Description
Book SynopsisIn their practice of aemulatio, the mimicry of older models of writing, the Augustan poets often looked to the Greeks: Horace drew inspiration from the lyric poets, Virgil from Homer, and Ovid from Hesiod, Callimachus, and others. But by the time of the great Roman tragedian Seneca, the Augustan poets had supplanted the Greeks as the classics to which Seneca and his contemporaries referred. Indeed, Augustan poetry is a reservoir of language, motif, and thought for Seneca''s writing. Strangely, however, there has not yet been a comprehensive study revealing the relationship between Seneca and his Augustan predecessors. Christopher Trinacty''s Senecan Tragedy and the Reception of Augustan Poetry is the long-awaited answer to the call for such a study. Senecan Tragedy and the Reception of Augustan Poetry uniquely places Senecan tragedy in its Roman literary context, offering a further dimension to the motivations and meaning behind Seneca''s writings. By reading Senecan tragedy through an
Trade Reviewthe fact remains that [Trinacty's] intertextual approach has yielded a book of great value to specialists in the fields of both Augustan poetry and Senecan tragedy. * Gareth Williams, Language and Literature *
In crisp, clear prose, Trinacty mounts a reading of the texts of Seneca's dramatic poems as full participants in the intertextual system of meanings and significances that scholars have discerned in Augustan poetry and its Hellenistic models. Thanks to his cogent arguments and sensitive readings, it will henceforth no longer be possible to characterize the allusive presences of Virgil, Horace, and Ovid in Seneca's poetry as mere reminiscences or symptoms of an impoverished belatedness. This is an impressive contribution, and a most welcome one, to the study of a Roman author whose seriousness as a poet as well as a philosopher is once again fully visible for the first time in several centuries. * David Wray, University of Chicago *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements ; Introduction ; 1. Seneca the Reader ; 2. Intertextuality and Character ; 3. Intertextuality and Plot ; 4. Intertextuality, Writers, and Readers ; 5. Epilogue ; Bibliography ; Index of Passages ; General Index
