Four Tragedies and Octavia (Penguin Classics) [Mass Market Paperback]

Seneca (Author), E. F. Watling (Translator, Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 26, 2005 | Series: Penguin Classics

Although their themes are borrowed from Greek drama, these exuberant and often macabre plays focus on action rather than moral concerns and are strikingly different in style from Seneca's prose writing. This collection includes Phaedra, Oedipus, Thyestes, and The Trojan Women.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)

About the Author

Lucius Annaeus Seneca, statesman, philosopher, advocate and man of letters, was born at Cordoba in Spain around 4 BC. He rose to prominence in Rome, pursuing a career in the courts and political life, for which he had been trained, while also acquiring celebrity as an author of tragedies and essays. Falling foul of successive emperors (Caligula in AD 39 and Claudius in AD 41), he spent eight years in exile, allegedly for an affair with Caligula’s sister. Recalled in AD 49, he was made praetor and was appointed tutor to the boy who was to become, in AD 54, the emperor Nero. On Nero’s succession, Seneca acted for some eight years as an unofficial chief minister. The early part of this reign was remembered as a period of sound government, for which the main credit seems due to Seneca. His control over Nero declined as enemies turned the emperor against him with representations that his popularity made him a danger, or with accusations of immorality or excessive wealth. Retiring from public life he devoted his last three years to philosophy and writing, particularly the Letters to Lucilius. In AD 65 following the discovery of a plot against the emperor, in which he was thought to be implicated, he and many others were compelled by Nero to commit suicide. His fame as an essayist and dramatist lasted until two or three centuries ago, when he passed into literary oblivion, from which the twentieth century has seen a considerable recovery.
E.F. Watling was educated at Christ's Hospital and University College, Oxford. His translations of Greek and Roman plays for the Penguin Classics include the seven plays of Sophocles, nine plays of Plautus, and a selection of the tragedies of Seneca.
E.F. Watling was educated at Christ's Hospital and University College, Oxford. His translations of Greek and Roman plays for the Penguin Classics include the seven plays of Sophocles, nine plays of Plautus, and a selection of the tragedies of Seneca.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Classics (July 26, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140441743
• ISBN-13: 978-0140441741
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #48,869 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #23 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Drama > Classical & Early
  • #44 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Drama > Greek & Roman

More About the Author

Lucius Annaeus Seneca, statesman, philosopher, advocate and man of letters, was born in Spain around 4BC. He rose to prominence at Rome, pursuing a double career in the courts and political life, until Claudius sent him into exile exile on the island of Corsica for eight years. Recalled in AD49, he was appointed tutor to the boy who was to become, in AD54, the emperor Nero. Seneca acted for eight years as Nero's unofficial chief minister until Nero too turned against him and he retired from public life to devote himself to philosophy and writing. In AD65, following the discovery of a plot against the emperor, he and many others were compelled by Nero to commit suicide.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Forget what you know about classical tragedy..., August 28, 2002

By 

"pensodyssey" (Brooklyn, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Four Tragedies and Octavia (Penguin Classics) (Mass Market 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:

4.0 out of 5 stars The flip side of Stoicism, October 1, 2008

By 

Nick (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Four Tragedies and Octavia (Penguin Classics) (Mass Market 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.

5 of 69 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Vulgar and unrestrained, April 3, 2000

By 

Sarah Skowronski (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Four Tragedies and Octavia (Penguin Classics) (Mass Market 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.