«WHO SAID THAT DEATH IS DELIVERANCE FROM EVIL?» (7.176.5): DEATH IN EPIGRAMS OF THE GREEK ANTHOLOGY

Abstract

Literary topics universalize the human need of both love and empathy of the living people so the death may persist in memory and in historical time, and somehow overcome the irreparable finitude. In Ancient Greece, the underworld caused stupor and horror. The imaginary is full of suffering characters who inhabit Hades. A singular agent is Thanatos, threatening male figure, incarnation of Death. His role is not to kill, like the Gorgon or the Ker, but to welcome the soul of the deceased. However, his task responds to a cosmic order, and he is the executor of the Moirai' decisions. In lowercase, it expresses our mortal condition, and these reflections are focused on this meaning. To this aim, the methodological path has consisted of searching for the word θάνατος and main derivatives in the Greek Anthology through the application of the Diogenes system and a restricted selection of epigrams according to some on the above mentioned topics, personal translation of the original Greek sources, comparison with the Latin, English and Italian versions and thematic analysis of the facets and functions that Death assumes in an epigrammatic cues, to whose study some philological notes are added.