Description
Book SynopsisBased on the legends used in Greek drama, Seneca's plays are notable for the exuberant ruthlessness with which disastrous events are foretold and then pursued to their tragic and often bloodthirsty ends.
Thyestes depicts the menace of an ancestral curse hanging over two feuding brothers, while
Phaedra portrays a woman tormented by fatal passion for her stepson. In
The Trojan Women, the widowed Hecuba and Andromache await their fates at the hands of the conquering Greeks, and
Oedipus follows the downfall of the royal House of Thebes.
Octavia is a grim commentary on Nero's tyrannical rule and the execution of his wife, with Seneca himself appearing as an ineffective counsellor attempting to curb the atrocities of the emperor.
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Table of ContentsSeneca: Four Tragedies And OctaviaIntroduction
Acknowledgement
Thyestes
Phaedra (or Hippolytus)
The Trojan Women
Oedipus
Octavia
Appendix I.
Elizabethan translations and imitations
Appendix II. Passages from Seneca's prose
