Il gelo d’amore negli Amanti di Achille di Sofocle. Una nota a fr. 149 Radt2

Abstract

In the fr. 149 Radt² of Sophocles’ Achilles’ Lovers, included by Stobaeus in the section of the Florilegium dedicated to the destructive effects of eros (4, 20b, 46), the persona loquens describes the illness of love as an ἐφίμερον/ἐφήμερον κακόν (v. 1) that could well be explained by the simile of children who, on sunny winter days, enjoy picking up a piece of ice, but then, despite themselves, are forced to let it go. The paper aims to reconsider the reading ἐφήμερον (“ephemeral”), preserved by the textual tradition and generally rejected by scholars in favour of the correction ἐφίμερον (“desired”) proposed by Arsenius. In the light of the analysis of the fragment, which suggests the idea of a piece of ice that melts on contact with the warmth of the hands, and in view of a medical tradition (Hippocratic and Galenic) – probably known to Sophocles – that assimilates the love sickness to an ephemeral fever, it is possible to suppose that the tragedian intended to convey the image of the transience of the love passion that strikes lovers as a ἐφήμερον κακόν.