Seneca S Thyestes

"Although the 'Thyestes' is widely acknowledged to be one of Seneca's most powerful tragedies, there has until now been no modern commentary on the play in any language. My principal aim has thus been to make this extraordinary work more widely accessible and so contribute to a greater appreciation of its quality. The 'Thyestes' seems to me an even better and richer play now that it did when I embarked on this commentary; I hope that the pleasure I have had in exploring it will be reflected in what I have written, and that my enthusiasm will offer some compensation for my failures of understanding." -- preface, p. [ix].

Written in Nero's Rome in about AD62, "Thyestes" is one of the greatest and most influential of classical tragedies. Peter Davies explores the key aspects of the play including the circumstances of its composition, its performance history and its impact on subsequent dramatists.

This monograph is devoted to the most important of Seneca's tragedies, Thyestes, which has had a notable influence on Western drama from Shakespeare to Antonin Artaud. Thyestes emerges as the mastertext of 'Silver' Latin poetry, and as an original reflection on the nature of theatre comparable to Euripides' Bacchae. The book analyses the complex structure of the play, its main themes, the relationship between Seneca's vibrant style and his obsession with dark issues of revenge and regression. Substantial discussion of other plays - especially Trojan Women, Oedipus and Medea - permits a comprehensive re-evaluation of Seneca's poetics and its pivotal role in post-Virgilian literature. Topics explored include the relationship between Seneca's plays and his theory of the emotions, the connection between poetic inspiration and the Underworld, and Seneca's treatment of time, which, in a perspective informed by psychoanalysis, is seen as a central preoccupation of Senecan tragedy.

In these lively renditions David Slavitt calls attention to the extraordinary work of the great Latin poet Seneca, and makes them appealing to modern readers. Seneca's honest artistry confronts the cruelty and irrationality of his world--the Rome of Caligula, Claudius and Nero. The surprise is that Seneca's world is so like our own. This volume includes five of Seneca's tragedies--"Trojan Women, Thyestes, Phaedra, Medea" and "Agamemnon". (Drama)

This is a lively, readable and accurate verse translation of the six best plays by one of the most influential of all classical Latin writers. The volume includes Phaedra, Oedipus, Medea, Trojan Women, Hercules Furens, and Thyestes, together with an invaluable introduction and notes.

In the early Elizabethan period, nine of the ten tragedies attributed to the ancient Roman statesman, philosopher, and playwright Seneca (c. 1 BCE-65 CE) were translated for the first time into English, and these translations shaped Seneca's dramatic legacy as it would be known to later authors and playwrights. This edition enables readers to appreciate the distinct style and aims of three milestone translations: Jasper Heywood's 'Troas' (1559) and 'Thyestes' (1560), and John Studley's 'Agamemnon' (1566). The plays are presented in modern spelling and accompanied by critical notes clarifying the translators' approaches to rendering Seneca in English. The introduction provides important context, including a survey of the transmission and reception of Seneca from the first through to the sixteenth century and an analysis and comparison of the style of the three translations. James Ker is Associate Professor of Classical Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of The Deaths of Seneca (2009), A Seneca Reader (2011), and articles on Greek and Roman literature. Jessica Winston is Professor of English at Idaho State University. She is the author of numerous articles on early Elizabethan literature and the Elizabethan reception of Seneca.

This volume contains ten essays on Seneca the Younger. Approaching the Roman writer from various angles, the authors endeavor both to illuminate individual aspects of Seneca’s enormous output and to discern common themes among the different genres practiced by him.