Le trappole morali di Primo Levi

In the collections Storie natural, Vizio di forma and Lilít and other stories, as well as in the stories written in the last years of his life, it is evident the intent of Levi to use myths to give strength to his own narrations: he not only loves playing with traditional myths, it also creates alternative ones, bringing together the Greco-Roman, Jewish and science fiction traditions of which he was an avid reader. Prometheus, the Golem, Lilít and the centaur: these are the figures that come back in many stories and that for their mythical origin are the gateway to a world of anthropologically meaningful meanings, enriched in the course of various historical elaborations. Thanks to the semiotic density of these symbols Levi can present his ethics in narrative form without running excessive risks of simplification, exploring ambiguity and dilemmas of the human condition. It is time to re-read these tales of invention. They could prove as time-resistant as the Auschwitz protocols.