Lucius Annaeus Seneca. „Edyp Oedipus”
Lucius Annaeus Seneca “Edyp. Oedipus”

Contributor(s): Tomasz Sapota (Editor), Iwona Słomak (Editor)
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Philology
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Keywords: Seneca; Oedipus; ancient drama; Roman literature; European culture
Summary/Abstract: Oedipus by Seneca the Philosopher, whose literary output constitutes one of the most precious monuments of Roman antiquity and which has inspired the most distinguished playwrights across centuries, was alien to the consciousness of the Polish readers due to the lack of modern translations – unlike Sophocles’ works, who is a completely different writer. The Senecan Oedipus is not a tragedy on the triumph of divine oracles upon the humiliated mortal. The cognitive path of the protagonist leads him from a consciousness consumed by religiously motivated fear to liberation. Oedipus casts away light, associated with Apollo’s controlling eye. He blinds himself, which is an act of both sacrifice and rebellion. With his activity he seems to lay the foundation of a new ethics, independent from religion and the violence, which religion makes legitimate. Oedipus’s ethics is based on compassion and man’s responsibility of man and toward man.

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