Seneca's Heroides: Elegy in Seneca's Medea Author(s): Christopher Trinacty Reviewed work(s): Source: The Classical Journal, Vol. 103, No. 1 (Oct. - Nov., 2007), pp. 63-78 Published by: The Classical Association of the Middle West and South Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/30038659 . Accessed: 11/06/2012 14:37 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. The Classical Association of the Middle West and South is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Classical Journal. http://www.jstor.org SENECA'S HEROIDES: ELEGY IN SENECA'S MEDEA* Abstract:This paper analyzes the intertextual relationship between Seneca's Medea andOvid's Heroides. Seneca utilizes the Heroides not only to flesh out his charac- terizationof Medea, but to examinethe differences (and similarities)between the genresof elegy and tragedy.Seneca's Medea owes her elegiac background toOvid, buther actions in theplay reveal a self-consciouscharacter striving to surpass previousrepresentations. ver ten years ago, Tarrantwrote, "Analyzing Seneca's strong rereadingof the Augustans is one of the mostpromising ways ver of furtherdefining the themesand outlook of Senecan drama, but focusingon Seneca's genericcontaminatio may also enhanceunder- standing of his dramaturgy."'Seneca's tragedies resound with the language and imagery of previous Greek and Roman authors,and his works respond creativelyto this poetic traditionto carve out a place for his own unique voice and view. Recent work on Senecan tragedy has explored aspects of Seneca's intertextualrelationship with Ovid and Virgil, as well as suggested how intertextualitycan enrichthe interpretationof the plays.2Schiesaro, for example, shows how Seneca's Atreus models his behavior on Ovid's Tereus and Procne (Met. 6.412-674), and suggests that the immoral cycle of revenge in thattale permeates Thyestes:"the pointed and systematic connectionbetween the Metamorphosesand Thyestesreinforces pre- cisely this precarious and destabilizing morality."3In addition to thematicemphasis, intertextualityevokes larger questions of genre, as referencesto epic or elegy are woven into the fabricof Senecan tragedy. Littlewood finds that Hippolytus' hunting song, rife with * I would like to thankthe editor,S. Douglas Olson, and the anonymous referees to Profs.David of CJfor their insightful suggestions and critiques.I am also grateful Christensonand JeriDeBrohun fortheir perceptive comments. 1 Tarrant(1995) 225. 2 For verbal parallels, see e.g. Jakobi (1988); Putnam (1995); Schiesaro (2003); Littlewood (2004). Conte (1986), Wills (1996), Hinds (1998) and Edmunds (2001) have informedmy use of the term"intertextuality." 3 Schiesaro (2003) 82. Both Tereus and Procne are morallyculpable: "To Tereus' responsibilityOvid opposes a monstrousrevenge with intractablemoral implications. IfTereus' tyrannicalcruelty is neitherlessened nor justifiedby the terriblepunishment his wife prepares for him, neitherdoes Procne personifya fully endorsable moral option." THE CLASSICAL JOURNAL103.1 (2007) 63-78 64 CHRISTOPHERTRINACTY allusionsto elegiacpoetry, undermines the chaste persona he strug- gles to embodythroughout the play.4Intertextuality allows forthe incorporationof diverse voices into Seneca's tragedies, and whenhe incorporateselegy and epic,the reader must decide how thegenre of the sourcematerial alters the meaningof the line in its new tragic context.sSeneca thus revealshimself as an authorconcerned with genericcontaminatio, and his tragediesbecome arenas in whichthe assumptionsand conventionsof different genres are contested.6 Thispaper focuses on theintertextual relationship between Sene- ca's Medeaand Ovid's Heroides.7Seneca utilizesthe Heroides exten- sivelyin the creationof his characters,most notablyMedea and Phaedra.8Heroides 6 (Hypsipyleto Jason)and Heroides12 (Medea to Jason)offer Seneca a view of Medea thatdiffers drastically from her representationin Greektragedy or Roman epic.9Ovid's heroines (Hypsipyleand Medea) subscribeto thegeneric rules of theelegiac Heroidesand detailtheir love forJason, although the different inter- nal authorsoffer distinctive perspectives on theirrelationships with him."1Both heroinesspecify the miserylove causes them,while placinga new "spin"on thetraditional literary tales. Ovid imagines Medea momentsafter the wedding procession for Creusa and Jason has passedher door, while his Hypsipyle has heardrumors of Jason's new mistress,Medea. Ovid's portrayalsof Medea respondto pre- vious representationsin Euripidesand Apollonius,but add new 4 Cf. Littlewood(2004) 263, discussing "deviant intertextuality." 5 Cf. Barchiesi (2001) 142: "The relationthat joins a textto a model involves the interpretationnot of one textbut two. Both these interpretationsare ever on trial,in process, and continuallyinfluencing one another. The new text rereads its model, while the model in turninfluences the reading of the new text-indeed when recog- nized, it oftenhas the power to do so." 6 Cf. Conte (1994) 36: "A means of significationincorporated into the textto give formand meaning to the discourse and instructionsto its reader,the genre is in fact the horizon markingthe boundaries of its meaningand delimitingits real possibilities withinthe systemof literarycodification." Leo (1878) and Cleasby (1907) firstpointed out many of these parallels. 8I will not examine the characterof Phaedra, althoughSeneca certainlyhad Her. 4 in mind in his Phaedra.See DeVito (1994) and Casali (1995) forreadings of Her. 4 that are influencedby Seneca's Phaedra,and the edition of Coffeyand Meyer (1990), which points out the multipleparallels. 9 Ovid also writes of Medea at Met. 7.1-424. I am convinced that Ovid's lost tragedy,Medea, also influencedSeneca's version,but, due to the fragmentarynature of that play, I have chosen to focus on the Heroides.Although Knox (1986) doubts the authenticityof Her. 12, I feel that Hinds (1993) successfullycounters many of Knox's argumentsand believe that Her. 12 is the work of Ovid. See Heinze (1997) 237-52 for text,testimonia and commentaryon Ovid's Medea. "oFor Her. 12, see Bessone (1997); Heinze (1997). For Her. 6, see Knox (1995). For discussion of the relationshipbetween Her. 12 and Her. 6, see Verducci (1985); Lind- heim (2003). Recent work on the Heroideshas stressed the individual voices of the internalauthors within the largergroup of heroines;see Fulkerson(2005). ELEGYIN SENECA'S MEDEA 65 perspectivescommensurate with theirposition in the epistolaryand elegiac genre.11The Heroidesshow elegy's abilityto reshape epic and tragicmaterial, and Seneca offersa correspondingtransformation as he reclaimsMedea forhis tragedy.12As Hinds commentson Medea's characterizationin the Heroides,"Medea, the tragicheroine par excel- lence,enters a collection of elegiac epistles, but she does not come quietly: her tragic identityis not suppressed, but ratheris set in productive tension with her new epistolaryenvironment."'13 Ovid's Heroidesprovide ways of viewing the literarytradition, focalized throughthe lettersof the heroines. Seneca's response advances the storyto a concretefuture and shows the resultsof the elegiac Medea's returnto the tragic stage. As Ovid's charactersdefine themselves within the genre and vis-ai-visprevious literarymaterial, so Seneca writeshis Medea in response to these new figurationsof Medea. His tragedyrelies on Ovid's Medeas to provide a ready-made "elegiac" role forhis own Medea.14 Seneca's decision to utilize the Heroidesin the constructionof his Medea is an inspired one. In the Heroides,Medea's elegiac character- isticsare emphasized along with her controlof the literarytradition; she is, afterall, craftingthe letterof Heroides12. A reading of Seneca's Medea that takes into account the intertextualechoes of the Heroides helps clarifyhow and why Seneca's Medea is as self-consciousas she appears to be.15I will trace examples of the intertextualrelationship between Ovid and Seneca to show how the elegiac characteristicsof Seneca's Medea derive from the elegiac works of Ovid, and how these characteristicsrenegotiate aspects of personaand genre. The Ovidian intertextserves as the background for the love Seneca's Medea once felt for Jason. When Seneca alludes to this material, 11 For more on the epistolarityof the Heroides,see Kennedy (2002). Farrell(1998) stressesthe femaleauthorship of the Heroidesand theirrhetorical strategies. 12 See Barchiesi (1993) 346: "Ovid's heroines ... are conditionedby an intertextu- ality which is not simply mythological,but is specificallyliterary." Fulkerson (2005) 14: "Because these heroines exist prior to the Heroidesin various textualincarnations, it is impossible to avoid comparingthe charactersin the poems to theirpredecessors, even when those predecessorsexist only in fragments." 13 Hinds (1993) 39. 14I do not believe thatevery allusion carriessuch genericresonance, but I hope to show that certainallusions should be read in this manner and that Seneca was aware of the generic tension between differentforms of poetry and his tragedies. Harrison (2002) discusses "genericascent" in Ovid's