Tre voci dalla tragedia greca: Ifigenia, Cassandra ed Elettra nella poesia al femminile dal secondo dopoguerra agli anni Sessanta

In the two decades between the postwar period and the late 1960s, three protagonists of Greek tragedy linked to the myth of the Atrides – Cassandra, Iphigenia and Electra – inspired four female poets of different nationalities. Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen writes four rereadings, in which a protofeminist reflection is evident; Amelia Rosselli dedicates verses to each arising from her own personal experience, invoking Electra as ‘sinonima’ in fear; Sylvia Plath in Electra on Azalea Path draws inspiration from Agamemnon’s daughter in a poem where she describes grieving over the death of her father; Wisława Szymborska merges her own lyrical self with Cassandra’s voice and her prescient lament in Monolog dla Kasandry. The analysis aims to demonstrate the causes that motivated such a great interest in female characters related to the myth of the Atrides in that period, examining the connection between the historical context in which the authors wrote, still marked by the consequences of the conflict, and the period of the Trojan War, between the mythical events of the three tragic ‘maidens’ and the personal anxieties of the four poets.