Allegoria e figura tra ellenismo e cristianesimo antico

To the study of the philosopher or philologist who sets out to research the earliest and most important modes of interpretation of pagan and Christian sacred texts, the investigation of the allegorical device in the pagan sphere and the figural device in the Christian sphere is imposed before any other analysis. The aim of this essay will be to exhibit the genesis and fundamental characters of these two different hermeneutical articulations, without failing to point out the differences between them as much as between the theological backgrounds and conceptions of history on which the tropes stand out. We will first proceed with the analysis of the pagan allegorical device and then with the discussion of the figural one, con-cluding by hinting at the trajectories that these two tropes will travel until the Middle Ages.