Oedipus
- Language:
- Latin
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- Clean text
- Extent:
- ~9,470 words · 45 passages
Cite this work
- APALucius Annaeus Seneca. (n.d.). Oedipus. SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/seneca/oedipus
- MLALucius Annaeus Seneca. "Oedipus." SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/seneca/oedipus.
- ChicagoLucius Annaeus Seneca. Oedipus. SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/seneca/oedipus.
What it is about
Oedipus discovers that he is the cause of the plague of Thebes, and what he has done without knowing it.
Context and history
Seneca does not compete with Sophocles; he does something else, drawing out the omens and the horror, so that what in the original is investigation is here an approaching doom. Tiresias's necromancy is not in Sophocles and is Seneca at his purest. 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.
Manto Senex Corinthius Phorbas Nuntius Chorus Thebanorum Oedipus Iocasta Iam nocte Titan dubius expulsa redit et nube maestus squalida exoritur iubar, lumenque flamma triste luctifica gerens prospiciet avida peste solatas domos, stragemque quam nox fecit ostendet dies. Quisquamne regno gaudet? O fallax bonum, quantum malorum fronte quam blanda tegis! ut alta ventos semper excipiunt iuga rupemque saxis vasta dirimentem freta quamvis quieti verberat fluctus maris, imperia sic excelsa Fortunae obiacent. quam bene parentis sceptra Polybi fugerant! curis solutus exul, intrepidus, vagans (caelum deosque testor) in regnum incidi: infanda timeo: ne mea genitor manu perimatur; hoc me Delphicae laurus monent, aliudque nobis maius indicunt scelus. est maius aliquod patre mactato nefas? pro misera pietas (eloqui fatum pudet», thalamos parentis Phoebus et diros toros gnato minatur impia incestos face; hic me paternis expulit regnis timor. (204) non ego penates profugus excessi meos: parum ipse fidens mihimet in tuto tua, natura, posui iura. cum magna horreas, quod posse fieri non putes metuas tamen: cuncta expavesco meque non credo mihi. Iam iam aliquid in nos fata moliri parant, nam quid rear quod ista Cadmeae lues infesta genti strage tam late edita mihi parcit uni? cui reservamur malo? inter ruinas urbis et semper novis deflenda lacrimis funera ac populi struem incolumis asto — scilicet Phoebi reus. sperare poteras sceleribus tantis dari regnum salubre? fecimus caelum nocens. Non aura gelido lenis afflatu fovet← Back to Lucius Annaeus Seneca