Riflessioni sulla metrica dell'Inaco di Sofocle tra tragico e satiresco

This paper proposes a global metrical analysis of the sequences attested in the fragments of Sophocles’ Inachus, in order to bring to light elements useful for the identification of the dramatic genre to which this work can be assigned. If the non-lyrical sequences (iambic trimeters, cataletic trochaic tetrameters, anapaestic dimeters) show regularities in morphology and construction, like those attested in tragedy, for the lyrical sequences the overall picture becomes more composite. Anapaestic monometres and dochmiacs, both freely resolved, make up the rhythmic score of the scenes preserved by the two relevant papyri (P.Oxy. 2369 = fr. **269a-b R. and P.Tebt. 692 = fr. **269c R.): in terms of structural articulation and type of action, they seem to be more in keeping with the genre of satyr drama. The sequences attested in the fragments of indirect tradition – aeolo-choriambs, iambics, enoplian, ityphallic – are well documented in tragic poetry. Therefore, metrical analysis would lead one to consider the Inachus in a perspective that is neither fully tragic nor satyric and leaves open the possibility that it was a “fourth drama without satyrs”.