Tragedies II: Oedipus, Agamemnon, Thyestes, Hercules on Oeta, Octavia (Loeb Classical Library) [Hardcover]

Seneca (Author), John G. Fitch (Translator)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0674996100 | ISBN-13: 978-0674996106 | Publication Date: June 30, 2004 | Edition: annotated edition

Seneca is a figure of first importance in both Roman politics and literature: a leading adviser to Nero who attempted to restrain the emperor's megalomania; a prolific moral philosopher; and the author of verse tragedies that strongly influenced Shakespeare and other Renaissance dramatists. This volume completes the Loeb Classical Library's new two-volume edition of Seneca's tragedies. John Fitch's annotated translation, which faces Latin text, conveys the force of Seneca's dramatic language and the lyric quality of his choral odes.

Seneca's plots are based on mythical episodes, in keeping with classical tradition. But the political realities of imperial Rome are also reflected here, in an obsessive concern with power and dominion over others. The "Octavia" is our sole surviving example of a Roman historical play; set at Nero's court, it was probably written by an admirer of Seneca as statesman and dramatist.

Editorial Reviews

Review

This second volume of the new Loeb tragedies (the first volume, also by John Fitch, appeared in 2002) is very much in the new style and admirably suited to the new standard. Fitch has long been a major player in Senecan studies, and the vast range of his experience is here put at the service of all comers. They will be very glad of it. The translations are deft, accurate, and extremely readable, while the introductions to each play are significant essays in their own right. Bibliographies are well and fairly compiled, so that even their privileging of work in English seems unexceptionable. Classicists working with Seneca will want to have this edition at hand, while readers with little or no Latin will also soon discover that this is the edition of Seneca to use.
--Sander M. Goldberg (University of Toronto Quarterly )

About the Author

John G. Fitch is Professor Emeritus of Greek and Roman Studies, University of Victoria.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 672 pages
• Publisher: Loeb Classical Library; annotated edition edition (June 30, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0674996100
• ISBN-13: 978-0674996106
• Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 4.3 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #912,002 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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

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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Stoicizing Drama for the Philosophic Soul, January 22, 2009

By 

Johannes Platonicus (South Bend, Indiana) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Tragedies II: Oedipus, Agamemnon, Thyestes, Hercules on Oeta, Octavia (Loeb Classical Library) (Hardcover)

One of Rome's greatest philosophers was also one of Rome's greatest poets and dramatists. Seneca's versatility and proficiency as an author will become evident to the reader who examines the contrast between the informal and dignified prose of his Stoic Epistles and the stunning elegance of his verse in the pathos laden Tragedies. Now it is simply amazing that the stern-browed champion of Roman Stoicism would don the laurel and take up the tragedian's genre. Perhaps he sought to indoctrinate the stage-crazed Roman mob with the tenets of Stoicism, since he worked many stoic ideals into the Tragedies' themes? It seems likely that he rather subtly directed his program of moralization through the medium of public entertainment. Whatever the case may be, Seneca has handed us poetry and drama, in nearly ever ancient meter (except heroic meter), that rivals his Latin predecessors, Terrance and Plautus. And even though he used the Greek tragedies as a model (except `Octavia'), Seneca's originality emerges as he reworks those classic Grecian themes to fit his Latin audience, adorning them with a stoic twist. Yet Seneca's 'Octavia' is a composition all his own and is genuinely Roman and not Grecian. The `Octavia' is a historical drama and recounts episodes from the tumultuous and brutal reign of Nero, of court intrigue and the machinations of Nero's wives and concubines. The other tragedies--Oedipus, Agamemnon, Thyestes and Hercules on Oeta--are all traditionally linked to popular Greek mythology and are household names today. Overall, Seneca asserts himself as an exemplary poet/play-write and his influence was felt from his time well into the modern era, inspiring such figures as Boethius (in `consolatio'), Shakespeare, Marlowe and Ben Johnson [Oxford Classical Dictionary, Seneca]. Overall, the enthusiast of the classic drama, the lover of Latin poetry, and the collector of ancient works can hardly go without these two volumes, which are here presented in a fresh, vibrant and lucid, English translation. The scholarly analyses and annotations that accompany the text will be welcoming and profitable to readers as well.