Paradigmi capovolti. Latte, rassomiglianza e identità al tramonto del mondo antico (Pseudo-Libanio, Declamazioni, 43.54-57)

Mario Lentano

Abstract:

The contribution examines a passage from the declamatory corpus of the Pseudo-Libanius, concerning a woman who first kills her husband, the tyrant, and then asks for impunity for her children as a reward, in derogation from the law that requires the descendants of the tyrant to be killed. The passage in question is very interesting from an anthropological point of view: in order to
defend the woman’s reasons, the text offers a description of the mechanisms of reproduction that minimises the father’s contribution to the transmission of similarities and emphasises, on the contrary, the role played by the mother, thanks in particular to the milk with which she fed her children.