L’altra Antigone. La vicenda della figlia di Edipo nei frammenti dell’omonima tragedia perduta di Euripide

Abstract

In the long journey that the Attic tragedies have made to the date, Sophocles’ Antigone is one of those that has inhabited a greater and more adventurous number of lives. But the painful story of Oedipus’ daughter, ending with her death and the missed wedding, has not had the same outcome in all the tragic tradition. In Euripides’ Antigone, of which only a few fragments remain, in fact, as Aristophanes of Byzantium reminds us in his Argumentum at the homonymous Sophocles’ tragedy, the wedding between the woman and Emon took place. From the indication given by Aristophanes, we know that Antigone, after being caught burying Polynices together with Emon, is given in marriage to him, and from their union Meone is born. According to a comparison with some vascular paintings, that seem to reproduce the same subject in a theatrical context, some have suggested to reconstruct the plot of the tragedy from the story of Hyginus (fab. 72). The aim of this contribution, through the reading of some fragments of Euripides’ Antigone, is the attempt, beyond the plot, to reflect on the different dramaturgical choices made by the two tragedians.