Drammaturgia dell'inganno. Sull'agguato a Lico nell'Antiope di Euripide (e altri agguati euripidei)

This article reconsiders the available evidence concerning the ambush in Euripides’ Antiope, in which King Lycus almost falls victim to the twin sons of the play’s eponymous heroine, with the aim of clarifying how this episode may have unfolded. By examining parallel situations in extant Euripidean tragedy (notably Hecuba and Electra) and drawing on some ancient scholarly sources such as the narrative hypotheseis of Euripides’ dramas, this study seeks to strengthen on dramaturgical grounds the hypothesis that: 1) the twins lured the king from Thebes to Eleutherae with a false promise; 2) to achieve this, they made use of an intermediary character, possibly the Herdsman who had found and raised them.