Thyestes
- Language:
- Latin
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- Some parts illegible (automatic measure over the whole text, not checked by hand) · 5 illegible passages, excluded from answers
- Extent:
- ~8,630 words · 41 passages
Cite this work
- APALucius Annaeus Seneca. (n.d.). Thyestes. Digital reproduction: SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/seneca/thyestes
- MLALucius Annaeus Seneca. Thyestes. Digital reproduction, SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/seneca/thyestes.
- ChicagoLucius Annaeus Seneca. Thyestes. Digital reproduction, SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/seneca/thyestes.
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
A man feeds his brother that brother's own children, cooked. The blackest tragedy surviving from the Latin stage.
Context and history
Seneca is not after Greek tragic measure: he is after sustained horror and the rhetoric of rage, which is why Shakespeare and the Elizabethan dramatists read him far more than Sophocles. The English revenge tragedy comes from here.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
non quicquid Libycis terit fervens area messibus, quem non concutiet cadens obliqui via fulminis, non Eurus rapiens mare aut saevo rabidus freto ventosi tumor Hadriae, quem non lancea militis, non strictas domuit chalybs, qui tuto positus loco infra se videt omnia occurritque suo libens fato nec queritur mori. Reges conveniant licet qui sparsos agitant Dabas, qui rubri vada litoris et gemmis mare lucidis late sanguineum tenent, aut qui Caspia fortibus recludunt iuga Sarmatis, certet Danuvii vadum audet qui pedes ingredi et (quocumque loco iacent) Seres vellere nobiles: nil ullis opus est equis, nil armis et inertibus (294) telis quae procul ingerit Parthus, cum simulat fugas, admotis nihil est opus urbes sternere machinis, longe saxa rotantibus. mens regnum bona possidet. [rex est qui metuit nihil, rex est qui cupiet nihil.] hoc regnum sibi quisque dat. Stet quicumque volet potens aulae culmine lubrico: me dulcis saturet quies; obscuro positus loco leni perfruar otio, nullis nota Quiritibus aetas per tacitum fluat. sic cum transierint mei nullo cum strepitu dies. plebeius moriar senex. illi mors gravis incubat qui, notus nimis omnibus, ignotus moritur sibi. Optata patriae tecta et Argolicas opes miserisque summum ac maxime exulibus bonum, tractum soli natalis et patrios deos (si sunt tamen di) cerno, Cyclopum sacras turres, labore maius humano decus, (295) celebrata iuveni stadia, per quae nobilis palmam paterno non semel curru tuli. occurret Argos, populus occurret frequens — sed nempe et Atreus. repete silvestres fugas saltusque densos potius et mixtam feris similemque vitam; clarus hic regni nitor fulgore non est quod oculos falso auferat: cum quod datur spectabis, et dantem aspice. modo inter illa, quae putant cuncti aspera, fortis fui laetusque; nunc contra in metus revolvor: animus haeret ac retro cupit corpus referre, moveo nolentem gradum. – Pigro (quid hoc est?) genitor incessu stupet vultumque versat seque in incerto tenet.…
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