CHAPTER 14 Rereading Seneca: The Twenty-First Century and Beyond

Siobhán McElduff

Senecan is violent. If the reports of ’s end are horrible in ’s , Seneca takes it one step further: in his Phaedra, Hippolytus is dragged by his maddened horses in a flight only temporarily stopped when the sharpened stump of a tree skewers him through the groin.1 After this, the horses pull free the body, or what is left of it, and do even more damage: in the concluding scenes of the play his mourning father is reduced to trying to assemble his body out of indistinguishable body parts in a gruesome jigsaw puzzle.2 In NBC’s critically acclaimed,3 but low rated and recently cancelled, Hannibal (2013–15)4 the eponymous cannibalistic serial killer violently

* I would like to thank Susanna Braund for her immense help with this report, as well as the insightful comments from the editor and the anonymous reader. All errors that remain are my own. 1 The entire scene, especially lines 1085–1104, is extremely graphic, describing in rather loving detail the way Hippolytus’s blood is splattered across the countryside, along with various parts of his corpse. Given that Seneca’s audience was familiar with chariot crashes and the senatorial class had the right to the best seats at the circus, even if they didn’t always choose to sit there, one suspects a scene like this deliberately triggered strong memories on the part of some readers, as not all the elite took the disdainful attitude of Pliny the Younger (Epistles 9.6; notice everyone else is at the races). In other words, although the violence of Hippolytus’s death is filtered through a messenger speech, the speech vividly and deliberately recalls the type of carnage that really occurred in spectacle entertainments in the Circus. 2 Coffey and Mayer’s commentary on the Phaedra is particularly scathing about this scene, calling ’s statement at 1267 (quae pars tui sit dubito; sed pars est tui, “I do not know what part of you this is, but it is a part of you”), “arguably the worst line in Senecan ” (1990, 195). 3 See, for example, Ryan 2013; Willmore 2013; and Seitz 2013. There is a strong element of class at play here in the approving tone of critics: Hannibal may be a serial killer, but he is an elegant, educated and erudite one (http://boingboing.net/2015/02/17/eat-the-rude-hannibal- lecter.html). 4 The cancellation may have more to do with rights than the low ratings: in season four the producers wanted to introduce Clarice Starling, the major protagonist in the two of the Hannibal Lector movies, including Silence of the Lambs (1991).

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���6 | doi ��.��63/9789004310988_015 304 McElduff murders people5 and then serves them up as elegant meals for his unsuspect- ing guests (the photography for these feasts is particularly and disturbingly beautiful), in scenes worthy of Atreus in Seneca’s . Unrestrained by network executives, Dredd (2012)6 used the full power of 3D to embrace the viewer in gorgeous and horrifying splatters of blood. And, even on TV, AMC’s The Walking Dead 7 is extremely graphic in its depictions of violence and has no problems with showing either zombies devouring bodies, or the heroes blowing out zombie brains or decapitating them. Other similarly violent series include: Fox’s The Following (2011–15), about a hunt for an ex-academic turned serial killer; Dexter, a drama about another serial killer, who this time is the hero (2006–2013); American Horror Story in all of its four incarnations so far (Murder House, Asylum, Coven, and Freak Show (2011–15)); Banshee (2013–); True Detective (2014–);8 and, for those who like their sex and violence with a classical twist, Starz’s Spartacus (2010–2013). And all of this without mention- ing HBO’s Game of Thrones (2011–), which revels in violence, gore, and (usually female) nudity as a badge of authenticity for its magical medieval-like world. Why such a list in a chapter which seeks to address the present and future of Senecan reception? What does a list of violent US television shows and movies have to do with Senecan drama and how it is currently being read, apart from reflecting a modern interest in viewing or hearing about graphic violence in common with ancient audiences? It is here because I believe that our complex entertainment environment offers new ways to read and respond to Senecan drama and that we should embrace this opportunity: studying modern media’s presentation of fictional violence can and does illuminate Senecan drama. But I will return to this topic later in this paper, after discussion of some trends in recent Senecan scholarship, translation, and performance.9

5 Hannibal’s violence resulted in its being pulled from one Salt Lake City NBC affiliate. 6  On the subject of network interference with the level of gore in his show, the producer, Bryan Fuller, said, “eye gouging, seeing people’s intestines being removed from their bodies in great noodly clumps—those types of things they [NBC] tend to say no to”. (http://www.hollywood reporter.com/live-feed/hannibals-bryan-fuller-rise-horror-432241). 7 The Walking Dead is the most viewed US Cable TV show, with ratings of c.15 million viewers per episode. Its success has bred a prequel, Fear the Walking Dead (2015–). 8 A new iteration of True Detective appeared in the summer of 2015; it, however, involves two new central characters and a new setting. 9 Rather than review current scholarship, translations or other media in their entirety, I will be selective in the material I mention. Those interested in a more formal and complete survey of scholarship on Senecan drama should visit the Oxford Bibliographies Online (http://www .oxfordbibliographies.com/).