Hercules Oetaeus
- Language:
- Latin
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Attributed (authorship debated)
- Condition of the text:
- No scanning noise detected (automatic measure over the whole text, not checked by hand)
- Extent:
- ~17,300 words · 82 passages
Cite this work
- APALucius Annaeus Seneca. (n.d.). Hercules Oetaeus. Digital reproduction: SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/seneca/hercules-oetaeus
- MLALucius Annaeus Seneca. Hercules Oetaeus. Digital reproduction, SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/seneca/hercules-oetaeus.
- ChicagoLucius Annaeus Seneca. Hercules Oetaeus. Digital reproduction, SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/seneca/hercules-oetaeus.
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
The death of Hercules, burned by the poisoned tunic, and his apotheosis.
Context and history
The attribution to Seneca has been disputed for centuries: many philologists take it for the work of an imitator, and it is the longest of all the tragedies in the Senecan corpus. Worth reading in that knowledge, not as a settled matter. 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.
Nutrix Deianira Lichas tacitus O quam cruentus feminas stimulat furor, cum patuit una paelici et nuptae domus! Scylla et Charybdis Sicula contorquens freta minus est timenda, nulla non melior fera est. namque ut reluxit paelicis captae decus et fulsit Iole qualis innubis dies purisve clarum noctibus sidus micat, stetit furenti similis ac torvum intuens Herculea coniunx; feta ut Armenia iacens sub rupe tigris hoste conspecto exilit aut iussa thyrsum quatere conceptum ferens Maenas Lyaeum, dubia quo gressus ferat haesit parumper; tura per Herculeos lares attonita fertur; tota vix satis est domus: incurrit, errat, sistit, in voltus dolor processit omnis, pectori paene infimo (330) nihil est relictum; fletus insequitur minas. nec unus habitus durat aut uno furit contenta voltu: nunc inardescunt genae. pallor ruborem pellit et formas dolor errat per omnes: queritur, implorat, gemit. sonuere postes: ecce praecipiti gradu secreta mentis ore confuso exerit. Dei. Quamcumque partem sedis aetheriae premis, coniunx Tonantis, mitte in Alciden feram quae mihi satis sit. si qua fecundum caput palude tota vastior serpens movet, ignara vinci, si quid excessit feras immane dirum horribile, quo viso Hercules avertat oculos, hoc specu immenso exeat, vel si ferae negantur, hanc animam precor converte in aliquod: quodlibet possum malum hac mente fieri, commoda effigiem mihi parem dolori: non capit pectus minas, quid excutis telluris extremae sinus orbemque versas? quid rogas Ditem mala?