Senecan Tragedy and the Reception of Augustan Poetry

Abstract

This book investigates selected moments of intertextual dialogue between Seneca’s tragedies and the Augustan poets (focusing on Vergil, Horace, and Ovid) in order to develop a better understanding of Senecan poetics. Seneca acts as a reader of the Augustan tradition and incorporates his interpretation of the poetry of his predecessors in his tragedies. Because tragedy is a mélange of different genres, Seneca believes it to be the most effective genre for commenting on the Augustan tradition as a whole. The first chapter develops Seneca’s hermeneutics of reading, and subsequent chapters explore how intertextuality informs Seneca’s characterization, plot features (choral odes, messenger speeches), and tragic style. Certain characters act as surrogate poets or readers within the tragedies and illuminate the paradigmatic dialectic that Seneca practices. It is shown how Seneca repeats language from these intertextual echoes throughout the tragedy as a whole in order to rebrand or to question the source material. Intertexts indicate Seneca’s careful analysis of the Augustan material for moments that are particularly germane to Seneca’s tragic themes, imagery, or dramatic poetry. Ultimately, this matrix of intertexts and intratexts work hand in hand to define Seneca’s tragic poetics and to display it in praxis.