Guerra, politica e funzione poetica tra Troiane e Ifigenia in Aulide

This essay aims to highlight the inherent political significance that can be attributed to The Trojan Women through a comparison with Iphigenia at Aulis starting from the representation of the death of two innocent victims. The death of Astyanax, who seals the destruction of Troy and whose violence is explicitly displayed, shows a political meaning that is clear and unequivocal, whereas the representation of the sacrifice of Iphigenia, an early act of the expedition, is ambiguous and politically uncommitted. From the mythical paradigm of the Trojan War, a system of signs that can be remodelled and reutilized in different ways, we can find out about the critical attitude of Euripides towards the war as well as the awareness of his own poetic function.