Il sogno di Clitennestra nell'Orestea di Stesicoro e nelle Coefore di Eschilo

This essay examines Clytaemestra’s painful dream in the versions of Stesichorus (fr. 217 Page = 180 Davies-Finglass) and Aeschylus (Cho. 526-539). In Stesichorus’ fragment Agamemnon’s soul coming to visit Clytaemestra shows the features of a revenger daemon (Erinys), who often presents, both in literature and in figurative art, the shape of a snake. As for the second verse of the fragment, many arguments suggest that the “Plisthenid king” is Agamemnon and not Orestes. Aeschylus resumes many traits of the stesichorean version (the snake to symbolize the revenger, the distressful character of the experience), but the meaning of the dream is basically different. While the stesichorean dream leans toward the past (the coming back of the dead to ask for revenge), the aeschylean one foreshadows a threatening future. Of great interest along the whole tragedy is the symbol of the snake and of his different species (δράκων, ἔχιδνα), which are used to portray aptitudes and behaviours of both Orestes and Clytaemestra.