Dopo Aristofane: la mimesis di sé tra Platone, Teocrito e Filodemo

Abstract

After appearing for the first time in Agathon’s scene of Aristophanes’ Thesmophoriazusae (159-167), the mimesis intended as self-representation becomes a key feature not only in Plato’s theory of poetry (Resp. III, X), but also in his implicit poetics: in writing the Republic, Plato portrays himself in the model of the philosopher painting the ideal constitution of Kallipolis (Resp. VI), and in the Symposium both Agathon and Socrates represent themselves in their portraits of Eros. Same attitude towards literary self-representation is to be found in the Thalysia, with Simichidas mirroring Theocritus, and in an epigram of Philodemus, with the pun made by the philosopher-poet on his proper name (AP 5.115 = 10 Sider).