Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T15:14:37.094Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 7 - The Weeping Wise

Stoic and Epicurean Consolations in Seneca’s 99th Letter

from Part III - Models of Emotional Experience

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2023

Margaret Graver
Affiliation:
Dartmouth College, New Hampshire
Get access

Summary

Chapter 7 treats the consolatory letter to Marullus, which is provided as an enclosure in Epistulae morales 99. The latest of Seneca’s consolations, this work takes an unusually rigorous Stoic line. Although the deceased was a young child, Marullus is told not to grieve at all: Even the death of an adult friend would not truly be an evil, and the correct response to it is to rejoice in the goodness of the relationship that is now concluded. As elsewhere, however, Seneca concedes that an emotion-like reaction that does not depend on a belief that the loss is an evil is both natural and blameless. That pre-emotional reaction may include tears, as also may the eupathic joy of the Stoic sage. This last claim is paralleled in Philo of Alexandria, with interesting implications for the phenomenology of the Stoic eupatheiai. At the end of his letter, Seneca considers and rejects a consolatory tactic suggested by the Epicurean Metrodorus.

Type
Chapter
Information
Seneca
The Literary Philosopher
, pp. 160 - 175
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • The Weeping Wise
  • Margaret Graver, Dartmouth College, New Hampshire
  • Book: Seneca
  • Online publication: 23 March 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316683125.012
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • The Weeping Wise
  • Margaret Graver, Dartmouth College, New Hampshire
  • Book: Seneca
  • Online publication: 23 March 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316683125.012
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • The Weeping Wise
  • Margaret Graver, Dartmouth College, New Hampshire
  • Book: Seneca
  • Online publication: 23 March 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316683125.012
Available formats
×