Uno stasimo euripideo poco apprezzato: a proposito di Eur. Andr. 464-493

ABSTRACT: New analysis of the second stasimon of Euripides’Andromache (vv. 464-493) compared with Soph. Ant. 801-882, 944-987, a text showing remarkable similarities. In both cases, we find a stasimon (Soph. Ant. 944 ff.; Eur. Andr. 464 ff.) nearby a lyric-epirrhematic amoibaion (Soph. Ant. 801 ff.; Eur. Andr. 501 ff.), in which the protagonist laments the death to which she has been unjustly condemned. In both cases, the stasima are used to highlight the situation that led to the disastrous outcomes depicted in the two amoibaia. Whereas, however, in the Sophoclean stasimon Antigone's situation is related to three mythical exempla, in the second stasimon of Euripides’ Andromache we find three "parabolai" — paradigms showing an high degree of verisimilitude, yet not referring to any precise mythical-historical event. To the exemplary myth, with which Sophocles compares the vicissitudes of Antigone, therefore, Euripides prefers the generic "parabole" used in a merely rhetorical function.