Four Tragedies and Octavia
by Seneca
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Description
Based on the legends used in Greek drama, Seneca's plays are notable for the exuberant ruthlessness with which disastrous events are foretold and then pursued to their tragic and often bloodthirsty ends. Thyestes depicts the menace of an ancestral curse hanging over two feuding brothers, while Phaedra portrays a woman tormented by fatal passion for her stepson. In The Trojan Women, the widowed Hecuba and Andromache await their fates at the hands of the conquering Greeks, and Oedipus follows show more the downfall of the royal House of Thebes. Octavia is a grim commentary on Nero's tyrannical rule and the execution of his wife, with Seneca himself appearing as an ineffective counsellor attempting to curb the atrocities of the emperor. show lessTags
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515+ Works 8,920 Members
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Series
Belongs to Publisher Series
Penguin Classics (L174)
Work Relationships
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Four Tragedies and Octavia
- People/Characters
- Thyestes; Tantalus; Atreus; Young Tantalus; Plisthenes
- Important places
- Mycenae
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 696
- Popularity
- 41,024
- Rating
- (3.68)
- Languages
- English, Latin
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 3
- ASINs
- 9
