Il risveglio del fauno. Il motivo della brocca negli "Idilli" di Salomon Gessner

Abstract

After acknowledging Salomon Gessner’s important rôle within the culture of his time, this article explores the author’s use of the motif of the jug in his literary works. Through a textual analysis of the idyll The Broken Jug (1756) and a comparison with the idylls Daphne. Chloe and Mycon (1772) the article retraces the classical provenance of the theme (in Theocritus and Vergil), as well as its presence in the Bible and in more recent sources. In so doing, it establishes a symbolic connection between the jug and the idea of the fragility of human existence.