Abstract

Aeschylus’ play The Suppliants is here the occasion to rethink the figure of the stranger and the actual tragedy of migratory flows towards Europe. The text helps us to consider the paradigm of hospitality in a complex way, through the authentic ethical and political aporia of Pelasgus, in which we can recognize some structural features of democracy. Through the reflection of modern thinkers such as Carl Schmitt, Hannah Arendt and Max Weber, this aporia acquires a new shape, close to the challenge that every State in the European Union and the Union itself have to face: the challenge of coherening the level of values and political priorities.