La strana coppia. Tieste e Cassandra profeti di sventura nell’Agamemnon di Seneca

In Seneca’s Agamemnon, we find two prophecies of the king’s murder: the first made by Thyestes’ ghost in the opening of the play, and the second made by Cassandra. Thyestes reads the events as a posthumous revenge against his brother Atreus, who was Agamemnon’s father: to fulfil this aim, he also committed incest with his daughter. His prophecy is thus focused on the son of the incest, Aegisthus. Cassandra, on her side, considers the killing of Agamemnon as a vengeance for her destroyed motherland Troy, and the death of her father and brothers. Her prediction is centered on Helen’s sister, Clytemnestra. The factual narrative of the murder, delivered by the same Cassandra, differs from both prophecies, and shows how the two seers tried to manipulate the events at their personal revenge aims. Indeed, they both read the play as their own drama, competing for authorship.

L'articolo analizza le profezie di due personaggi dell'Agamennone di Seneca: il fantasma di Tieste e Cassandra. Tieste interpreta l'assassinio del re come vendetta contro la famiglia del fratello; Cassandra come rivincita dei Troiani sui Greci. Di conseguenza, Tieste nella narrazione dà rilievo a suo figlio Egisto, mentre Cassandra valorizza Clitemestra, sorella di Elena. La narrazione del delitto smentisce in parte entrambe le letture, che si dimostrano entrambe tentativi di attribuirsi un ruolo autoriale.