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Il mito di Protesilao e Laudamia (sarcofago classico a Santa Chiara) / The Protesilaus and Laudamia Myth (classic sarcophagus in Naples, Santa Chiara church)

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Laodamia was the wife of Protesilaus and daughter of Acastus and Astydameia. After Protesilaus was killed in the Trojan War he was allowed to return to his wife for only three hours before returning to the underworld because they had only just married. Thereafter Laodamia committed suicide by stabbing herself, rather than be without him.[30][31] According to Hyginus' Fabulae, the story runs like this: "When Laodamia, daughter of Acastus, after her husband's loss had spent the three hours which she had asked from the gods, she could not endure her weeping and grief. And so she made a bronze likeness of her husband Protesilaus, put it in her room under pretense of sacred rites, and devoted herself to it. When a servant early in the morning had brought fruit for the offerings, he looked through a crack in the door and saw her holding the image of Protesilaus in her embrace and kissing it. Thinking she had a lover he told her father Acastus. When he came and burst into the room, he saw the statue of Protesilaus. To put an end to her torture he had the statue and the sacred offerings burned on a pyre he had made, but Laodamia, not enduring her grief, threw herself on it and was burned to death."[32]

 

Una volta sceso negli inferi Protesilao implorò Ade e Persefone di poter rivedere ancora una volta la sposa: i due dèi, infastiditi e un po' commossi, concessero allo sventurato un ultimo giorno di vita, e lo condussero fuori dall'Ade. Laodamia vedendo il suo amato marito far ritorno quasi impazzì dalla gioia; ma Protesilao le spiegò che generosamente i sovrani dell'Ade gli avevano concesso un ultimo giorno e che avendo poco tempo egli aveva intenzione di passarlo a fare l'amore con lei. Venne poi il momento del distacco: Laodamia decise allora di realizzare una statua con le fattezze del marito in modo da poterla abbracciare e dormire con essa.[8][9]. Acasto, nei giorni successivi, notando l'assenza della figlia, mandò un suo servo a spiarla. Il servo riferì al re che sua figlia stava tutto il giorno chiusa nella sua camera ad amoreggiare con una statua e Acasto, per il bene della figlia, decise di far sciogliere la statua nell'olio bollente, ma Laodamia mentre la statua si scioglieva si gettò nel calderone ricongiungendosi così all'amato.[10]

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Uploaded on December 21, 2012
Taken on December 3, 2012