Alejandro de Eurípides: la configuración literaria de un motivo folklórico

Abstract

The Alexandros of Euripides is a tragedy based on the motif of the child who was exposed at birth, as had been Sophocles’ Oidipus Rex or the legend of Cyrus told by Herodotus. This motif is intertwined in the tragedy with a series of episodes — the athletic contest, the victory and crowning of the victor, the anagnorisis — which characterise Alexandros as a potential tyrannos and which display a drama of political consequences. In the historical context of the representation — 415 B.C. — it is possible to find some analogies between Alexandros and Alcibiades, the latter having won the Olympic games the year before, and appearing to be as handsome and powerful as the protagonist of the tragedy, though the substantial political meaning of the play (and trilogy) lies elsewhere: on the difficulty of the government of a city where participation becomes competition and where excellence poses a threat to the principle of equality and is at risk of distorting itself through unrestrained eros and lust.