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Crossing the Stages:
The Production, Performance and Reception of Ancient Theater
Hanna Roisman
Department of Classics
Colby College
Seneca's Phaedra: Parody and Originality
Much has been done with regard to analyzing Seneca's Phaedra in
the light of Euripides's two plays,Hippolytus Kalyptomenos and
Hippolytus. Typically, the emphasis is on Seneca's innovations, or lack
thereof, and the conclusions drawn by modern scholars are usually to the
detriment of the Latin author. Rather than examine Seneca's innovations
in an attempt to redeem him, my paper will seek to analyze scenes that
resemble their Greek model. I will look at scenes that seem to parody
Euripides's plays, and, based on the nature of the parody, I will attempt
to decode the motivations within the resolutions reached by Hippolytos,
Phaedra and the Nurse. The parody assumes different forms, from a definite
if subtle change in requests or statements, to an intricate but recurrent
clash of vocabulary, of both semantics and messages, divergent from the
examined passages.
My paper will re-evaluate the inner motivating forces, the stances
taken, the attitudes and the explicit claims of the tragedy's leading
characters. In so doing, I will try to show that the method of comparing
the Latin tragedy to its Greek model is not only productive (contra: e.g.,
Henry and Walker, Pratt, etc.), but does not detract from Seneca's
originality. Seneca, while drawing from the Greek plots and their
intricate literary devices, succeeded in composing an original play which
portrays a new and different set of characters and goals.
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