I giorni del sangue. Immagini e codici eroici della violenza per la Ilioupersis

The aim of this paper is to examine and describe the rules of violence and the pride of bloodshed in Greek epic poetry, within the perspectives of oral composition by traditional formulas and themes. There is an intrinsic interrelation between heroes, bloodthirstiness, and the words and the images of blood in fighting scenes. We explore the heroes nature by the function of traditional epithets beginning from the formulaic expression emata d'aimatoenta («the bloody days») as a metonymy of the epic theme of the persis, i.e. the sack of the city. Here we can find the highest degree of savagery and violence: the prey of bloodthirstiness is represented by elders, women and little children. The ostentation of blood and carnage is a typical motif that belongs to heroes' behavior, but together with it we can find other signals: they reveal the ambiguous values and the shady fame of heroic violence. In the memories the pride of heroic bloodshed becomes a shame that is better to remove.