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SENECAN TRAGEDY
literature (modern parallels might be found in the fiction of Edgar Allan Poe).
It is above all to communicate that aura that Seneca consistently applies the
contemporary stylistic techniques which were surveyed above — techniques
which happen to be excellently adapted to his purpose. Since the emphasis of
his drama is on the evil and its workings, rather than on the activities of individuals
for their own sake, a logically developing plot at the human level is not
his main concern. At the same time the evil in itself, and the dread effects of its
operation, may be most graphically expressed (as they are also in Lucan and
Juvenal) through images that in other contexts would appear monstrous,
grotesque, or revolting.
The evils which thus dominate the tragedies, and in a sense are their main
actors, are none other than those •which preoccupy Seneca the prose-writer.
The tragedies too, although Dante did not mean as much when he uttered the
phrase, are clear manifestations of Seneca morale. 1 Yet there is an important
difference: whereas the Senecan prose corpus endeavours to combat these moral
terrors, primarily with the weapon of Stoic doctrine, the tragedies scarcely go
beyond presenting them. It seems misleading to characterize Seneca's plays
as 'Stoic tragedy'. Indeed, one may doubt whether such a thing can exist,
strictly speaking; as Plato long ago saw (Laws 7.817a—d), the absolute acceptance
of any coherent and exclusive metaphysical system, and the composition of
tragedy, are mutually exclusive. In Senecan tragedy the remedies against evil,
with which a practising Stoic was most profoundly concerned, are hardly
touched on; and uniquely Stoic doctrine of any kind is rare. The most important
exceptions to this rule will be observed in the Thyestes. Other major exceptions
are the analyses of the onset and progress of passion, notably in those in
the Medea and the Phaedra; 1 and the idea, which surfaces in almost all the plays
but is most pervasive in the Troades, of death (often by suicide) as the ultimate
guarantor of human liberty. 3 A number of other evident allusions to Stoic
doctrine will of course be found, but they are brief, and not firmly woven into
the tragic fabric; for example: H.F. 463-4 and Phoen. 188-95 (evidently on
the qualities of the sapiens, the Stoic sage); Phaedra 959—89 and Oed. 980—94
(thoughts on Providence and Fate, respectively, which are closely paralleled
in the prose writings). Here and there a Senecan character seems to show some
of the attitudes of a sapiens or proficiens ("progressor', the technical term for
one who is still seeking to attain the state of a sapiens): Thyestes; Hippolytus;
1
Inferno 4.141; cf. Eliot (1927) vi.
2
The locus classicus for the onset of passion is Act II of the Phaedra (85—173); its physiological and
psychological impact on the individual is described, e.g. in Phaedra 360-83, and Med. 380-430; its
ultimate triumph is best seen in the Atreus of the Thyestes, to be discussed below. The doctrines
on passion implied in these plays are overtly stated in the prose treatise De ira, especially 1.1— 8,
2.1-5.
3
Tro. 142—63, 418-20, 574—7, 791; cf. H.F. 511—13, Phaedra 139, the great choral meditation on
death in Ag. 589-611, and Thy. 442.
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