¿Era Fedro un pensador estoico?

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to show that Phaedrus was heavily influenced by the current stoicism, to the extent that he could be considered part of this school of thinking.The originality of this Latin poet, when compared to the preceding tradition in fable writing, can partly be explained by referring to the importance and relevance of stoical ideas in his time. The choice of a didactic, moralizing gender is in itself in line with the stoical perspective on life. In what follows we highlight the ideas that Phaedrus shares with the main Roman Stoics, such as Seneca, Musonious Rufus, Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius regarding the ideal wiseman, providence, fate, utilitarianism, rejection of wealth, the defense of the family and social justice… We show some, total or partial, points of departure with the stoics that followed and his proximity to Seneca’s ideas, which show that stoic ideology, which is fully developed in Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius, was being consolidated around Phaedrus’s times.