Tra teikhomakhia e theikhoskopia: a proposito delle mura nell'Iliade

The paper investigates the narrative and symbolic functions of walls in the Iliad. Walls (both the Trojan city walls and the Achaean wall) are not only the most notable landmarks within the space in which the Iliadic narrative is set; their quite obvious symbolic value offers the narrator also the opportunity of displaying vividly the attitudes and the ethical choices of the main characters. This is especially achieved by way of two narrative situations directly dependent on the presence of walls: that of “viewing from the walls” (teikhoskopia: cf. the scenes in book 3 and 22) and that of “fighting at the wall” (teikhomakhia: cf. the central books of the poem and the evocation of such an event at Il. 6. 433-437).