I so enjoyed this article! I've read some of Seneca's philosophical works but haven't read any of his plays. I've had Dana Gioia's "Seneca: The Madness of Hercules" on my to--be-read shelf for some time so I'll have to break it open soon. I found especially interesting the commentary about the differences in how violence was portrayed by the Ancient Greeks and the Romans. It reminded me of an article I read awhile ago about how we consume tragic news. These days, it's very graphic and via a 24 hour news cycle. But before modern media, tragic news was often told by word-of-mouth, creating room for emotional distance. I sense a parallelism here. And I think, judging from the state of mental health in today's society, the Ancient Greeks got it right ;)
I often quote (misquote?) Seneca as taken from what Dr. Robertson taught me ages ago (though I'm probably even misquoting THAT now...) "Sometimes you have to shove things down peoples' throats." An extreme of violence, well placed, can do that.
I've always imagined that Seneca came to this thought after a few years tutoring and advising Nero. But, old as I may be, I wasn't there so I wouldn't know.
I so enjoyed this article! I've read some of Seneca's philosophical works but haven't read any of his plays. I've had Dana Gioia's "Seneca: The Madness of Hercules" on my to--be-read shelf for some time so I'll have to break it open soon. I found especially interesting the commentary about the differences in how violence was portrayed by the Ancient Greeks and the Romans. It reminded me of an article I read awhile ago about how we consume tragic news. These days, it's very graphic and via a 24 hour news cycle. But before modern media, tragic news was often told by word-of-mouth, creating room for emotional distance. I sense a parallelism here. And I think, judging from the state of mental health in today's society, the Ancient Greeks got it right ;)
I often quote (misquote?) Seneca as taken from what Dr. Robertson taught me ages ago (though I'm probably even misquoting THAT now...) "Sometimes you have to shove things down peoples' throats." An extreme of violence, well placed, can do that.
I've always imagined that Seneca came to this thought after a few years tutoring and advising Nero. But, old as I may be, I wasn't there so I wouldn't know.