Κάλλος κακῶν ὕπουλον. Intorno al Leopardi greco di Michelstaedter

The essay analyses some of the notations in ancient Greek that Michelstaedter wrote beside his copy of Leopardi’s Canti. Each note shows that the young philosopher had created a strong liaison between classical culture and the modern age, an aspect that is prominent in his thought and work. The aim of the present essay is to complete and elaborate on some reflections offered by Campailla in 1973 by analysing Michelstaedter’s hidden quotation of Soph. OT 1396 with regard to Il sabato del villaggio, along with two references to the locus in Persuasion and Rhetoric. The context of such a quotation suggests that Michelstaedter discerned Heraclitus’s presence within Sophocles’s poetry.