Fedro e Fedra : sull’amore

Plato and the Theatre: an ancient question that still has much to say. In Phaedrus, for example, we find many interesting references to Euripides’ Hippolytus, on various levels: lexicon, dramatic structure, gestures, speeches, theoretical considerations. In this dialogue we discover in particular clear allusions to the setting of Hippolytus, Phaedra’s negative conception of love, the Nurse’s advice and the dangerous tragic power of writing, but reconsidered and re-elaborated in a different way, suggesting the new idea of the love of Knowledge. The aim of this paper is to stress that Plato is an heir of Classical Theatre, but also carries on its message: tragedy is continually evoked to say something new, through an imitatio cum variatione that creates the new “theatre of philosophy”.