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Metaphors of war and travel in seneca's prose works

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 September 2009

Gerard B. Lavery
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Extract

The purpose of this paper is an examination of the metaphors of life as warfare and life as a journey in the prose writings of the philosopher Lucius Annaeus Seneca. The discussion will centre on the essays and letters; the tragedies will not be directly considered. The philosopher's use of these metaphors will be related to a review of the teachings of Seneca and of the Stoic school on death and on certain other central Stoic concepts.

Type
Research Article
Information
Greece & Rome , Volume 27 , Issue 2 , October 1980 , pp. 147 - 157
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1980

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References

NOTES

1. Lucilius was slightly younger than Seneca. The Epistulae date from the last years of Seneca's life and it is generally acknowledged that they were intended for a much wider audience than the nominal addressee. For recent statements on the nature and dating of the Letters, see Russell, D. A. in Seneca (ed. Costa, C. D. N., London and Boston, 1974), pp. 72–3Google Scholar; Griffin, M. T., Seneca: A Philosopher in Politics (Oxford, 1976), pp. 5, 91, 349–53Google Scholar, and Appendix B4, pp. 416–9.

2. Despite Stoicism's claim to the cosmopolitan ideal that all men are brothers, it was in fact an élitist philosophy. ‘Seneca’s estimation of work is partly determined by his evaluation of the various classes of persons. In this his thoughts continually revolve around that small élite of wise men who are the only human beings of true significance. Seneca's life and writings are permeated by that aristocratic self-assurance which the tenets of the Stoic school make so inevitable. It manifests itself positively in his idolization of the wise man and negatively in his propensity for looking down on others' (Sevenster, J. N., Paul and Seneca (Leiden, 1961), p. 215CrossRefGoogle Scholar). In the same vein is the comment of Sandbach, F. H., The Stoics (London and New York, 1975), p. 177Google Scholar: ‘Stoic philosophy was addressed to an élite, promising success only to that minority of men who could perfect their reason by their own continued efforts’.

3. Much valuable work on irony and paradox in Seneca has been contributed by A. L. Motto and J. R. Clark. See especially the following articles: ‘Senecan Irony’, CB 45 (1968), 6–7, 9–11Google Scholar; ‘Epistle 56: Seneca's Ironic Art’, CP 65 (1970), 102–5Google Scholar; ‘Et terrris iactatus et alto: The Art of Seneca's Epistle LIII’, AJP 92 (1971), 217–25Google Scholar; ‘Dramatic Art and Irony in Seneca's De Providentia’, AC 42 (1973), 28—35Google Scholar; ‘Ingenium Facile et Copiosum: Point and Counterpoint in Senecan Style’, CB 52 (1975), 1—4Google Scholar. Perhaps the ultimate paradox in Seneca is his fondness for quoting Epicurus; see Motto, and Clark, , ‘Paradoxum Senecae: The Epicurean Stoic’, CW 62 (1968), 37–42Google Scholar.

4. V. Arnold, Roman Stoicism (New York, 1958 (reprint)), p. 90. See also Long, A. A., Hellenistic Philosophy (New York, 1974), pp. 171–2Google Scholar.

5. Arnold, , op. cit., p. 246Google Scholar.

6. Herington, C. J., ‘Senecan Tragedy’, Arion 5 (1966), 434Google Scholar. This excellent essay has been reprinted in Rudd, N. (ed.), Essays on Classical Literature Selected from Arion (New York, 1972), pp. 422–71Google Scholar.

7. Arnold, , op. cit., pp. 286–7Google Scholar; Rist, J. M., Stoic Philosophy (Cambridge, 1969), pp.219–32Google Scholar.

8. Rist, , op. cit., p. 127Google Scholar. Copleston, F., A History of Philosophy (New York, 1962), vol. 1, Part 2, pp. 140–41Google Scholar: ‘a man is free to change his inner attitude and to adopt one of submission and resignation rather than of rebellion.’

9. Wright, J. R. G. in Seneca (ed. Costa, ), p. 60Google Scholar.

10. Men like Mucius Scaevola, the Roman champion against Etruscan aggression, apparently held a special fascination for our author. Mucius was more than a good soldier. With a stump for a hand, he conquered not one but two kings. See Ep. 24.5; 66.51—3. Mucius presents obvious rhetorical as well as ethical possibilities.

11. For Seneca's references to Cato, see Motto, A. L., Seneca Sourcebook (Amsterdam, 1970), p. 147Google Scholar. See also the discussion of Seneca's views on Cato in Griffin, , op. cit., pp. 190–4Google Scholar.

12. Arnold, , op. cit., pp. 331–3Google Scholar.

13. Reesor, M. E., ‘Fate and Possibility in Early Stoic Philosophy’, Phoenix 19 (1965), 297CrossRefGoogle Scholar, offers a pertinent comment: ‘Throughout Stoic literature, however, there is an undercurrent of sadness, for the Stoics recognized perhaps more clearly than any other philosophic school that the plan for our world often includes the agony and destruction of good men.’

14. For recent discussions of Stoic teachings on suicide, see Griffin, , op. cit., pp. 372–82Google Scholar; Rist, , op. cit., pp. 233–55Google Scholar; Sandbach, , op. cit., pp. 48–52Google Scholar.

15. Russell, D. A. in Seneca (ed. Costa, ), p. 71Google Scholar.

16. Sandbach, , op. cit., p. 50Google Scholar.

17. Rist, , op. cit., pp. 246 and 249Google Scholar, respectively.

18. See the comment of Rist, , op. cit., p. 250, n. 1Google Scholar: ‘In Ep. 117.22—3 Seneca argues that longing for death is disgraceful. If one wants to die, one may die! It is the longing that is disgraceful’.

19. For example, the very fundamental Stoic concepts of the sapiens and the stultus (which soon had to be revised by introducing the idea of the proficiens) and the paradox-laden notion of the total sufficiency of virtue for the happy life indicate a theoretical ethical system somewhat less than oriented toward everyday reality.

20. Sevenster, , op. cit., p. 224Google Scholar.

21. Ibid., p. 228. Sevenster conveniently gathers together Seneca's diversified views on the after-life, pp. 224—9. See also Motto, A. L., ‘Seneca on Death and Immortality’, CJ 50 (1955), 187–9Google Scholar.

22. Arnold, , op.cit., pp. 262–3Google Scholar; Rist, , op. cit., pp. 93, 184, 256Google Scholar.

23. On themes in ancient (and especially Senecan) Consolationes, see W. C. Summers, Select Letters of Seneca (London and New York, 1956 (reprint)), pp. 243–5. Boal, S. J., ‘Doing Battle With Grief: Seneca, Dialogue 6’, Hennatbena 16 (1973), 44–51Google Scholar, is highly critical of ‘Seneca's far from gentle approach’ (49) in this essay of consolation. Boal concludes: ‘Marcia's reaction is not known, but it is at least possible that Seneca was as unsuccessful in achieving his aim as he was insensitive in his method of approaching it’ (50).

24. See, e.g., Ep. 12.11: quod verum est, meum est.

25. Edelstein, L., The Meaning of Stoicism (Cambridge, Mass., 1966), p. 35CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also Rist, , op. cit., p. 44Google Scholar.

26. Copleston, , op. cit., p. 144Google Scholar.

27. Ferrill, A., ‘Seneca's Exile and the Ad Helviam: A Reinterpretation’, CP 61 (1966), pp. 253–7Google Scholar, argues that this work is actually a disguised plea for recall from exile, and that Seneca in fact hated Corsica. He suggests that, when this subtle approach did not succeed, Seneca composed the far less subtle Ad Polybium. Be Seneca's sentiments sincere or insincere, however, they accord beautifully with Stoic cosmopolitanism.

28. Bevan, E., Stoics and Sceptics (New York, 1913), p. 51Google Scholar. See also Sevenster, , op. cit., p. 32Google Scholar; Copleston, , op. cit., p. 133Google Scholar.

29. Bevan, , op. cit., p. 51Google Scholar.