Abstract
The function of the second choral ode of Seneca'sTrojan Womenin the overall thematic design of that play is a question that has aroused much critical interest over the years. Its overt Epicureanism appears at first to sit oddly with the assumptions of various characters (including the Chorus themselves) as to whether individual consciousness survives after death, and its relationship to what precedes (Talthybius' report of the appearance of Achilles' ghost, the quarrel between Pyrrhus and Agamemnon and Calchas' injunction that both Polyxena and Astyanax must be sacrificed) and what follows (Andromache's dream of Hector) has been seen as problematic; further, there is the whole issue of how it relates to the ritual killings of Astyanax and Polyxena on which the play focuses so much attention and with which it concludes.
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