The Superhuman Characters in the Prologues of Seneca’s Hercules Furens, Agamemnon, and Thyestes
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21638/spbu20.2023.207Abstract
This paper presents a new hypothesis concerning the prologues of Seneca’s Hercules Furens, Agamemnon, and Thyestes. It provides an interpretive alternative to the controversies associated with the current reading tradition, which places superhuman and protatic characters speaking in the opening acts of these plays on the same level of fictional reality as other heroes, or subordinates them to figurative construction. According to the proposed hypothesis, the specific nature of these three scenes may be the result of applying the convention known, with little variation, from several other dramas in which the ghosts disturb the sleeping. The argumentation emphasises the paradigmatic nature of these opening scenes, which end with a formula setting them at the close of the night. It also points to the fact that in the light of the new assumptions, these prologues — redundant in their expository and anticipatory function — play an important role in structuring the dramatic action. Moreover, in the context of the events that follow them, their content can be explained in terms of the dream theory known from the rationalising philosophical discourses of antiquity. Finally, proposed reading of these scenes is based on the assumption of continuity between the discursive and poetic activity of the author.
Keywords:
prologues of Hercules Furens, Agamemnon, and Thyestes, Seneca’s plays
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Published
2023-12-30
How to Cite
Słomak, I. (2023). The Superhuman Characters in the Prologues of Seneca’s Hercules Furens, Agamemnon, and Thyestes. Philologia Classica, 18(2), 230–245. https://doi.org/10.21638/spbu20.2023.207
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Orbis Romanus
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Articles of "Philologia Classica" are open access distributed under the terms of the License Agreement with Saint Petersburg State University, which permits to the authors unrestricted distribution and self-archiving free of charge.
