Un unicismo teocriteo: Laerte περίσπλαγχνος (Theoc. 16.56)

The paper investigates a hapax legomenon contained in Theocr. 16.55: the compound περίσπλαγχνος, epithet of Laertes, Odysseus’ father. In the passage of the Id. 16 where the epithet is located, Theocritus underlines that many mythological characters have become famous only thanks to the song of the ἀοιδοί, particularly of Homer. The examination of the passage suggests that Theocritus applies the epithet περίσπλαγχνος to the character of Laertes starting from Laertes’ representation in Hom. Od. 24, where the Odysseus’ father is, for the first time in the Odyssey, really active and, as in the idyll of Theocritus, is placed together with Eumaeus and Philoetius (if so, it may be assumed, inter alia, that Theocritus’ Odyssey included the events after 23.296, where Aristophanes of Byzantium and Aristarchus placed the τέλος or πέρας of the poem). This reconstruction and the semantic analysis of the compound, in particular of the second element °σπλαγχνος, suggest that it should be interpreted as “full of benevolence, of compassion” more than generically “magnanimous, great-hearted”.