Il nostos anti-odissiaco di Eracle nelle Trachinie di Sofocle

The essay explores the relationship between Heracles in Trachiniae and Odysseus. In particular, the adoption by Sophocles of Homeric formulae, similes and poetic images which in the Odyssey characterise Odysseus. It is possible to detect a fil rouge which runs through the choral songs of the tragedy, relating to the typically Odyssean themes of ‘wandering at sea’, ‘sea-storms’, ‘fair winds’, ‘safe landing in harbor’. Sophocles initially puts Heracles ‘on the route’ of Odysseus coming home. Heracles’ nostos, however, gradually gets complicated through the plot of the drama, until the final peripeteia which revers the hero’s happy return into an impossible and tragic nostos. Sophocles subtly exploits the Odyssey’s intertextual potential through ironic and original reworking of Homeric phraseology and echoes.