Agamemnon
- Language:
- Latin
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- No scanning noise detected (automatic measure over the whole text, not checked by hand)
- Extent:
- ~6,530 words · 31 passages
Cite this work
- APALucius Annaeus Seneca. (n.d.). Agamemnon. Digital reproduction: SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/seneca/agamemnon
- MLALucius Annaeus Seneca. Agamemnon. Digital reproduction, SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/seneca/agamemnon.
- ChicagoLucius Annaeus Seneca. Agamemnon. Digital reproduction, SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/seneca/agamemnon.
Reference to the edition that SigPhi reproduces: SigPhi is its digital reproduction, not its publisher. The edition's year is not in the metadata (hence "n.d."), and the translator appears only when recorded.
What it is about
Agamemnon's return from Troy and his murder at the hands of Clytemnestra and Aegisthus.
Context and history
Seneca's version is far darker than Aeschylus's: the weight of inherited crime dominates, along with the sense that nothing can be stopped. The chorus of the Trojan captive women is among the best things he wrote. The tragedies are not a literary appendix to Seneca's philosophy: they are the main road by which he set it out. Anger, the fear of death and fate, argued for in the letters, are here shown at work.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
Aegisthus Clytemestra Nutrix Quod tempus animo semper ac mente horrui adest profecto, rebus extremum meis. quid terga vertis, anime? quid primo impetu deponis arma? crede perniciem tibi et dira saevos fata moliri deos: oppono cunctis vile suppliciis caput, ferrumque et ignes pectore adverso excipe, Aegisthe: non est poena sic nato mori. tu nos pericli socia, tu, Leda sata, comitare tantum: sanguinem reddet tibi ignavus iste ductor ac fortis pater, sed quid trementes circuit pallor genas iacensque vultu languido optutus stupet? (251) Clyt. Amor iugalis vincit ac flectit retro: referamur illuc, unde non decuit prius abire; sed nunc casta repetatur fides, nam sera numquam est ad bonos mores via: quem paenitet peccasse paene est innocens. Aeg. Quo raperis amens? credis aut speras tibi Agamemnonis fidele coniugium? ut nihil subesset animo quod graves faceret metus: tamen superba et impotens flatu nimis Fortuna magno spiritus tumidos daret. gravis ille sociis stante adhuc Troia fuit: quid rere ad animum suapte natura trucem Troiam addidisse? rex Mycenarum fuit, veniet tyrannus: prospera animos efferant. effusa circa paelicum quanto venit turba apparatu! sola sed turba eminet tenetque regem famula veridici dei: feresne thalami victa consortem tui? at illa nolet, ultimum est nuptae malum palam mariti possidens paelex domum. nec regna socium ferre nec taedae sciunt. Clyt. Aegistbe, quid me rursus in praeceps agis iramque flammis iam residentem incitas? permisit aliquid victor in captam sibi: