This research aims to answer three questions: why do we study an ancient reception of a text, in the 21st century? Why do texts change their meanings throughout time? How does this occur in our case study, Marius’ life? The methodologic approach is based on Jauss’ hermeneutic; Gramsci’s cultural hegemony; László’s construction of cultural identity; Hardwick’s classical reception studies; Lausberg’s literary communities. Moreover, I propose to define cultural communities. These communities reuse texts according to their own perception (voluntarily or involuntarily). So, I have selected a corpus of authors, linked to Plutarch and Marius, that have been catalogued by different cultural groups. The results show that under the Antonine dynasty Marius’ existence is almost forgotten, but the moral message of Life is systematically reused. The 3rd century exalts the authoritarian Marius, according to the political program of the Severan dynasty and military emperors. The 4th and 5th centuries reused Marius’ life in two ways: Christians describe a bad man, while pagans portray a hero, because the former want to condemn, and the latter want to glorify Roman tradition. These results have already answered the third question, on how meanings change. They allow us to answer the second question: why? Because of the change of political aims. Finally, I can answer the first one: why is this important for us? Because contemporary cultural communities reuse classical texts in the same ways as the ancient ones. So, this analysis of the past can explain the present too.

Dall’inizio del XXI secolo, i drammi portoghesi e brasiliani ispirati all’antichità classica, prima trascurati o semplicemente ignorati dalla critica internazionale, sono stati oggetto di più ampio e sistematico studio, in relazione sia alle fonti antiche sia alla produzione moderna analoga. Nondimeno, in tale contesto hanno spesso prevalso prospettive o interessi nazionali; inoltre, la ricerca si è di solito concentrata su singoli miti, personaggi, motivi. Una ricognizione complessiva sarebbe a questo punto utilissima, ma non è ancora disponibile. La presente tesi è appunto volta a offrire un contributo in tale direzione, attraverso una mappatura ragionata della maggior parte delle opere pertinenti: tutte quelle concernenti i tre principali cicli mitici (argonautico, tebano, troiano). Secondo il mio censimento, il sorprendente corpus consta di tredici drammi (sei portoghesi e sette brasiliani) per il primo ciclo, ventuno (quattordici portoghesi e sette brasiliani) per il secondo e ventidue (diciotto portoghesi e quattro brasiliani) per il terzo. / Since the turn of the 21st century, the Portuguese and Brazilian dramas inspired by the classical antiquity, previously overlooked or simply ignored by international critics, have been subject of more widespread and systematic studies, in connection with both their ancient references and similar modern production. Nevertheless, in this context national perspectives or interests have often been predominant; furthermore, research has usually concerned individual narratives, characters or motives. A comprehensive survey would be now very useful, but it is not yet available. The present thesis is just meant to offer a contribution in this regard, by providing an annotated map of most of the relevant works: all those which belong to the three main mythical cycles (Argonautic, Theban, Trojan). According to my data, the striking corpus consists in thirteen plays (six Portuguese and seven Brazilian) for the first cycle; twenty-one (fourteen Portuguese and seven Brazilian) for the second, and twenty-two (eighteen Portuguese and four Brazilian) for the third.