Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Phaedra

Andreas Michalopoulos (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens)

Ed. by William John Dominik, University of Otago
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.1.2: Ancient Roman Writing and Culture (Republic and Empire), -750-476.
Vol. editors: William John Dominik (University of Otago), Giacomo Fedeli (University of Exeter), Thomas Habinek (University of Southern California), Emily Kneebone (University of Nottingham), Elodie Paillard (University of Sydney), Sophia Papaioannou (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens), Jula Wildberger (American University of Paris)

Dates

First circulation or publication c. 50 - c. 54

Places

Ancient Rome (Republic & Empire) (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Play
Tragedy

Resources

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Recommended Reading

Although the exact dating of Seneca’s plays is elusive, certain stylistic and metrical reasons point to an early date for his

Phaedra

, possibly the later years of Claudius’ reign. John Fitch [

AJP

102 (1981) 289-307] has claimed that the

Phaedra

belongs to the first group of Seneca’s plays along with the

Agamemnon

and the

Oedipus

. Richard Tarrant has suggested that these three plays (

Phaedra, Agamnenon, Oedipus

) “represent an attempt to treat material conspicuously associated with each of the three canonical Greek tragedians” (1995, 220).

In this tragedy Seneca treats the well-known myth of Phaedra’s love for her stepson Hippolytus. Like his Medea, Seneca’s Phaedra is a study on a family ruined by an uncontrollable passion. The place of the dramatic action is Athens, the

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2028 words

Citation: Michalopoulos, Andreas. "Phaedra". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 24 February 2010 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=13463, accessed 24 April 2024.]

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