#Seneca the Younger

[lionofchaeronea]

Therefore, we must cut away two things--fear of the future and memory of past unpleasantness; the latter no longer pertains to me, the former not yet. Circumcidenda ergo duo sunt, et futuri timor et veteris incommodi memoria; hoc ad me iam non pertinet, illud nondum. --Seneca the Younger, Epistles 78.14

[illustratus]

The Death of Seneca by Manuel Domínguez Sánchez

[latin-literature-tourney]

Latin Literature Tournament - Round 2

Propaganda under the cut!

Seneca the Younger Propaganda:

Seneca my chronically ill beloved...

His tragedies are the rawest, most gut-wrenching, and visceral pieces in pre-modern drama. His Oedipus is so fucking gnarly and it's my favorite thing ever written

I think he's super underrated as an innovator of form and genre. Between his Epistulae Morales and his tragic corpus, he was really just fucking around in the coolest way

Plautus Propaganda:

This is some of the oldest Latin we have, giving us insights into both archaic and colloquial Latin

His writing is really cleverly idiosyncratic and vibrant, with a lot of fun wordplay and neologisms

Plautus' influence on subsequent comedy can't be overstated--commedia dell'arte, Shakespeare, early sitcoms, it's all just Plautus

[philosophors]

“If you really want to escape the things that harass you, what you’re needing is not to be in a different place but to be a different person.”

— Seneca, “Letters from a Stoic”

[castilestateofmind]

"If you have ever come upon a grove that is thick with ancient trees rising far above the usual height and blocking the view of the sky with their cover of intertwining branches, the loftiness of the forest, the seclusion of the spot, and your wonder at the unbroken shade in the midst of open space will create in you the feeling of a divine presence".

-Seneca the Younger on the numina.

[poligraf]

Anger, as we have said, is eager to punish; and that such a desire should exist in man’s peaceful breast is least of all according to his nature; for human life is founded on benefits and harmony and is bound together into an alliance for the common help of all, not by terror, but by love towards one another.

— Seneca the Younger

[alexanderpearce]

seneca didnt have a clue what i was going to do with his texts

[heavensbeehall]

The Cranes

"If the Head Gamemaker, Seneca Crane, had any brains, he'd have blown you to dust right then. But he had an unfortunate sentimental streak. So here you are. Can you guess where he is?" he asks

I nod because, by the way he says it, it's clear that Seneca Crane has been executed.

An "unfortunate sentimental streak" is an odd way of putting it. And that's the only description we get of Seneca Crane from the books, everything else is from the film.

I suppose we can guess he was more interested in the drama of the "show" since he's named after a playwright (I have only read Medea and that was a long time ago). Snow is Nero in this analogy, who was forced Seneca to commit suicide in Rome.

He and his ancestor, Arachne Crane, don't seem to have much in common except their extreme privilege. Well, that and they both seem to have irritated Snow. She's named for a mythological figure, and he for a historical one. Though I wonder if his family still made their money from building vacation homes?

[transbutchblues]

I’m finally reading Seneca’s plays and somehow he manages to make greek tragedies even worse. it’s just so bloody and awful. I like it.

[stoicheadaurelius]

Uncover Seneca's Timeless Wisdom on Friendship and Aging

Most Thought-Provoking Stoic Insights from Timeless "Moral Letters to Lucilius" by Seneca on Old age, Philosophy and Friendship to help you get more stoic and solid against most crucial of the life hardships: "As we hate solitude and crave society, as nature draws men to each other, so in this matter also there is an attraction which makes us desirous of friendship. Nevertheless, though the sage may love his friends dearly, often comparing them with himself, and putting them ahead of himself, yet all the good will be limited to his own being, and he will speak the words which were spoken by the very Stilbo whom Epicurus criticizes in his letter. For Stilbo, after his country was captured and his children and his wife lost, as he emerged from the general desolation alone and yet happy, spoke as follows to Demetrius, called Sacker of Cities because of the destruction he brought upon them, in answer to the question whether he had lost anything: "I have all my goods with me!" There is a brave and stout-hearted man for you! The enemy conquered, but Stilbo conquered his conqueror. "I have lost nothing!" Aye, he forced Demetrius to wonder whether he himself had conquered after all. "My goods are all with me!" In other words, he deemed nothing that might be taken from him to be a good. ... But you must not think that our school alone can utter noble words; Epicurus himself, the reviler of Stilbo, spoke similar language; put it down to my credit, though I have already wiped out my debt for the present day. He says: "Whoever does not regard what he has as most ample wealth, is unhappy, though he be master of the whole world." Or, if the following seems to you a more suitable phrase, – for we must try to render the meaning and not the mere words: "A man may rule the world and still be unhappy, if he does not feel that he is supremely happy." (c) Seneca, "Moral Letters to Lucilius". 

Enjoy the ancient stoic wisdom excerpted directly from the most famous treatises of the true sages of antiquity!

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[lionofchaeronea]

The Dying Seneca, Peter Paul Rubens, 1612-13

[apenitentialprayer]

If pictures of absent friends give us pleasure, renewing our memories and relieving the pain of separation even if they cheat us with an empty comfort, how much more welcome is a letter which comes to us in the very handwriting of an absent friend?

Seneca, in his Fortieth Moral Letter to Lucilius, trans. Betty Radice. Original Latin below:

Si imagines nobis amicorum absentium iucundae sunt, quae memoriam renovant et desiderium falso atque inani solacio levant, quanto iucundiores sunt litterae, quae vera amici absentis vestigia, veras notas adferunt?

[latin-literature-tourney]

Latin Literature Tournament - Round 1

Propaganda under the cut!

Seneca the Younger Propaganda:

Seneca my chronically ill beloved...

His tragedies are the rawest, most gut-wrenching, and visceral pieces in pre-modern drama. His Oedipus is so fucking gnarly and it's my favorite thing ever written

I think he's super underrated as an innovator of form and genre. Between his Epistulae Morales and his tragic corpus, he was really just fucking around in the coolest way

Jerome Propaganda:

While it gets kinda paraphrastic, the Vulgate a really cool work in the history of translation, and its simple style is really clear and balanced

Describes the occurrence and cure of a sever vitamin A deficiency in the Life of Saint Hilarion, which is pretty fucking cool

Worked on onomastica, which would frankly be my personal hell, but it shows that he was brave and had the patience of, well, a saint

[justwatchmyeyes]

If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable.

Seneca the Younger

[apenitentialprayer]

Ita est: nihil perpetuum, pauca diuturna sunt; aliud alio modo fragile est, rerum exitus variantur, ceterum quicquid coepit et desinit.

“Nothing lasts forever, few things even last for long: all are susceptible of decay in one way or another; moreover all that begins also ends.”

— Seneca, To Polybius, On Consolation

[gylfie109]

This makes me giggle one of my classmates handed out stickers so I stuck this on the cover of my philosophy notes