I just finished reading Oedipus by Seneca (1st century AD), translated by E. F. Watling. This play deals with familiar Greek myth, specifically the story of Oedipus, more well-known from the earlier Theban plays of Sophocles.

Seneca’s writing is darker and more violent than his Greek predecessor and, while the basic structure of the plot is the same, there are numerous differences. One wonders if the realities of the Roman Empire under Nero influenced Seneca’s writing. His Stoic philosophy is evident throughout the play. For example:

“No anxious thought of ours can change
The pattern of the web of destiny.”

Or when Jocasta is speaking in the first act to Oedipus:

“Why do you choose,
Dear husband, thus to make your misery worse
By lamentation? I believe a king
Should grasp misfortune with a steady hand;
The more unsure his state, more imminent
His fall from sovereignty, so much the more
Should he be resolute to stand upright.
He is no man who turns his back on fate.“

I found the poetry very beautiful, with compelling imagery and a direct, quickly unfolding plot.

“Was Acheron enraged at this assault
Upon its secrets – or was this the noise
Of earth bursting its prison gates to give
A passage to the dead? Or Cerberus
The triple-headed hound in anger shaking
His heavy chains? Soon after this, earth gaped
And a vast chasm was revealed. I saw
Down in the darkness the unmoving lake;
I saw the colourless divinities;
I saw the quintessential night.”