Seneca’s Phoenissae: In Search of an Ending
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Stavros Frangoulidis
Abstract
In Seneca’s Phoenissae the notion of closure undergoes constant redefinition in the evolution of the play’s plot. Oedipus wishes to end his life as a form of punishment due to his additional guilt from his vision of his sons’ deliberately planning to recommit and surpass his own inadvertent crimes. This prophecy is tantamount to the birth of the Phoenissae and leads to Oedipus’ reframing of closure as punishment that is no longer his own death but the destruction of his entire family and city. The play’s lack of an ending and Oedipus’ search for one are thematized as the dramatic deadlock in Thebes parallels the metatheatrical stand-off in the play with a series of debates involving characters with an objective opposed to that of Oedipus and who try to forestall the forward movement of his single vision. This sequence of interrupted trajectories and the conflict of narratives shape our understanding of the scope and stakes of Oedipus’ envisioned (but narratively incomplete) closure.
Abstract
In Seneca’s Phoenissae the notion of closure undergoes constant redefinition in the evolution of the play’s plot. Oedipus wishes to end his life as a form of punishment due to his additional guilt from his vision of his sons’ deliberately planning to recommit and surpass his own inadvertent crimes. This prophecy is tantamount to the birth of the Phoenissae and leads to Oedipus’ reframing of closure as punishment that is no longer his own death but the destruction of his entire family and city. The play’s lack of an ending and Oedipus’ search for one are thematized as the dramatic deadlock in Thebes parallels the metatheatrical stand-off in the play with a series of debates involving characters with an objective opposed to that of Oedipus and who try to forestall the forward movement of his single vision. This sequence of interrupted trajectories and the conflict of narratives shape our understanding of the scope and stakes of Oedipus’ envisioned (but narratively incomplete) closure.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Preface V
- Contents VII
- List of Figures XI
- Introduction 1
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Part I: Facing Unfinishedness
- From the Authorial to the Editorial tour de force: How to Read Callimachus’ Aetia and Hecale 21
- How to Walk Along a Pioneer’s Fragmentary Track: Theophrastus’ Meteorological Studies 41
- Fragments of Roman Sexuality in Petronius’ Satyricon 59
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Part II: Questioning (In)Completeness
- The “Alexandrian End” of the Odyssey 89
- Reconsidering Closure in Ovid’s Fasti 115
- Statius’ Achilleid: How to Break off a carmen perpetuum 127
- Literatura Incompleta: Borges’ Antiquity between World and Universe 143
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Part III: Constitutive Unfinishedness
- Sed redeo ad formulam (Off. 3.20): Completeness and Imperfection in Cicero’s De officiis 165
- Relativizing Unfinishedness: Lucretian Textuality and Epicurean Therapy 189
- The Fragment as a Form: A Reading of Fragments d’un discours amoureux by Barthes 211
- Arrhythmic Historiography, Lost Letters and Broken Meanings: Fulgentius’s De aetatibus mundi et hominis 225
- “This City Will Always Pursue You”: The Impossible End of Rutilius Namatianus’ Return 241
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Part IV: Reading Unfinishedness
- Finishing Iphigenia in Aulis 261
- Seneca’s Phoenissae: In Search of an Ending 275
- How to Read Hyginus’ Fabulae? Theories and Practices 289
- The Rest was not Perfected: Platonic Endings and their Modern Echoes 311
- War as a Permanent Civil War: The “Unfinished” History in Pasolini’s Petrolio 331
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Part V: Searching for Completion
- The Missing Conclusion to Valerius Flaccus’ Argonautica 353
- Speaking Silences: The Incompleteness of Tacitus’ Annals and Gustav Freytag’s Die verlorene Handschrift 383
- Putting an Unfinished Novel Back into Motion: A Digital Tool to Create Possible “Second Volumes” of Bouvard et Pécuchet 405
- List of Contributors 419
- General Index 423
- Index of Passages 427
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Preface V
- Contents VII
- List of Figures XI
- Introduction 1
-
Part I: Facing Unfinishedness
- From the Authorial to the Editorial tour de force: How to Read Callimachus’ Aetia and Hecale 21
- How to Walk Along a Pioneer’s Fragmentary Track: Theophrastus’ Meteorological Studies 41
- Fragments of Roman Sexuality in Petronius’ Satyricon 59
-
Part II: Questioning (In)Completeness
- The “Alexandrian End” of the Odyssey 89
- Reconsidering Closure in Ovid’s Fasti 115
- Statius’ Achilleid: How to Break off a carmen perpetuum 127
- Literatura Incompleta: Borges’ Antiquity between World and Universe 143
-
Part III: Constitutive Unfinishedness
- Sed redeo ad formulam (Off. 3.20): Completeness and Imperfection in Cicero’s De officiis 165
- Relativizing Unfinishedness: Lucretian Textuality and Epicurean Therapy 189
- The Fragment as a Form: A Reading of Fragments d’un discours amoureux by Barthes 211
- Arrhythmic Historiography, Lost Letters and Broken Meanings: Fulgentius’s De aetatibus mundi et hominis 225
- “This City Will Always Pursue You”: The Impossible End of Rutilius Namatianus’ Return 241
-
Part IV: Reading Unfinishedness
- Finishing Iphigenia in Aulis 261
- Seneca’s Phoenissae: In Search of an Ending 275
- How to Read Hyginus’ Fabulae? Theories and Practices 289
- The Rest was not Perfected: Platonic Endings and their Modern Echoes 311
- War as a Permanent Civil War: The “Unfinished” History in Pasolini’s Petrolio 331
-
Part V: Searching for Completion
- The Missing Conclusion to Valerius Flaccus’ Argonautica 353
- Speaking Silences: The Incompleteness of Tacitus’ Annals and Gustav Freytag’s Die verlorene Handschrift 383
- Putting an Unfinished Novel Back into Motion: A Digital Tool to Create Possible “Second Volumes” of Bouvard et Pécuchet 405
- List of Contributors 419
- General Index 423
- Index of Passages 427
