible for ὕβρις on both a human and divine level.
open access | peer reviewed
Presentato: 26 Novembre 2025 | Accettato: 13 Gennaio 2026 | Pubblicato 27 Febbraio 2026 | Lingua: it
Keywords Herodotus • Aeschylus • Persians • Responsibility • Honour • Revenge • Redress
Copyright © 2026 Luca Fiamingo. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.