The essay deals with the growth through the centuries of the myth of Philoctetes, hero of Greek mythology, waiting for Heracles first, founder of Magna Graecia (Crimisse, Pitelia, Thuri or Cirò, Crotone, Sibari etc.) then. The reconstruction of the filottete myth or of its evolution has been accomplished through the comparison of literary sources and archaeological finds representing Melibeo. The use of the same methodology of investigation, extended to the early medieval and medieval age, revealed, during this period, the eclipse of the hero saga and its weak recovery only in humanistic-Renaissance literature. The examination of the myth of Filottete in the modern age has highlighted a new interest in the figure of the hero, adapted to the different ideologies, exclusively in enlightenment, neoclassical and Risorgimento. The study of the events of Melibeo led to a new interpretative hypothesis on the origins of the SS. Cosma and Damiano, related by many scholars to the mythological figures of Castore and Polluce. The vicissitudes of Filottete, healed by the doctors Macaone and Podalirio, sons of the Greek god Asclepius, would read the figures of the saints Cosmas and Damian in the two doctors, handed down by the myth.
Author
Tina Mansueto has worked with the archeological superintendence of Naples, Caserta and Pompeii. She was a Latin literature espert at University Suor Orsola Benincasa in Naples. For the University of Naples Federico II she published ‘Itinerari giubilari del 2000’ (Sant’Agata dei Goti e Sant’Anastasia). Moreover, she cooperates with the Pro Loco of Scalea and di Santa Domenica Talao (CS). She teaches History and Philosophy at high school and wrote many scientific articles, such as:
- Osservazioni sull’Iconografia delle Nereidi, Latinam linguam profiteri, L’Artemide Bovianense, Culti e miti dei Safineis, De utilitate philosophiae. Ha curato per la Regione Campania ‘Casali e Chiese’ (2006).
For the Loffredo publishing house she wrote:
– L’Ολπη di Cerveteri, per una rilettura iconografica (2006)
– Mostri e Nereidi, cavalcando il fantastico mare (2010)
– Lettura in chiave di sol (2011)
– Il Simposio dei filosofi, presocratici a confronto (2012)
– Immaginario simposio, dialoghi e intermezzi (2013)
For Paolo Loffredo Editore she wrote:
– Verso Socrate, per una metodologia didattica della filosofia (2014)
– Viandante senza tempo (2014)
– Filottete, documenta et monumenta (2015)
– Biografie ragionate, filosofi medioevali e moderni (2016)
– Nicolas Poussin, il Rinascimento arcadico del XVII secolo (2016)
– Uomini-eroi, Filottete e Kitirami (2017)
– La tela d’altare della Chiesa di San Giuseppe (2017)
– Carnevale abbatte la tirannia, commedia in due atti (2018)
Paolo Loffredo, sixth generation of a large family of publishers and booksellers engaged in the production and distribution of books since the late nineteenth century, creates in 2012 the new editorial company Paolo Loffredo Editore. The historical site was until the '80s in the heart of the historic centre of Naples in Via San Biagio dei Librai, lower Decumano and also known as the SpaccaNapoli.
