Phaedra * Oedipus * Medea * Trojan Women * Hercules Furens * Thyestes Seneca's plays are the product of a sensational, frightening, and oppressive period of history. Tutor to the emperor Nero, Seneca lived through uncertain and violent times, and his dramas depict the extremes of human behaviour. Rape, suicide, child-killing, incestuous love, madness and mutilation afflict the characters, who are obsessed and destroyed by their feelings. Passion is constantly set against reason, and passion wins out. Seneca forces us to think about the difference between compromise and hypocrisy, about what happens when emotions overwhelm judgement, and about how, if at all, a person can be good, calm, or happy in a corrupt society and under constant threat of death. Seneca was one of the most prolific, versatile, and influential of all classical Latin writers, and the only tragic playwright from ancient Rome whose work survives. This new edition of his six best plays captures Seneca's style in a verse translation that is both lively and accurate. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
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I am awstruck by how good this is Times Literary Supplement, A. N. Wilson's Book of The Year, 3/12/2010 Wilson catches the beauty of their descriptive passages with simple felicity. TLS, A fine new translation. William Fitzgerald, Times Literary Supplement This edition of Seneca's tragedies is fresh, affordable, and teachable. Bryn Mawr Classical Review
About the Author
Emily Wilson is Associate Professor of Classics at the University of Pennsylvania.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By Roman Clodia
TOP 50 REVIEWER
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 Athenian 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.
So 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 Athenian 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.
So these are fascinating little gems of literary history: gory, frequently over-blown, and all the more engaging for that very reason.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Brilliant these were a revelation to me . Never have i been swept along with a play read such as this . It confirms all i have been told about the extreme literature of the ancients. It was difficult to stop reading entering such a vivid graphic prose, the tempo was impressive.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
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4.5 out of 5 stars
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
An excellent introduction
13 Feb 2013
By Alanai
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Ms Wilson gives valuable information on Seneca's life and times, which helps explain the content and tone of the tragedies. She also tracks how he influenced Elizabethan drama, from Kyd to Webster.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Stoic tragedies!
11 Oct 2012
By A. Ann
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
I had to read this book for my class which focuses on literature for Augustus to Nero.
I have the kindle version. The starring in the e-book is really nice in elaborating on references which mention gods, events, et cetera that as an average contemporary reader we don't know about, but any Roman citizen reading this would have known. Yet I still think there were a lot more points that the book could have pointed out because really unless you have a very extensive knowledge of both Greek and Roman mythology it's easy to miss many enriching references in the tragedies. That is my main scruple with the book. As someone who does know Latin, for the syntax, I think it followed really well what you would expect from reading this in the original language which I really enjoyed. Latin prides itself on this paradoxical and ambiguous syntax that this translation did well capturing.
Now for the actual content of the book:
I love Seneca, most of the time. The plays Medea, Phaedra, Oedipus, and Thyestes do not disappoint. They are scattered with those stoic principles Seneca is so famous for. They have the fast pasted, passionate plots that you want in a tragedy. That being said Hercules Furens and Trojan Women, not so much. Both of these lack that spark of passion which makes all these other plays so interesting. They also seem to really not be focused on actual action but just retelling of former events.
BE WARNED: These plays contain very graphic and violent depictions of murders of children, incest, and so forth just so you know. It is speculated that Seneca wrote these during the Neronian period so this graphic violence is directly correlated to a pessimism he suffered from living in such a period working under an emperor like Nero, but who knows
I have the kindle version. The starring in the e-book is really nice in elaborating on references which mention gods, events, et cetera that as an average contemporary reader we don't know about, but any Roman citizen reading this would have known. Yet I still think there were a lot more points that the book could have pointed out because really unless you have a very extensive knowledge of both Greek and Roman mythology it's easy to miss many enriching references in the tragedies. That is my main scruple with the book. As someone who does know Latin, for the syntax, I think it followed really well what you would expect from reading this in the original language which I really enjoyed. Latin prides itself on this paradoxical and ambiguous syntax that this translation did well capturing.
Now for the actual content of the book:
I love Seneca, most of the time. The plays Medea, Phaedra, Oedipus, and Thyestes do not disappoint. They are scattered with those stoic principles Seneca is so famous for. They have the fast pasted, passionate plots that you want in a tragedy. That being said Hercules Furens and Trojan Women, not so much. Both of these lack that spark of passion which makes all these other plays so interesting. They also seem to really not be focused on actual action but just retelling of former events.
BE WARNED: These plays contain very graphic and violent depictions of murders of children, incest, and so forth just so you know. It is speculated that Seneca wrote these during the Neronian period so this graphic violence is directly correlated to a pessimism he suffered from living in such a period working under an emperor like Nero, but who knows
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