Hercules furens
- 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:
- ~4,840 words · 23 passages
Cite this work
- APALucius Annaeus Seneca. (n.d.). Hercules furens. Digital reproduction: SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/seneca/hercules-furens
- MLALucius Annaeus Seneca. Hercules furens. Digital reproduction, SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/seneca/hercules-furens.
- ChicagoLucius Annaeus Seneca. Hercules furens. Digital reproduction, SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/seneca/hercules-furens.
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
Hercules returns victorious from the underworld and, in a madness sent by Juno, kills his wife and children.
Context and history
The scene where he comes to his senses and sees what he has done is among the hardest in ancient theatre. The question it leaves — whether a man can bear to live with that, and whether suicide would be courage or flight — is Stoic through and through. 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.
es rege coniunx digna: sociemus toros. Meg. Gelidus per artus vadit exanguis tremor. quod facinus aures pepulit? haut equidem horrui, cum pace rupta bellicus muros fragor circumsonaret, pertuli intrepide omnia: thalamos tremesco; capta nunc videor mihi. gravent catenae corpus et longa fame mors protrahatur lenta: non vincet fidem vis ulla nostram; moriar, Alcide, tua. Lyc. Animosne mersus inferis coniunx facit? Meg. Inferna tetigit, posset ut supera assequi. Lyc. Telluris illum pondus immensae premit. Meg. Nullo premetur onere, qui caelum tulit. Lyc. Cogere. Meg. Cogi qui potest nescit mori. Lyc. Effare potius, quod novis thalamis parem Regale munus. Meg. Aut tuam mortem aut meam. Lyc. Moriere demens, Meg. Coniugi occurram meo. (18) Lyc. Sceptrone nostro famulus est potior tibi? Meg. Quot iste famulus tradidit reges neci. Lyc. Cur ergo regi servit et patitur iugum? Meg. Imperia dura tolle: quid virtus erit? Lyc. Obici feris monstrisque virtutem putas? Meg. Virtutis est domare quae cuncti pavent. Lyc. Tenebrae loquentem magna Tartareae premunt. Meg. Non est ad astra mollis e terris via. Lyc. Quo patre genitus caelitum sperat domos? i Amph. Miseranda coniunx Herculis magni, sile: partes meae sunt reddere Alcidae patrem genusque verum, post tot ingentis viri memoranda facta postque pacatum manu quodcumque Titan ortus et labens videt, post monstra tot perdomita, post Phlegram impio sparsam cruore postque defensos deos nondum liquet de patre? mentimur Iovem: Iunonis odio crede. Lyc. Quid violas Iovem? mortale caelo non potest iungi genus. Amph. Communis ista pluribus causa est deis. Lyc. Famuline fuerant ante quam fierent dei? Amph. Pastor Pheraeos Delius pavit greges. Lyc. Sed non per omnes exul erravit plagas. Amph. Quem profuga terra mater errante edidit? Lyc. Num monstra saeva Phoebus aut timuit feras? Amph. Primus sagittas imbuit Phoebi draco. Lyc. Quam gravia parvus tulerit ignoras mala?…