RATIONES RERUM 25: Articolo Graziana Brescia

Descrizione

Rationes Rerum 25

GRAZIANA BRESCIA
Visiones di parricidio. Lo sguardo della mente e la complicità tra declamatore e uditorio ([Quint.] Decl. min. 314)

The article analyzes the rhetorical techniques used in [Quint.] Decl. min. 314 to make the crimen parricidii credible and apparent to the judges. A central point is the breaking of the fourth wall, which involves the audience directly in the text’s imaginary scenario. The audience’s invitation to imagine is crucial to constructing the idolopeia of the father’s ghost, which appears to the guilty son, forcing him to confront his responsibilities. This hallucination, caused by a disturbed conscience, generates pathos and enables the perception of the Furies’ rationalization process as a symbol of the parricides’ sense of guilt: an idea already developed in Cicero’s Pro Roscio Amerino, which ser ves as the hypotext for this declamation.