Classical Backgrounds to English Literature

Seneca’s Medea

For Monday, please read Seneca’s Medea. Also, look over the following quotes from Seneca’s Essays and Letters. How does the tragedy support / contest the ideas expressed in these quotes? Roman tragedy often functioned as a rhetorical exercise, so it is very possible that parts of this tragedy would contest the philosophy Seneca expressed here. Please come to class prepared with some specific passages from the play that relate to these quotes.

• “[Anger is] the most hideous and frenzied of all the emotions. For the other emotions have in them some element of peace and calm, while this one is wholly violent and has its being in an onrush of resentment, raging with a most inhuman lust for weapons, blood, and punishment, giving no thought to itself if only it can hurt another, hurling itself upon the very point of the dagger, and eager for revenge though it may drag down the avenger along with it. Certain wise men, therefore, have claimed that anger is temporary madness. For it is equally devoid of self- control, forgetful of decency, unmindful of ties, persistent and diligent in whatever it begins, closed to reason and counsel, excited by trifling causes, unfit to discern the right and true - the very counterpart of a ruin that is shattered in pieces where it overwhelms. But you have only to behold the aspect of those possessed by anger to know that they are insane.” On Anger

• “Man's nature, then, does not crave vengeance; neither, therefore, does anger accord with man's nature, because anger craves vengeance. … Reason herself, to whom the reins of power have been entrusted, remains mistress only so long as she is kept apart from the passions: if once she mingles with them and is contaminated, she becomes unable to hold back those whom she might have cleared from her path. For when once the mind has been aroused and shaken, it becomes the slave of the disturbing agent. There are certain things which at the start are under our control, but later hurry us away by their violence and leave us no retreat. As a victim hurled from the precipice has no control of his body, and, once cast off, can neither stop nor stay, but, speeding on irrevocably, is cut off from all reconsideration and repentance and cannot now avoid arriving at the goal toward which he might once have avoided starting, so with the mind - if it plunges into anger, love, or the other passions, it has no power to check its impetus; its very weight and the downward tendency of vice needs must hurry it on, and drive it to the bottom.” On Anger

• “I should prefer to be free from torture; but if the time comes when it must be endured, I shall desire that I may conduct myself therein with bravery, honour, and courage.  Of course I prefer that war should not occur; but if war does occur, I shall desire that I may nobly endure the wounds, the starvation, and all that the exigency of war brings.  Nor am I so mad as to crave illness; but if I must suffer illness, I shall desire that I may do nothing which shows lack of restraint, and nothing that is unmanly.  The conclusion is, not that hardships are desirable, but that virtue is desirable, which enables us patiently to endure hardships.” Epistle #LXVII (On Ill Health and Endurance of Suffering)

• “To give a brief definition: by 'disease’ we mean a persistent perversion of the judgment, so that things which are mildly desirable are thought to be highly desirable.  Or, if you prefer, we may define it thus: to be too zealous in striving for things which are only mildly desirable or not desirable at all, or to value highly things which ought to be valued but slightly or valued not at all.  ‘Passions’ are objectionable impulses of the spirit, sudden and vehement; they have come so often, and so little attention has been paid to them, that they have caused a state of disease; just as a catarrh,/a when there has been but a single attack and the catarrh has not yet become habitual, produces a cough, but causes consumption when it has become regular and chronic. Therefore we may say that those who have made most progress are beyond the reach of the ‘diseases’; but they still feel the ‘passions’ even when very near perfection.” Epistle #LXXV (On the Diseases of the Soul)

• “[T]he happy life depends upon this and this alone: our attainment of perfect reason. … [This gives] peace of mind, and lasting tranquility.  This will be yours if you possess greatness of soul; it will be yours if you possess the steadfastness that resolutely clings to a good judgment just reached.  How does a man reach this condition? By gaining a complete view of truth, by maintaining, in all that he does, order, measure, fitness, and a will that is inoffensive and kindly, that is intent upon reason and never departs there from, that commands at the same time love and admiration.  In short, to give you the principle in brief compass, the wise man's soul ought to be such as would be proper for a god.” Epistle #XCII (On the Happy Life)

• “We do not need to uplift our hands towards heaven, or to beg the keeper of a temple to let us approach his idol's ear, as if in this way our prayers were more likely to be heard.  God is near you, he is with you, he is within you.  This is what I mean, Lucilius: a holy spirit indwells within us, one who marks our good and bad deeds, and is our guardian.  As we treat this spirit, so are we treated by it. Indeed, no man can be good without the help of God. … No man ought to glory except in that which is his own. … Praise the quality in him which cannot be given or snatched away, that which is the peculiar property of the man.  Do you ask what this is?  It is soul, and reason brought to perfection in the soul. For man is a reasoning animal.  Therefore, man's highest good is attained, if he has fulfilled the good for which nature designed him at birth.  And what is it which this reason demands of him?  The easiest thing in the world, - to live in accordance with his own nature.  But this is turned into a hard task by the general madness of mankind; we push one another into vice.  And how can a man be recalled to salvation, when be has none to restrain him, and all mankind to urge him on?” Epistle #XLI (On the God Within Us)