I Cori prometeici nella letteratura europea, da Goethe ai nostri giorni

Since the end of XVIII century, the mythical struggle between Prometheus and Zeus and their respective allies has often been used as a paradigm in order to conceptualize social conflicts and criticize power systems, mostly by conferring to the Titan a progressive symbolism from a favourable perspective. Among the numerous new versions of Promethean myth, a dramatic current inaugurated by J. W. Goethe does not interpret classical myth on a transcendental level and from a meta-historical and absolute point of view (e.g. a spiritual one or of a general humanism), but implements the traditional subject in the reality of modern life, under a thin allegorical veil – if need be –, in order to make an updated evaluation of the ideals promoted by the Titan. Such an actualizing procedure necessarily concerns the political dimension, which is particularly relevant to authors’ options about Chorus as expression of the community. The members of the Chorus tend, like Prometheus himself, to obtain human nature (unlike the Oceanides of Aeschylus) and so to reflect the chaotic complexity of reality. This paper is about choral forms and significance in the dramaturgy developed in the above-mentioned ideological framework, starting with the Attican archetype and continuing with versions by J. W. Goethe, J. L. Brereton, J. E. Reade, S. Becquerelle, W. B. Nichols, D. G. Bridson, L. Lee, A. Sobral, G. Ryga, T. Paulin, M. Medina Vicario, T. Harrison, J. de Sena.