Ἔκπληξις e κατάπληξις: shock e resilienza in Tucidide

Abstract

Because of their ambiguous position between irrational frailty and rational choice, the emotions play a strategic role in Thucydides’ narrative system as well as in his historiographical paradigm. This paper aims at demonstrating the importance of emotions in particular circumstances: ekplexis (and kataplexis) as expressions of fear. The analysis of some crucial passages shows indeed the importance of fear within the historian’s view, where it is presented as a sentiment, both negative and positive, useful to the decision-making in the polis of the fifth century.