The Oedipvs of Seneca: An Imperial Tragedy

Abstract

Aristotle in the Poetics repeatedly turned to the Oedipus Tyrannus for what he believed to be the finest examples of plot, structure, characterisation, and moral content in tragedy. Seneca's Oedipus contrasts with Sophocles' to a quite extraordinary degree; and it is these same elements, so much admired in Sophocles, which in Seneca are handled so differently. It is evident that Seneca was not in any sense trying to emulate Sophocles, or to meet the requirements of tragedy as laid down by Aristotle. What Seneca makes of his plot, characterisation and theme, derives only in the merest externals from Greek dramatic tradition; the nature of this Latin drama springs from sources often personal to Seneca, usually contemporary with him, and certainly Roman. We take the Oedipus as instructive example of Seneca's imperial tragedies, because its unlikeness to the Greek play often called Seneca's ‘model’ is so extreme and to many critics so disconcerting.