Nefas. Empietà, reticenza e dinamiche della comunicazione nelle tragedie di Seneca

The word nefas, a key concept of Seneca's tragic idea, means an act being at the same time impious and unspeakable. The paper aims to understand whether and how the notion of unspeakability - related in particular to unnatural acts such as incest and cannibalism - influences the communicative patterns of tragedy: in the Greek tradition, where no word covers exactly the same meaning of nefas, and in the tragedies of Seneca related to impious acts. Particular attention is paid to: 1. the figures of speech creating a veritable "rhetoric of reticence" (such as emphasis and aposiopesis); 2. the ethopoietic function of the different attitudes expressed by characters toward speaking the unspeakable.