About the book
The second half of a new Loeb Classical Library edition of Seneca's plays gathers Thyestes, Oedipus, Octavia, Agamemnon and Hercules on Oeta, with John Fitch's annotated translation facing the Latin. Besides advising Nero and trying to check the emperor's megalomania, Seneca wrote moral philosophy at length, and his verse plays shaped Shakespeare and other Renaissance playwrights. The plots draw on mythical episodes, as classical tradition expected, while an obsessive concern with power over others reflects imperial Roman politics. Fitch aims to keep the force of the dramatic language and the lyric quality of the choral odes. Octavia, set at Nero's court, is the only surviving Roman historical play and was probably the work of an admirer of Seneca.
Ryan Holiday called the plays dark and disturbing yet stoic at heart, and noted that in his own lifetime Seneca was better known for his tragedies than for his philosophy.
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This book has 1 recommendation
Ryan Holiday (Founder/Brass Check)
I'd never read any of Seneca's plays before, which was a big gaping hole in my knowledge. During his lifetime, Seneca was actually more famous for his tragedies than he was for his philosophy (there is a line from one of his plays entombed as graffiti at Pompeii). Anyway, I was enthralled by these dark, disturbing but ultimately stoic plays. My favorite line comes from Hercules: "I do not ask you to show the path; just to give permission, father, I shall find the way." And related to that, my friend Tim Ferriss has released an amazing audiobook edition of Seneca's Letters. You must check them out.
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