Il realismo degli antichi: qualche proposta di riflessione

Abstract

The concept and the term itself of realism, as it is well known, are not easy to apply to antiquity: Auerbach in Mimesis noticed how most of the realistic occurrences were attributable to a comic context, with a significant breakthrough identifiable with the Gospels. Among other ancient texts whose realism seems closer to Auerbach’s definition, however, it is possible to single out the narratives of miraculous healings found in Epidaurus and the Diatribes of Epictetus, characterized by popular tone and frankness, in Greek parrhesia, a word that could possibly convey also the meaning of “realism”.