I suoi principali interessi riguardano l’epigramma greco e latino, letterario ed epigrafico (dalle origini fino ad Ausonio), l’elegia ellenistica e romana, la Appendix Vergiliana e il dramma senecano.

Ha organizzato diversi Convegni internazionale, pubblicandone gli Atti (

The Ovidian and Alfierian Myrrha as an Odalisque in Lord Byron’s Sardanapalus: Transformations and a Play of Identities

Stamatia Kitsou

https://doi.org/10.60983/003-2.5

ABSTRACT

 In Diodorus Siculus’ historical account (2.23.1-2.27.3), Sardanapalus, the Assyrian King, is extremely effeminate, lustful, licentious and negligent of the Empire, a governor who loathes war, militarism and imperialism. Byron’s tragedy Sardanapalus relies on information culled from Diodorus, yet deviates from the latter resulting in a different portrayal of the Assyrian King. In this regard, one of Sardanapalus’ most confident persons is his beloved concubine, a slave from Ionia named Myrrha, whose presence and actions are decisive for the evolution of the plot. In this chapter, I argue that Byron, for the formation of Myrrha’s dramatic persona, takes into account the Ovidian Myrrha (met. 10.298-502) and mainly the protagonist of Alfieri’s pre-Romantic tragedy Mirra; thus, he proceeds to a play of mutual transformations and conflicting identities, while maintaining the core of his literary models.