Abstract

PINEDA AVILES, David Antonio. οἶστρος like experience of madness in Prometheus Bound. Nova tellus [online]. 2017, vol.35, n.1, pp.29-57. ISSN 0185-3058.  https://doi.org/10.19130/iifl.nt.2017.35.1.756.

The aim of this paper is to analyze the Io’s madness narrated in Lines 561 to 886 in Prometheus Bound, work attributed to Aeschylus. The article demonstrates how theatrical elements -such as the dancing, the constant mention of Io’s wandering, the body metamorphosis, and the suffered pain due to the gadfly (οἶστρος) persecution and sting- determines the irruption of this female character in the stage. Those elements form the symptomatic picture of her dementia, and also are images that the author uses to represent Io’s tragic condition defined by the gods’ interference. In particular, the oistros can be conceived like the most evocative image of all these theatrical elements. All the effects derived of this insect’s presence -persecution, twisted dancing and pain spasms- condense like the Io’s mania material cause, as it is treated in Prometheus Bound.

Keywords : Oistros; Madness; Punishment; Persecution; Wandering; Metamorphosis; Pain.

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