Since 2024
PhD (Humboldt Universität)

2022 – 2022
Erasmus Semester (Humboldt Universität)

2021 – 2021
Erasmus Semester (Freie Universität)

2020 – 2023
MA Degree (Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna)

2019 – 2019
Erasmus Semester (Αριστοτέλειο Πανεπιστήμιο της Θεσσαλονίκης)

2017 – 2020
BA Degree (Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna)

Orphism and the Metamorphosis of the Symbolon: From the Physical to the Metaphysical

The project is based on the study of the dispositive of the symbolon in a diachronical way within Greek literature. What constitutes the key question addressed is why this semantic shift took place in certain historical contexts, one in particular being the object of our interest: the Orphic movement. The original representative status of the symbolon gives way in Orphism to an ontological one: 7the symbolon becomes an instrument of demarcation of a privileged circle and delimitation towards the outside world.The term becomes a power that, for the first time, has referents in the initiates, and it is precisely in their identification as such that it fulfills its function. The fundamental question I start with is: why does this shift in meaning occur in the Orphic movement? Why does the symbolon, from the physical object it was in the earliest attestations, gradually become a metaphysical-esoteric device? Is it possible that the symbolic device is more widely used in certain historical moments, and if so, why? How does the Orphic symbol fit into this question? What does it mean to speak in symbols?