Vingança e (des)amor. Cartas de denúncia e adultério na literatura greco-latina

Abstract

Acts of denunciation are among the communication intentions that preside over epistolary writing. In this context, classical literature bequeathed some examples that, under the topic of adultery, constitute, on the one hand, true death sentences, and, on the other, authentic pledges of love and seduction. In this perspective, we propose to analyse and comment on three epistolary messages, two of them implicit — the “ominous signs” written on a double-sided tablet that Preto sends to his father-in-law, King Iobates (Iliad 6.157-17), and the accusation left behind by Phaedra to her husband Theseus (Euripides, Hippolytus 857-887) —, the third being an explicit letter: the one that Ovid imagined Phaedra would write to her lover Hippolytus (Epistulae heroidum, 4).