La fanciulla e il sacrificio: da kanephoros a vittima, dal rituale alla scena

Female participation in rituals in the Greek polis can take many forms. A particularly representative role concerns the kanephoros, the virgin maiden who carries the kanoun, i.e. the basket containing the sacrificial knife and other objects necessary for the performance of the ritual. Kanephoria is a crucial element in the social dynamics of the polis, as witnessed by Aristophanes in The Acharnians and Lysistrata. Atheni- an theatre frequently stages crisis situations to the solution of which a maiden, in the age of Kanephoria, is called upon to provide an answer through a change of role from worker to sacrificial offering. Attention will be focused here on the voluntary sacrifice of the parthenos Macaria in Euripides’ Heracleidae.