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While Seneca's plays evoke Aeschylus' Oresteia in narrative and characters, they also serve the important purpose of shedding light on unclear scenes in the original Agamemnon. Additionally, Seneca once again philosophizes the original story further, while adding more violently-detailed recounts of the murders that took place off-stage.
The Oresteia (Ancient Greek: Ὀρέστεια) is a trilogy of Greek tragedies written by Aeschylus in the 5th century BCE, concerning the murder of Agamemnon by Clytemnestra, the murder of Clytemnestra by Orestes, the trial of Orestes, the end of the curse on the House of Atreus and the pacification of the Furies (also called Erinyes or Eumenides).
Jason is made a more appealing figure by Seneca - thus strengthening the justification for, and power of, Medea’s passion. [9] Nevertheless, the increased degree of stage violence in the Seneca version, [10] and its extra gruesomeness, has led it to be seen as a coarser and more sensational version of Euripides’ play. [11]
Seneca Most surviving ancient Roman tragedies can be categorized as fabula crepidata (tragedy based on Greek subjects). They explored the psychology of the mind through monologues, focusing on one's inner thoughts, the central causes of their emotional conflicts, dramatizing emotion in a way that became central to Roman tragedy.
Euripides, Orestes, Oxford, MS. Barocci 120, fol. 32r (early 14th century) Aeschylus' play Eumenides, the third part of his surviving Oresteia trilogy, enshrines the trial and acquittal of Orestes within the foundation of Athens itself, as a moment when legal deliberation surpassed blood vengeance as a means of resolution.
Seneca's influence in literature is reflected through other works. In Arnold's Sonnet on Shakespeare, the influence of Seneca is apparent. "The reminiscence of Atreus' speech in the Thyestes of Seneca, which might subtend Cleopatra's own passionate, distended rhetoric about Antony" (Edgecombe, 257).
In Aeschylus's Oresteia, Aegisthus is a minor figure. In the first play, Agamemnon, he appears at the end to claim the throne, after Clytemnestra herself has killed Agamemnon and Cassandra. Clytemnestra wields the axe she has used to quell dissent.
Tragedies written by Lucius Annaeus Seneca, who is also known as Seneca the Younger.Octavia is included in the category, as although it is very probably not by him, [1] it is usually included in collections of Seneca's plays, such as the Penguin Classics book of Seneca's plays, Four Tragedies and Octavia