Alle correnti del fiume Arachthos. Il sema di Arniadas e la tradizione orale del canto epico

AT THE CURRENTS OF RIVER ARACHTHOS THE SEMA OF ARNIADAS AND THE EPIC ORAL TRADITION The aim of this paper is to analyze the epic diction and the functions of communication in the inscription of Arniadas (IG IX , 1 868, Corcyra, VII -VI BC), from the point of view of the oral tradition of heroic poetry. The inscription is a clear proof of the common use of the epic formulas as memorable language that transcends the limits of time. The use of writing as a new technology for funeral monuments recognizes the function of the epic tradition as a common poetic language for the celebration and collective memory. The cognitive patterns in the stele and in the inscription of Arniadas, a warrior of Corcyra who fell on the banks of the river Arachthos at the end of the seventh century BC, reproduce the rules of communication and memory that can be found in the oral composition of Homer. In Homer's poems there are many heroic monuments, but of course the oral poetry does not know the use of writing. They have the basic function as a metonymy of an event and of a person and as a material sign of kleos of heroes beyond the boundaries of time and space. At the end of the article I propose a brief comparison with the cognitive patterns of memory in the inscriptions of the monuments of the British soldiers killed in World War I on the banks of the river Piave.