Il cinghiale e il ragazzo bello. Su «Adone» XVIII

Abstract

This essay, through a close reading of the canto XVIII of Giovan Battista Marino’s Adone, investigates how this myth is not just a common display of erudition, but that it also gives, or “produces”, a truly original text. In particular, the paper studies the situation of the bellum amoris, already codified by a long tradition, which here takes place between the boy and the boar, that eventually will kill Adone. If this variatio, which looks like some kind of parody, on one side humiliates the original myth, on the other, it invigorates its own ability to regenerate. This gives credence to Furio Jesi’s thought on the matter of mythology.