Four Tragedies and Octavia (Classics)
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Product Description
Based on the legends used in Greek drama, Seneca's plays are notable for the exuberant ruthlessness with which disastrous events are foretold and then pursued to their tragic and often bloodthirsty ends. Thyestes depicts the menace of an ancestral curse hanging over two feuding brothers, while Phaedra portrays a woman tormented by fatal passion for her stepson. In The Trojan Women, the widowed Hecuba and Andromache await their fates at the hands of the conquering Greeks, and Oedipus follows the downfall of the royal House of Thebes. Octavia is a grim commentary on Nero's tyrannical rule and the execution of his wife, with Seneca himself appearing as an ineffective counsellor attempting to curb the atrocities of the emperor.
About the Author
Lucius Annaeus Seneca (c.4BC - AD65) was born in Cordoba, Spain, where he was brought up studying the traditional virtues of republican Roman life. He became a teacher of rhetoric but attracted attention for his incisive style of writing. Closely linked to Nero, his death was ordered by the emperor in AD65. Seneca committed suicide.
E.F. Watling had translated many Ancient Classics for Penguin, including plays of Sophocles and Plautus. He died in 1990.
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THE crime which doomed the House of Pelops to a series of feuds and violent acts from generation to generation was that of Tantalus, a son Zeus, who served his son Pelops as food at a banquet of the gods. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
THE crime which doomed the House of Pelops to a series of feuds and violent acts from generation to generation was that of Tantalus, a son Zeus, who served his son Pelops as food at a banquet of the gods. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Seneca was tutor to Nero and we can see in these sometimes bizarre, but always compelling, tragedies an attempt to educate the young emperor in the lessons of good rulership: the fragility of power, the importance of clemency, the concern with the ethics of a good life (and death) reappear again and again.
But Seneca is also writing himself belatedly into an essentially Greek tradition, and the intertextual readings of epic and tragedy are crucial to an understanding of these plays. Negotiating the literary and cultural past, and the political (contemporary) present, Seneca creates something unique: frequently bloodthirsty, not very subtle, but always compelling.
This is the version of tragedy that had such a huge impact on the English Renaissance, not least Shakespeare. But these are still fascinating in their own right, and are the main extant examples of Roman tragedy.
This edition dropped a star from me because it hasn't been updated since 1966, and while the translation is readable and flowing (if not as accurate as the Loebs), the introduction and notes are very out-of-date. It's also rather odd that the 'Octavia' is included, which wasn't written by Seneca, when his other plays aren't available in Penguin translations.
But that's a small quibble, and these are fascinating little gems of literary history, gory, frequently over-blown, and all the more engaging for that very reason.
But Seneca is also writing himself belatedly into an essentially Greek tradition, and the intertextual readings of epic and tragedy are crucial to an understanding of these plays. Negotiating the literary and cultural past, and the political (contemporary) present, Seneca creates something unique: frequently bloodthirsty, not very subtle, but always compelling.
This is the version of tragedy that had such a huge impact on the English Renaissance, not least Shakespeare. But these are still fascinating in their own right, and are the main extant examples of Roman tragedy.
This edition dropped a star from me because it hasn't been updated since 1966, and while the translation is readable and flowing (if not as accurate as the Loebs), the introduction and notes are very out-of-date. It's also rather odd that the 'Octavia' is included, which wasn't written by Seneca, when his other plays aren't available in Penguin translations.
But that's a small quibble, and these are fascinating little gems of literary history, gory, frequently over-blown, and all the more engaging for that very reason.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
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3 reviews
22 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Forget what you know about classical tragedy...
29 Aug 2002
Format:Paperback
And forget what you know about Seneca the Stoic. In his tragedies, the younger Seneca gives full reign to what Nietzsche later (and perhaps unrelatedly) recognized as the Dionysian: lust, anger, revenge, and unadulerated humanity in its most elemental. Although some apprecition of classical mythology is needed to enter these texts fully, once you're in them, you look around, and find yourself in a house of horrors or else in the deepest region of the unconscious.
Read _Thyestes_, and you'll have the underpinning for horror and suspense from Poe to Jim Thompson to the _Blair Witch Project_.
You could take my word for it, or you could listen to Seneca's admirers and imitators: Webster, Jonson, Shakespeare...
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
The flip side of Stoicism
2 Oct 2008
Format:Paperback
There is a reason that one never sees a tragedy by Seneca on stage; his works were probably never meant to be performed and the lack of any even minimal stage directions is just one of many things about these tragedies that hint at the author's likely lack of interest in ever sending his works to the theater. Tragedy was merely a useful structure in which Seneca found a way to present the underlying viewpoint of life that gave rise to his stoicism.
These powerful, gruesome plays give one an impression of the world of Seneca. It is a vicious, ruthless, cruel world of intrigue, murder, insane violence and heartless people doing shameful wrongs -- and getting away with it. These plays convey an underlying perception of life on earth that was at the heart of Stoic thinkers. Indeed, the Roman world was just such a place, and Stoic philosophy sought to provide more than solace, but direction and guidance away from the omnipresent despair that one might often feel. This is the world, lacking in any real redemptive hope, that Stoicism tries to teach followers to grapple with, accept, and live in with an inner dignity, and uprightness, despite the inevitable consequences of living in such moral and ethical squalor.
As plays and poetry, Seneca was a very accessible philosopher, but his writing style never won him any accolades. His plays are no more pleasant to read than his letters or other essays. They are all powerful, filled with meaning, not difficult to understand, but tedious in style. Along with Marcus Aurelius, he is one of the most easily accessible and commonly read Stoic philosophers.
The introduction and considerable endnotes are very valuable and well written. Readers interested in learning something of Seneca's profound influence on later Western (particularly English) writers will find the introduction and notes of considerable use.
These powerful, gruesome plays give one an impression of the world of Seneca. It is a vicious, ruthless, cruel world of intrigue, murder, insane violence and heartless people doing shameful wrongs -- and getting away with it. These plays convey an underlying perception of life on earth that was at the heart of Stoic thinkers. Indeed, the Roman world was just such a place, and Stoic philosophy sought to provide more than solace, but direction and guidance away from the omnipresent despair that one might often feel. This is the world, lacking in any real redemptive hope, that Stoicism tries to teach followers to grapple with, accept, and live in with an inner dignity, and uprightness, despite the inevitable consequences of living in such moral and ethical squalor.
As plays and poetry, Seneca was a very accessible philosopher, but his writing style never won him any accolades. His plays are no more pleasant to read than his letters or other essays. They are all powerful, filled with meaning, not difficult to understand, but tedious in style. Along with Marcus Aurelius, he is one of the most easily accessible and commonly read Stoic philosophers.
The introduction and considerable endnotes are very valuable and well written. Readers interested in learning something of Seneca's profound influence on later Western (particularly English) writers will find the introduction and notes of considerable use.
5 of 70 people found the following review helpful
Vulgar and unrestrained
4 April 2000
Format:Paperback
As we all know, classical rules of poetry dictate that no violence must be shown on stage, that the protagonist must be admirable except for one fatal flaw, that the declamation must be dignified and poetic. Seneca violates all of these rules, plus many others. His protagonists are nothing but shrieking hysterical fools, and the stage is awash in blood by the end of every play. As for the "poetry," it is nonexistent. Perhaps I just read a bad translation, but I still recommend that anyone who is seeking a Roman imitation of Sophocles or Aeschylus to forgo Seneca.
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