QUANTO È NUOVO L’ANTICO? IL MITO DI ERISITTONE: ETICA AMBIENTALE E NORMAZIONE NELLE PÓLEIS GRECHE

ABSTRACT Concepts, such as ecology and environment, central to contemporary ethical reflection applied to the ecosystem, were unknown to the ancient Greeks, but they demonstrated, through literature and legislation, a marked sensitivity to such questions. It may be interesting to focus on the myth of Erysichthon, transmitted by Callimachus and Ovid, but also by Dante in The Divine Commedy. The egoism of Erysichthon appears extremely current, especially with regard to human responsibility in the destiny of the planet. The awareness demonstrated in classical Greece for the negative consequences of human action on the environment has significant repercussions in the institutional and regulatory contexts of the ancient city-states. Aristotle (Politics 6, 1321b 30), for example, recalls the presence in some Greek states of foresters, called ὑλωροι. Similarly, particular attention was paid to the regulation of certain economic activities (IG I3 257). This article intends to investigate the most recent issues related to environmental ethics with the aim of overcoming modern subjectivism: the main causes of the environmental emergency can be neutralized taking into consideration the consequences of our actions on the environment, the non-human entities that populate the earth and the life of future generation.