Bacchylides’ Ode 5 and Sophocles’ Trachiniae: Lyric Poetry and Tragedy

The relations between Bacchylides’ Dithyramb 16 and Sophocles’ Trachiniae have been thoroughly studied. Less so, however, were the occurring relationships in Bacchylides’ Ode 5 and Sophocles’ Trachiniae. Both of these deal with the bonding of Heracles and Deianeira, although each of them focuses on different temporal segments of the same myth: on the one hand, the necessary premise, on the other, the catastrophic endings. This article tries to shed light on the analogies which char acterise Bacchylides’ Ode 5 and Sophocles’ Trachiniae, in compliance with the pecu- liarities of each literary re-elaborated version and with different poetic genres. If valid, the parallel could represent not only an additional testimony of the conspic uous relationship between Bacchylides’ poetry and the tragic genre, yet a particular case of intertextuality and interference between melic poetry and theatrical scene, central to the special tragic identification of the two women loved by Heracles, Deianeira and Iole.