Philosophical lessons from Seneca’s tragedies

Every artwork entails magnification. It blows some aspects of reality out of proportion to underline their significance from the creator’s viewpoint. Other aspects are minimised, ignored, distorted or blurred. #seneca was a playwright before becoming a #stoic philosopher. It is enlightening to study his plays because they announce the principles of Stoicism, magnify its powerful insights, and attempt to cover up its deficiencies. The plays written by Seneca fall in the category “tragedies” and, to a great extent, they recreate historical or religious tales from Ancient Greece. In the first century of our era, educated Romans were familiar with those tales although few of them could actually read Greek. Seneca was in his last decades (the precise date is uncertain) when he wrote his play “Medea,” the story of a married woman betrayed by her husband, Jason. When he goes away with his new love, #medea takes revenge by killing their two sons. At the end of the play, Medea escapes, leaving behind Jason to suffer for the loss. Her physical escape doesn’t mean that she doesn’t suffer herself. Emotionally, she experiences even more pain than Jason because she had committed double infanticide. “Medea” condemns exaggerated emotions by showing their destructive power. In his #philosophical works, Seneca will do exactly the same: He will condemn all kinds of feelings, calling for moderation or resignation. According to Stoicism, Medea should have quietly accepted her abandonment by Jason. She should have regarded her fate as inevitable, as a dictate of destiny, and focused her efforts on rebuilding her life without Jason. However, I must disagree with the Stoic interpretation of the story. Indeed, Medea should not have killed her children, but the #ultimate cause of her suffering had been her decision to marry Jason. Here is the link to the original article: https://johnvespasian.com/philosophical-lessons-from-senecas-tragedies/