Paradigmi mitico-simbolici del potere per un’ermeneutica dell’ordine politico nel nostro tempo

Power escapes defnitions and categorizations; it must be analyzed, instead, in the specifc forms of relationship and manifestation, from a critical-hermeneutic perspective, in order to understand its symbolic nature and constitutive structure. For this aim, I propose the analysis of some fundamental mythical-symbolic paradigms: the contention between the brothers Cain and Abel, and the Zeus-Prometheus relationship in the myth of the same name. The two cases shed light both on the problem of the legitimization of political power, and on the analysis of the symbolic power/knowledge paradigm, which are the theoretical coordinates of ideology.