Οι επιγραφές ως αφήγηση. περιπλανώμενοι διανοούμενοι και μουσικοί στις επιγραφικές πηγές της ελληνιστικής περιόδου

The itinerant professionals of literacy and music of the Hellenistic period performed their arts travelling from town to town all around Greece, the Aegean Sea, and coasts of Asia Minor, searching for fame, glory, rewards, and money. Inscriptions are the main instrumentum that allows us to narrate the stories and the paths of the poeti vaganti (so-called after M. Guarducci). Although the modus operandi and compositions of itinerant artists are not preserved, being intended for oral use, epigraphy gains us a large spectrum of valuable clues leading us through the reconstruction of the mosaic of a cultural and popular phenomenon which, running parallel to the court literature, noteworthy spread in the Hellenistic period and beyond. Whereas the studies of this phenomenon in the Imperial Era provided satisfactory results, the investigation on the Hellenistic Age needs to be developed and carried out. The extremely large number of testimonies coming from all Hellenistic Greece imposes a functional method of approach, in order to reach out the essence of this cultural and social “movement” that transversally crosses history, culture, performative arts, and society. The analysis of some representative case-studies will show how inscriptions allow us to work on three fundamental osmotic levels (Travel, Travellers, Performance) and to thoroughly envision the inter-disciplinary panorama of the poeti vaganti.