1. See, for example, Birt (1911), 358; Anliker (1960), 98ff.

2. Actions involving the house of Tantalus include the revenge of Aegisthus and Clytemnestra on Agamemnon and the predicted revenge of Orestes and Electra. Actions involving the Trojans and the Greeks include Hercules’ revenge on Troy for Laomedon’s deceit (863ff.), Agamemnon’s, Menelaus’ and the Greeks’ revenge on Priam, Paris and the Trojans; Pallas’ revenge on Ajax; Nauplius’ revenge on the Greeks; and perhaps Apollo’s revenge on Cassandra for her attempt to deceive him.

3. There are frequent references in the play to Aegisthus’ exile; see 291, 302 and 884.

4. Laomedon had broken his promise to Hercules. Hercules’ Argive nationality is recalled by the fourth choral ode (808ff.), and a connection is thus made between Argive dealings with Troy in Hercules’ generation and in Agamemnon’s generation. It was the arrow of Hercules, of course, shot by Philoctetes, which finally killed Paris (864a).

5. We do not, of course, know from this play in what manner Orestes and Electra accomplished their revenge.

6. ‘Reciprocal’: the translation for altemo. Thyestes means, of course, that the blood shed will be that of Atreus’ family, in expiation for the deaths of Thyestes’ family. Tarrant (1976), ad loc, translates altemo as ‘retributive’.

7. I have argued elsewhere that Thyestes is a dramatic figure intended to represent the psychological force (the desire for revenge) which motivates the decisions and actions of many characters in the play; see Shelton (1977).

8. Ira est cupiditas ulciscendae iniuriae; aut, ut ait Posidonius, cupiditas puniendi eius, a quo te inique putes laesum (‘anger is the desire to avenge an injury; or, as Posidonius says, the desire to punish him by whom you think you have been unjustly harmed’). These lines, found in Lactantius, De Ira Dei 17, are generally considered the missing lines of Seneca’s De Ira 1.2.4.

9. Thyestes 220ff. Thyestes had seduced Atreus’ wife and sent Atreus into exile although they had apparently taken a pledge (fides) to rule alternately (239). Thyestes’ son, Aegisthus, similarly seduces the wife of Atreus’ son, kills Agamemnon and sends Orestes into exile. Atreus, in turn, had refused to share the royal power with Thyestes, as Agamemnon refused to share it with Aegisthus.

10. Tarrant (1976), 174, discusses the awkwardness of the transmitted text of 31: non pavidus hausi dicta sed cepi nefas (‘not timidly did I drink in the words, but I undertook a crime’). He favours the suggestion of Koetschau that sed cepi be replaced with suscepi: ‘I drank in the words; I undertook a crime.’

11. This impersonal ode is filled with rhetorical commonplaces. Since the commonplaces are examined individually by Tarrant in his excellent commentary on the play, I have not felt it necessary to discuss them within the limited scope of this paper. It is important to remember that among Latin writers of Seneca’s period the use of commonplaces should not be considered an indication of insincerity or shallowness of thought. However ‘common’ the wisdom of the chorus is, it is essential to our understanding of the play.

12. For the use offallax, ‘deceptive’, cf. Seneca’s Oedipus 6f.: quisquamne regno gaudet? o fallax bonum,/quantum malorum fronte quam blanda tegis (‘Does anyone find pleasure in royal power? O deceptive blessing, how many evils does your attractive face conceal?’).

13. Cupiunt: ‘they want’, ‘they desire’; timent: ‘they dread’, ‘they fear’. The Stoic wise man was affected neither by desire nor by fear. Cf. De Const. 9.2.3:

See also Epist. 5.7 and De Vit. B. 5.1.

14. Most editors place a comma or semicolon at the end of 91.1 think, however, that Seneca intended 90 and 91 to be taken closely with the preceding thought (that we may be harmed by too much prosperity), rather than with the following thought (that objects which rise above their surroundings are vulnerable to attack). I also think that 97 (‘larger bodies are subject to diseases’) may belong after 91. Lefèvre (1973), 71ff., suggests that at 87f. Seneca is not suggesting a contrast between the sinful ruler of the previous lines and an innocent but excessively prosperous ruler who loses his position. He believes that Seneca intends us to realize that in both cases the men lack virtues and are therefore destroyed either by an external attacker or by the corruption within ourselves. Lefèvre notes the frequency in Roman literature of the theme of decay and destruction from within.

15. The chorus advocates ‘the golden mean’. The Stoic wise man, however, would neither desire wealth, nor fear poverty. See n. 13 above.

16. I am considering lines 108–309 as Act. I. Thyestes’ soliloquy stands outside the main framework of the play. No character in the play is aware of his presence, he reveals to us information which these characters do not yet have, and he belongs to another world.

17. The frequency of rhetorical questions and self-addresses can thus be attributed as much to Stoic psychology as to rhetorical training. On Seneca’s portrayal of emotional behaviour see Hansen (1934).

18. In De Ira 1.7.2–4 and 1.8.1, and Epist. 85.8–10, Seneca stresses the point that reason must remain in control in the human soul, and that emotions must be kept out. He declares that it is almost impossible to control emotions once they have entered the soul or to prevent them from becoming stronger and stronger. He therefore recommends that it is much better to refuse admittance to emotions, than to admit a ‘small’ amount of emotion and hope to moderate it.

19. At 162 Clytemnestra says, in reference to the sacrifice of Iphigenia: pudet doletque (‘I am filled with shame and resentment’). She is ashamed because she, whose ancestry was divine (caeli genus, 162), could do nothing to prevent her daughter’s murder. Seneca does not propose that our behaviour is controlled by family curses or traits, but many of his characters believe that they have a family image or tradition to maintain, and their decisions are influenced by this belief. Clytemnestra’s resentment of Agamemnon is increased by her shame that he deceived a descendant of the gods. Cf. 306. On Clytemnestra and Aegisthus, and the ‘self-definition’ and ‘self-fulfillment’ which motivate their actions, see Heldmann (1974), 59. Dolet is the reading of E; the reading of A is piget.

20. On the anticipation of injury as a motive for revenge, see De Ira 1.2.4: Ira est incitatio animi ad nocendum ei qui aut nocuit aut nocere voluit (‘Anger is a violent motion of the soul to harm him who either has harmed us or who has wished to harm us’).

21. Lefèvre (1973), 75ff.

22. Cf. the wavering of Seneca’s Medea and Phaedra. Croisille’s suggestion (1964), 464ff., that Clytemnestra only pretends to waver, in order to test the strength of Aegisthus’ resolution, seems over-subtle. Heldmann (1974), 61, suggests that in Clytemnestra and Aegisthus Seneca presents two different attitudes towards wrong-doing: Clytemnestra hesitates, Aegisthus does not. Aegisthus does, however, hesitate (50–52, 226–233). Seneca ‘abbreviates’ Aegisthus’ articulation of mental distress because he has already explored the state of mind of someone (Clytemnestra) plotting revenge.

23. Aegisthus was, of course, continuing the family ‘tradition’ of seducing the wife of his kinsman; see n. 9 above.

24. Cf. HF. 251f.: felix scelus/virtus vocatur (‘successful crime is called virtue’).

25. The second chorus is composed of Argives celebrating the victory of Agamemnon. Seidensticker (1969), 131f., suggests that the gods addressed in the hymn ironically all have reason to be angry with Agamemnon. See also Lefèvre (1973), 81 f.

26. Henry and Walker (1963), 7, suggest that ‘Seneca introduced these narrative passages into his tragedies mainly because he felt they were indispensable to tragedy as a recognized literary form. They have to be read as pieces of occasional writing detached from the rest of the play and alien to it in style and often in feeling.’ Another critic describes Eurybates’ narrative as ‘an enormous rhetorical cadenza’; see Coffey (I960), 16.

27. Henry and Walker (1963), 4.

28. Croisille (1964) argues that Clytemnestra is the main character of the play. Giomini (1956), 7, calls the play the tragedy of Clytemnestra.

29. Tarrant (1976), 4, discussing Agamemnon’s death as the central and unifying point of the drama, says: ‘Every figure in the play is affected by it and reacts to it, each from a distinct and personal point of view … These attitudes are presented seriatim and largely in isolation’.

30. Cf. Seneca’s Oedipus 371: natura versa est. The Oedipus is another play in which Seneca explores the effect of a human violation of nature on the harmony of the universe. Oedipus’ incest and parricide cause total upheaval in Thebes.

31. For the Stoic, the world soul or the universe was rational. However, the harmony or order of the universe might be disrupted by an individual disorder in the human soul. The prospect of individual disorder leading to cosmic disorder was a frightening thought to Seneca, and he dwells on it in many of his plays. Since Seneca’s universe is Stoic, he does not examine the problems of man in an irrational universe, but rather the problems of the irrational man in a rational universe.

32. Seneca’s Hercules Jurens makes a similar error of judgment.

33. Lefèvre (1973), 82.

34. Seidensticker (1969), 128, n. 157.

35. Lefèvre (1973), 82, discusses the sources for the story of Nauplius’ son, Palamedes, and his death at the hands of the Greeks. Although most accounts make Ulysses primarily responsible for the death, some indicate that Agamemnon was responsible. Lefèvre suggests that Seneca wants us to consider the reference to Palamedes as a further indication of Agamemnon’s guilt.

36. Tarrant (1976), 283: ‘No other surviving author describes the damage done to the Greek ships by Nauplius in such detail’. For a study of Seneca’s use of material used by Aeschylus, see Stackmann (1950).

37. Or father killing his daughter.

38. That Aegisthus is weak and cowardly, and thus incapable of ruling, is made clear later in the play.

39. Calder (1975), 34, suggests that for the second choral ode (310–407) Seneca substituted a chorus of Mycenaean (or Argive) women (310, 350f.) for Aeschylus’ old men in order ‘to secure economy in staging. The actors playing the women of Mycenae exeunt into the scaenae frons at 396a and re-enter stage-right as captive Trojan Stoics at 589.’ Calder also points out that the frequent withdrawals of the chorus from the stage in this play allow the characters the privacy they need to plot.

40. Creduli: cf. 443, credita est vento ratis (‘the Greek sailors trusted their ship to the wind’). At 393a Eurybates, who thought he might never return alive to Argos, says he can ‘scarcely believe’ (vix credens) his good luck. In this play many people are deceived by their trust in apparent good fortune (fallax Fortuna).

41. See K. K. Lohikoski (1966); also Seidensticker (1969), 119ff.

42. Libera mors; Tarrant (1976), 287, points out that ‘the phrase suggests (a) a death freely chosen, as in Marc. Aur. 10.8, (b) a death which sets one free, as often in Seneca, cf. Prov. 2.10, Ira 3.15.3f., Epist. 12.10, 70.14.’ The death-wish is a prominent theme in Seneca’s prose work, as well as in other authors of this period, such as Lucan.

43. In n. 40 above, I mentioned an implicit comparison between the Trojans who trusted the wooden horse and were thus destroyed, and the Greeks who trusted the wind and were thus destroyed. There is, however, a contrast in the attitude towards death expressed by each group. The Greek sailors struggled against death in the shipwreck; the Trojan women seem to welcome death. The Greeks considered it a wretched end; the Trojans say: quam miserum est nescire mori (‘how wretched it is not to know how to die’, 611). Cf. Seneca’s Thyestes 822–884; and Epist. 26.9 (on learning how to die). Calder (1976), 33f., believes that ‘Ajax, rather than the precursor of Agamemnon, is the antithesis of Cassandra.’ The chorus’ comment at 611 ‘is the best commentary on Ajax’ protracted and unnecessary end’.

44. Sanguinea, ‘bloody’; Tarrant (1976) chooses Heinsius’ conjecture anguinea, ‘snaky’.

45. Apollo’s revenge on Cassandra for her breach of fides was to deprive her of credibility.

46. At 780 the chorus describes Clytemnestra as a festa coniunx, ‘a rejoicing wife’; the chorus is unaware of her true reaction to her husband’s return.

47. At 643–645, the Trojan women say festae matres/votiva ferunt munera divis;/festi patres adeunt aras (‘rejoicing mothers bring votive offerings to the gods; rejoicing fathers approach the altars’).

48. Priam was slain at the altar of Hercean Jupiter; cf. 448.

49. The contrast between Seneca’s two depictions of Agamemnon is pointed out by Lefèvre (1973), 68.

50. Cf. 88 and 97: sidunt ipso pondere magna (‘great things sink under their own weight’); corpora morbis maiora patent (‘larger bodies are vulnerable to diseases’).

51. Agamemnon is addressing Pyrrhus who wants to sacrifice Polyxena to the spirit of his father Achilles.

52. The chorus is again a group of Argives, since it would be odd for a chorus of Trojan captives to celebrate the Argive hero Hercules.

53. At 558 Caphereus, the promontory to which Nauplius attracted the Greek fleet with false beacon lights, is called mendax, at 560 fallax. Perhaps these terms are meant also to be transferred to Nauplius, who used treachery to avenge his son’s murder by treacherous Greeks.

54. Tarrant (1976), 5, suggests that Hercules, as the blameless captor of Troy, serves as a foil to Agamemnon.

55. Lefèvre (1976), 85.

56. Ajax is also called furens at 552; see above for comments on this line. The term furens, ‘insane’, applied to Clytemnestra, emphasizes her irrationality, so apparent in the first act.

57. Popa, ‘sacrificer’: the transmitted reading is prius; popa is the conjecture of Bentley. See Tarrant (1976), 342, for discussion.

58. Cf. 656f.: vidi, vidi senis in iugulo/telum Pyrrhi (‘I saw, I saw in the old man’s [Priam’s] throat the sword of Pyrrhus’). Also 973: praebeo iugulum tibi (‘I offer my throat to you’): Electra’s words to Clytemnestra. The motif of murder as sacrifice is prominent in this play.

59. Cf. 301: haec vacat regi ac viro (‘This house needs a king and a husband’): Clytemnestra to Aegisthus.

60. Calder (1976), 30.

61. Electra may be seen as an exemplum of sisterly love, or as a daughter burning to avenge her father.

62. In addition to recognizing what is truly valuable (fides and pietas), Strophius, unlike Agamemnon, understands the mutability of human life: nulla longi temporis felicitas (‘no happiness is of long duration’, 928).

63. Calder (1976), 30, and Tarrant (1976), 347, discuss the anachronisms of Olympic games at the time of the Trojan War and of palm branches being given as prizes.

64. It is possible that Seneca had in mind, when describing the ‘coronation’ of Orestes, the young Nero who was granted imperial power upon the death (murder?) of his stepfather Claudius, but who was kept for a few years under the close supervision of wise counsellors.

65. Calder (1976), 32ff., points out that Seneca expanded considerably the role of Cassandra as compared to Aeschylus’ play. He argues that Cassandra serves as an exemplum of two Stoic paradoxes: that only the slave is free, and that death is a blessing.

66. It is characteristic of Seneca’s tyrants to deny death to those who desire it. Cf. HF. 511ff. and Thy. 246–48.

67. This punctuation is suggested by Tarrant (1976), 330. He argues that dono signifies both the Trojan horse and the robe which Clytemnestra gave to Agamemnon at the banquet. The parallelism between feminae stupro, dolo at Troy and Argos is clear.

68. Lefèvre (1973), 87f., rejects arguments that ut paria fata Troicis lueret malis might mean that Agamemnon is expiating the sufferings he inflicted on Troy by suffering a similar fate.

69. See nn. 8 and 20 above.

70. See n. 13 above.

71. See n. 18 above.

72. Although Seneca elsewhere certainly suggests that suicide is an appropriate response to deprivation of freedom (De Ira 3.15.3f.), Cassandra and the Trojan women are not recommending suicide but rather the calm acceptance of death when it comes.

73. In De Ira 2.32.2f. Seneca tells the story of Cato who was at the baths and was struck, though not on purpose, by a fellow bather. When the man apologized, wise Cato said: non memini me percussum (‘I don’t remember being struck’). And Seneca concludes: melius putavit non agnoscere quam vindicare (‘Cato thought it better to ignore the incident than to avenge it’).