Seneca's Heroides: Elegy in Seneca's Medea

Abstract

This paper analyzes the intertextual relationship between Seneca?s Medea and Ovid?s Heroides. Seneca utilizes the Heroides not only to flesh out his characterization of Medea, but to examine the differences (and similarities) between the genres of elegy and tragedy. Seneca?s Medea owes her elegiac background to Ovid, but her actions in the play reveal a self-conscious character striving to surpass previous representations.