I doni di Zeus, il dono di Prometeo: strutture retoriche ed istanze etico-politiche nella riflessione plutarchea sulla τύχη

Abstract

Starting from the analysis of rhetorical structures of aud. poet. 23C-24A and fort. 99F‑100A, this paper aims at underlining the continuous presence in Plutarch’s production of a consistent thought about the role played by τύχη in the life of the people as well as in history, with ethical and political implications. Particularly, the same quotation of Hes. OD 86-87 in both texts allows Plutarch to use Prometheus’ figure as a model, in order to show the condition: human being has to learn how to profit by Zeus’ or tyche’s gifts with εὐβουλία and how to limit his pride (αὐθάδεια) through the bounds the reason (λογισμός) imposes. The model offered by Titan also affects the building of Alexander the Great’s character in the two pamphlets about him (Alex. fort. virt. I and II), whose both political and rhetorical nature is underlined. Alexander – Prometheus indeed represents a sort of political and ethical paradigm that is ambivalent and problematic, because it is offered both to the Greeks and to the Romans at the same time, as it seems to come out from the last page of De fortuna Romanorum.