Lec 4 Mon, 4/7/14

Senecas play is too much (excess violence, emotions)

Manto daughter of Tiresias
Old Corinthian man told about Polybus death to O
Phorbas Theban shepherd who gave O to the Old Corinthian man
Stoicism - school of Hellenistic philosophy founded in Athens by Zeno
of Citium in the early 3rd century BC. Basic ethical tenets: freedom
from the passions (apatheia apathy), life in accordance with reason
(logos), permissibility of suicide.
5 acts and 1 epilogue

Lucius Annaeus Seneca, often known simply as Seneca (c. 4 BC AD
65), was a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, and dramatist. He
was tutor and later advisor to emperor Nero (in Oedipus incest with
Jocasta one can see allusions to Neros incest with his mother
Agrippina). He was forced to commit suicide for alleged complicity in
the Pisonian conspiracy to assassinate Nero.
Wrote Oedipus 6 centuries later
Stoic life means unemotional or indifferent
Passion means suffering or anguish in Greek pathos
Stoic - transform emotions by self-discipline that enables inner calm
Foundation of stoic good has to do with wisdom and self-control
Follow where reason leads stoic ethics
Reason entails the adoption of ___
Apatheia freedom from suffering, negation of pathos, being
objective
Reason logos, not only using logic but also understanding the
processes of nature
Universal reason is inherent in all things
Nature is perverted perversion of logic
Life in harmony with nature/divine/universe
Emphasis on physical features of disease in Senecas play
A pattern of stoicism
Stoicism believes in faith

Fate fatum what is said, destiny
Predestination by a higher being
Events are connected to undescended events in the future
Events are connected with what happened in the past and what will
happen in the future
Accounts of Os guilt
Diff: Senecas O is guilt ridden man (explaining guilt)
Stoic unhappiness or evil is the result of ignorance
If I dont know something, teach me - socrates
When someone is unhappy, he/she is unaware of reason
Permissibility of suicide act in accordance with reason
Suicide is accepted in stoicism when life in not endurable with
accordance with reason
Suicide rejection of ones duties towards others
Senecas O is written in Latin
There are a lot of Oedipus plays
Senecas version is not intended to be performed but was recited in
private gatherings (like poetry, not a play)
The drama is all in the word Senecas drama
Not portrayal of action but verbal paintings of almost static situations
Senecas dramas
Manto is like Tiresias eyes
Theres no name of Phorbas in Sophocles
Chorus body of actors 12-15, stays on the stage for the rest of the
play, voices the community, representation of democracy
Theres chorus at the end of each act
Act 1 O is fearful of what is to come
Fear crucial emotions of O
Physical details of pestilence
Account of the play and its development
Act 2 creon comes back from the Oracle
Chorus goes back to the past, and goes forward to the future
Chorus temporal
Act 3 Tiresias summons Laius ghost
Laius reveals all
Act 4 O learns everything
Act 5 O takes out his eyes
Epilogue Jocasta strikes her womb with Os sword

Intro
Lucius Annaeus Seneca, often known simply as Seneca (c. 4 BC AD
65), was a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, and dramatist.
He was tutor and later advisor to emperor Nero (in Oedipus incest with
Jocasta one can see allusions to Neros incest with his mother Agrippina).
He was forced to commit suicide for alleged complicity in the Pisonian
conspiracy to assassinate Nero.
Stoicism is a school of Hellenistic philosophy founded in Athens by
Zeno of Citium in the early 3rd century BC.
Basic ethical tenets: freedom from the passions (apatheia), life in accordance
with reason (logos), permissibility of suicide.
Oedipus was written sometime in the 1
st
century A.D. in Latin.
Both Aeschylus and Euripides produced an Oedipus, now lost.
Senecas version was not intended to be performed but was recited in
private gatherings.
T.S. Eliot: In the plays of Seneca, the drama is all in the word
Seneca in Elizabethan Translation Senecas dramas are best treated
as poems, not portrayals of action, but verbal paintings of almost
static situations.
Characters:
Oedipus is the king of Thebes, husband of Jocasta.
Jocasta is the widow of the former king Laius, wife of Oedipus and sister of Creon
Creon is Jocasta's brother, and the chief aid to Oedipus in Thebes
Tiresias is a blind prophet who is charged by Oedipus to find the killer of king Laius
Manto is the daughter of Tiresias. She is used in the play to describe Tiresias' sacrifice to him, and
therefore also to the audience.
Old Corinthian Man is a messenger from Corinth who comes to tell Oedipus that Polybus is dead,
and reveals part of Oedipus' history to him.
Phorbas is an old shepherd who had given Oedipus to the Old Man when he was a child and who
reveals Oedipus' real parentage to him.
Messenger is the man who relates what has happened to Oedipus in the beginning of Act 5
Chorus
Themes
Oedipus is alone on stage both at the beginning and at the end
The false allure of power
Guilt, fear, human impotence before the ordinances of fateno hope
that the plague-ridden world will be cured by Oedipus departure.
Fate--fatum= what is said, death, and destiny, it is sometimes
also identified with nature and divine reason.
Fate is cyclic, and its cyclicity underscores its determinism: the necromancy
scene and its aftermath present Oedipus crimes as a continuation of the
impious history of the house of Cadmus.
Sympatheia: the world ruled by Oedipus is plague-ridden. Land,
animals, citizens of Thebes, even the air, are infected with Oedipus
contagion.
Empowerment mechanisms of the Roman statedivine consultation,
sacrifice, haruspicy (=divination by inspecting the entrails of sacrificial
animals) disintegrate under the impact of Oedipus perversion
Blinding=self-puinishment spurred on not by Jocastas death, but by
Oedipus moral shame and horror