Theatre of Dionysus in Athens

Seneca's Medea

Medea – For the bridegroom I have a worse prayer in store: may he live. May he wander through unknown cities in want, in exile, in fear, hated and homeless; may he seek out men’s doors, by this time a notorious guest; may he long for me as his wife, and – I can make no worse prayer – for children resembling their father and resembling their mother. My revenge is born, already born: I have given birth. (19-26)

Chorus – (part of the matrimonial song) When she takes her place in a women’s dance, her face alone outshines them all. So the stars’ beauty fails before the sun, and the clustered Pleiads are hidden when Phoebe in borrowed light clasps her full orb with encircling horns. (93-8)

Medea – Your own crimes must urge you on, every one of them must return: the famous ornament of my kingdom stolen, the criminal girl’s little companion cut apart with the sword, his death thrust in his father’s face, his body scattered on the sea, and the limbs of old Pelias boiled in a cauldron. How often have I spilled blood fatally – kindred blood! And yet I did no crime from anger; the cruelty came from my unhappy love. (130-6)

Nurse – Be silent, I beg you, hide your grievances, lock them away in secret resentment. One who endures deep wounds mutely, with cool patience, can repay them; anger concealed wreaks havoc; hatred declared loses its chance for revenge. (150-4)

Medea – One who can feel no hope need feel no despair. (163)

Medea – One who feels guilty for your sake should be innocent in your eyes. (503)

Creon – Depart with haste, and remove at long last a savage and fearful horror!
Medea – What crime, what guilt is being punished by exile?
Creon – An innocent woman asks the cause of her expulsion.
Medea – If you are acting as judge, investigate the case; if as king, give orders.
Creon – You must endure a king’s command, just or unjust.
Medea – Unjust kingship never remains unbroken.
Creon – Go and complain to the Colchians.
Medea – I am going, but he who brought me away should take me back.
Creon – Your words come too late, my decree is decided.
Medea – He who decides an issue without hearing one side has not been just, however just the decision.
Creon – Was Pelias given a hearing by you before being punished?
But speak on, let us give your excellent case a chance. (190-202)

Nurse – My child, where are you rushing in such haste from the house? Stop, curb your anger, control your aggression!
Like an ecstatic maenad taking erratic steps, crazed and possessed by the god, on snowy Pindus’ peak or Nysa’s ridges, so she keeps running here and there with wild movements, with signs of frenzied rage in her expression. Her face is blazing, she draws breaths, she shouts out, weeps floods of tears, beams with joy; she shows evidence of each and every emotion. She hesitates, threatens, fumes, laments, groans. Which way will the weight of her mind come down? Where will she implement her threats? Where will that wave break? Her rage is cresting. It is no simple or moderate crime she is contemplating: she will outdo herself. I know the hallmarks of her old anger. Something great is looming, savage, monstrous, unnatural. I see the face of Rage. May the gods prove my fears wrong! (380-96)

Medea – My mind has the power and habit, as you know, of disdaining the wealth of kings. Only allow me to have the children as companions in my exile, in whose embrace I can pour out my tears. You have the prospect of new sons.
Jason – I admit I would like to obey your appeal, but fatherly love for them forbids. Not even my king and father-in-law himself could force me to endure that. This is my reason for living, this is the solace for my heart, so scorched by cares. I would sooner be deprived of my breath, of my body, of the light.
Medea (aside) – Does he love his sons so much? Good, he is caught! The place to wound him is laid bare. (540-50)

Medea – Raise your tear-swollen eyes here, ungrateful Jason. Do you recognise your wife? This is how I always escape. A path has opened to heaven: twin serpents offer their scaly necks bowed to the chariot yoke. Now recover your sons as their parent. I shall ride through the air in my winged chariot. (1019-25)


Constellations:
See 670-739. esp. 686-90 [Serpens?]; 694-9 [Draco & Ursa Major & Ursa Minor]; 700 [Python]; 701 [Hydra & Hercules]; 758-9 below [Ursa Major & Ursa Minor]; and 93-8 above [Pleiads].

Nurse – My heart shudders with fear: great devastation is near. It is monstrous how her resentment grows, feeds its own fires, renews its past violence. I have often seen her raging, assailing the gods, drawing down the heavens; greater than that, greater still is the monstrosity Medea is preparing. For after going out with frenzied steps and reaching her inner sanctum of death, she pours out her entire resources, brings forth everything that even she has long feared, and deploys all her host of evils, occult, mysterious, hidden things. Making prayers at the sinister shrine with her left hand, she summons all plagues produced by the sand of burning Libya, and all those locked in the everlasting snow of the Taurus, frozen Arctic cold, and every monster. Hauled out by her magic spells, the scaly throng desert their lairs and approach. Here a fierce serpent hauls its vast body, flicks out its three-forked tongue and casts about for those to whom it can bring death; at the sound of her spell it is mesmerised, twines its swollen body into folds upon folds, forces it into coils.
“Too small,” she says, “are the evils, too ordinary the weapons that earth below produces: I must seek my poisons from heaven. Now is the time to embark on something loftier than ordinary criminality. That snake must descend here who lies like a vast torrent, whose gigantic coils are felt by the two beasts, the greater and the less (the greater useful to Pelasgians, the less to Sidonians); Ophiuchus must finally release his gripping hands and let the venom pour out. My chants must bring down Python, who dared provoke the twin deities; the Hydra must return, with each snake that was cut away by Hercules’ hand, renewing itself through its own laceration. You too must leave Colchis and come, unsleeping serpent, lulled for the first time by my chants.” (690-704)

Invocation of the Tortures of the Underworld:

Medea – I invoke the thronging silent dead, and you the gods of the grave, and sightless Chaos, and the shadowy home of dark-enshrouded Dis, the cavernous halls of squalid Death, enclosed by Tartarus’ streams. Eased of your torments, run, you ghosts, to this strange marriage rite; the wheel that tortures limbs may stop, Ixion touch the ground, and Tantalus may swallow down Pirene’s stream in peace. But may heavier punishment rest on one, my husband’s marriage relation: over the rocks may the slippery stone roll Sisyphus back downhill. And you who are mocked by fruitless toil with pitchers pierced by holes, assemble here, you Danaids: this day demands your hands. Now summoned by my rites appear, you heavenly globe of night, displaying your most hostile looks, with menace in every face. For you I have loosed my hair in the style of my people and paced your sequestered groves with naked feet; I have summoned water out of the rainless clouds, and forced the sea to its depths: Ocean withdrew his heavy waves, as the tides were overpowered. With the laws of heaven confounded, the world has seen both sun and stars together, and the Bears have touched the forbidden sea. I have changed the pattern of the seasons: the summer earth has frozen under my spells, and Ceres was compelled to see a winter harvest. The Phasis turned his violent stream to its source, and the Hister, with so many separate mouths, constrained its savage waters in every branch to stillness. Waves have crashed, the maddened seas have swelled with the wind silent; the shelter of the ancient woods has lost its shade at the bidding of my voice. The moment is right to attend your ritual, Phoebe. (740-70)

Medea – What great deed could be dared by untrained hands, by the fury of a girl? Now I am Medea: my genius has grown through evils. (908-10)

Medea – What is the target of this wild throng of Furies? Whom are they hunting, whom are they threatening with fiery blows? At whom is the hellish band pointing its bloody torches? A huge snake hisses, entwined in a lavish whip. Whom is Megaera seeking with her bludgeon? Whose shade approaches ill-defined with limbs dispersed? It is my brother, he seeks amends. We shall pay them, yes, every one. Drive torches into my eyes, mutilate me, burn me: see, my breast is open to the Furies.
Bid the avenging goddesses draw back from me, brother, and return to the deep shades assured of their purpose. Leave me to myself, and act, brother, through this hand that has drawn the sword. With this sacrifice I placate your shade. (958-70)

Bibliography:

A. J. Boyle, Tragic Seneca: An Essay in the Theatrical Tradition. (London: Routledge, 1997).

Mary V. Bragington, The Supernatural in Seneca’s Tragedies, (Wisconsin, 1933).

C. D. N. Costa. Seneca. Greek and Latin Studies: Classical Literature & its Influence (London & Boston: Kegan Paul, 1974).

D. & E. Henry, “Loss of Identity: ‘Medea superset?’? A Study of Seneca’s Medea,” Classical Philology 62 (1967), 169-181.

H. V. Canter, Rhetorical Elements in the Tragedies of Seneca, University of Illinois Studies in Language and Literature 10, (Illinois, 1925).

Villy Sorensen, Seneca: the Humanist at the Court of Nero, trans. W. Glyn Jones (Edinburgh: Canongate, 1984).

E. Tavenner, Studies in Magic from Latin Literature, (New York, 1916).

Euripides - Bacchae

Bibliography

Barrett, J., ‘Pentheus and the Spectator in Euripides’ Bacchae,’ American Journal of Philology119, 1998, 337-60.

Carpenter, T. H. & C. A. Faraone, eds. Masks of Dionysus (Ithaca & London: Cornell U P, 1993).

Evans, A., The God of Ecstasy: Sex Roles and the Madness of Dionysus (New York, St Martin’s Press, 1988).

Godhill, S., ‘The Great Dionysia and Civic Ideology,’ in Winkler & Zeitlin ed. Nothing to Do with Dionysus? Athenian Drama in its Social Context (Princeton: PUP, 1990) 97-129.

Hoffmann, R. J., ‘Ritual License and the Cult of Dionysus,’ Athenaeum 67, 1989, 91-115.

Kott, Jan. The Eating of the Gods: An Interpretation of Greek Tragedy (NY: Random House, 1974).

Padel, Ruth. In and Out of the Mind: Greek Images of the Tragic Self (Princeton: PUP, 1992)

Seaford, R. A. S., ‘Dionysiac Drama and the Dionysiac Mysteries,’ Classical Quarterly 31, 1987, 252-75.

Seaford, R. A. S., ‘Pentheus’ Vision,’ Classical Quarterly 37, 1987, 76-8.

Segal, C., Dionysiac Poetics and Euripides' Bacchae (Princeton: PUP, 1982)

Seidensticker, B., ‘Comic Elements in Euripides’ Bacchae,’ American Journal of Philology 99, 1978, 303-20.

Seidensticker, B., ‘Pentheus,’ Poetica 5, 1972, 35-63.

Winkler, J. J. & F. Zeitlin, ed. Nothing to Do with Dionysus? Athenian Drama in its Social Context (Princeton: PUP, 1990).

Winnington-Ingram, R., Euripides and Dionysus: An Interpretation of the Bacchae (Cambridge: CUP, 1948)

Notes on Euripides’ Heracles – Melissa Flynn


Mythology and Interpretation

-Euripides’ play hints at some of the variations on Heracles myths

-why draw attention to the discrepancies between stories?

-what effects do the different myths have on our reading of the play?

Some Myths

-Zeus- father of Heracles

-raised by Amphityron and Alcmena

-why might it matter who father was?

-glorified son of god able to overcome odds?

-incurs persecution of Zeus’ wife Hera

-Hera- goddess of marriage- doubly insulted

-Disney v. Greek Myth

-Disney- Hercules is son of Zeus and Hera

-Hades with the help of his bumbling demons plots Hercules’ demise

-12 Labours of Hercules

-Amphityron states Heracles purpose was to “free the world of savage monsters”

-underlying reason?

-“whether it was that Hera goaded him to submit to this”

Or

-“that fate was leagued against him” (lines 20-25)

-Lycus’s tone when discussing Heracles’ accomplishments

“After all, what was the fine exploit your husband achieved, if he did kill a hydra in a marsh or that monster of Nemea?” (lines 150-155)

-Lycus’ similar criticism of Heracles’ choice of weapons

“The monster which“he caught in a snare, for all he says he strangled it to death in his arms. Are these your weapons for the hard struggle? Is it for this then that Heracles' children should be spared? A man who has won a reputation for valor in his contests with beasts, in all else a weakling; who never buckled shield to arm nor faced the spear, but with a bow, that coward's weapon, was ever ready to run away. Archery is no test of manly bravery; no! he is a man who keeps his post in the ranks and steadily faces the swift wound the spear may plough.” (lines 155-165)

-Amphityron’s reply

“Next you disparage that clever invention, an archer's weapon; come, listen to me and learn wisdom. A man who fights in line is a slave to his weapons, and if his fellow-comrades want for courage he is slain himself through the cowardice of his neighbors, or, if he breaks his spear, he cannot defend his body from death, having only one means of defence; whereas all who are armed with the trusty bow, though they have but one weapon, yet is it the best; for a man, after discharging countless arrows, still has others with which to defend himself from death, and standing at a distance keeps off the enemy, wounding them for all their watchfulness with invisible shafts, and never exposing himself to the foe, but keeping under cover; and this is by far the wisest course in battle, to harm the enemy and keep safe oneself, independent of chance. These arguments are completely opposite to yours with regard to the point at issue.” (lines 189-205)

-Madness of Heracles

-Euripides- Heracles goes mad after finished 12 Labours

Iris’s explanation:

“ For until he had finished all his grievous labors, Destiny was preserving him, nor would father Zeus ever suffer me or Hera to harm him. [830] But now that he has accomplished the labors of Eurystheus, Hera wishes to brand him with the guilt of shedding kindred blood by slaying his own children, and I wish it also.” (lines 826-834)

-bringing fighting back home with him?

-twist on the idea of a happy homecoming scene?

-this bit definitely did not make it into the Disney movie

A Few Sources

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0102%3Acard%3D822

http://www.maicar.com/GML/DisneyHercules.html

http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/HeraWrath.html


Thalia Papadopoulou, Heracles and Euripidean Tragedy, Cambridge: CUP, 2005.

A.W. Verrall, Essays on Four Plays of Euripides, Cambridge: CUP, 1905.

Seneca's Hercules Furens


Juno: Sister of the Thunder God: this is the only title left me. Wife no more, I have abandoned ever-unfaithful Jove and the precincts of high heaven; driven from the skies, I have given up my place to his whores. I must dwell on earth; whores inhabit the skies. Over here is the Bear, that lofty constellation high in the frozen North, a lodestar for Greek fleets. Here, where the daylight waxes in early spring, shines the one that carried Tyrian Europa across the waves. Over there rise the far-ranging daughters of Atlas, feared by ships and the sea. Here Orion menaces the gods with his sword, and golden Perseus has his constellation. Here glitters the brilliant sign of the twin Tyndarids, and those at whose birth the drifting land stood still. And not only Bacchus himself and Bacchus’ mother joined the gods above: so that no quarter should be free of scandal, heavens wear the garland of the girl from Cnossus. (1-18)

Juno: Even the earth is not room enough. See, he has broken through the gates of nether Jove, and brings spoils of triumph over that conquered king back to the upper world. With my own eyes I watched him, after he had shattered the gloom of the underworld and subdued Dis, as he showed off to his father spoils won from that father’s brother. Why not drag off Dis himself, bound and loaded with chains – the god who drew a lot equal to Jove’s? Why not rule over captured Erebus, and unroof the Stygian world? It is not enough to return: the terms governing the shades have been breached, a way back to earth has been opened from the deep underworld, and the sanctities of dread death lie in plain view. But he, in his arrogance at having smashed the prison of the ghostly dead, is celebrating his triumph over me, and highhandedly parading the black hound through Argive cities. I saw the daylight faltering at the sight of Cerberus, and the Sun afraid; I too was seized with trembling, and as I gazed at the triple necks of the defeated monster, I shuddered at what I had ordered. (46-63)

Juno: Begin, handmaids of Dis, brandish the blazing pine torch violently. Let Megaera lead your troop, fearsome with snakes, and snatch a huge beam from a blazing pyre in her baleful hand. To your work: avenge the desecration of the underworld! Rouse your hearts, scorch your minds with fiercer fire than that raging in Etna’s furnaces. So that Hercules can be hounded, deranged and enraged, you must first feel madness – Juno, why are you not yet raging? Harry me, sisters, overthrow my mind first, if I plan to take some action worthy of a stepmother. (100-112)

Chorus: Now scattered and weak are the stars shining in the sinking heavens. Vanquished night gathers her straggling fires now the light is reborn; the Dawnstar shepherds the glittering throng. The icy constellation by the high Pole, Arcas’ Bear with its seven stars, has turned its wain and summons the light. Now, carried aloft by cerulean steeds, the Titan looks out from the heights of Oeta; now the thickets made famous by Cadmean Bacchants grow red, spattered with daylight, and Phoebus’ sister flees to return once more. The Thracian paramour perches shrill-voiced on the topmost bough, and amidst her plaintive nestlings she eagerly presents her wings to the new sun; and all around a mingled throng gives voice, proclaiming the day with a medley of sounds.
Hard Toil arises, bestirs every care and opens every home. A herdsman turns his flock loose and gathers fodder whitened by hoarfrost; a calf, its brow not yet broken by horns, plays freely on the open meadow; dams replenish their empty udders; a boisterous kid wanders lightly on a meandering course in the soft grass. A sailor, risking life, entrusts his canvas to the winds, as a breeze fills the loose folds. One fellow, perched on eroded rocks, either prepares his concealed hooks or tensely watches the prize with his hand kept firm; the line senses the quivering fish.
Such are the guiltless lives of those who have quiet peace and a home that delights in its own small means. But in cities giant ambitions roam and trembling fears. One man forgoes sleep to cultivate the proud portals and hard doorways of the mighty. Another endlessly hoards rich resources, gaping at his treasures and poor amidst piled-up gold. One is dazed by popular acclaim; the mob, more shifting than seawaves, hoists him as he swells with an empty breeze. Another traffics in the frenzied disputes of the clamorous forum, and shamelessly hires out indignation and words.
Few are familiar with untroubled peace. They, conscious of fleeting time, hold fast the moments that will never return. While fate allows, live gladly! Life hurries apace, and with each winged day the wheel of the headlong year turns forward. The relentless sisters complete each day’s spinning, and do not unwind the threads again. But humans, unsure of their own good, walk into the path of hurrying fate; of ourselves we head for the Stygian waves. (125-185)
Megara: Emerge, my husband! Dispel the darkness by force, break it open! If there is no way back, if the path is closed, then return by rending the earth, and release with you all that lies in the grip of black night….burst forth, taking with you nature’s boundaries; restore all that greedy time has hidden away through so many passing years, and drive out before you the self-forgetting throngs that fear the light….But if some power greater than your own holds you imprisoned, we shall follow you. Either return safely and defend us all, or drag us all down. – You will drag us down, no god will rebuild our broken lives. (278-283, 290-293, & 305-308)

Left to right: Sisyphus whipped by one of the Erinyes, Hermes, Heracles capturing Cerberus, Hecate and Tantalus.

Megara: Ghost of Creon, house gods of Labdacus, and marriage torches of incestuous Oedipus, now grant the usual fate to our marriage! Now, you murderous daughters-in-law of Egypt’s king, be with us, your hands stained with copious blood. One Danaid is missing from your number: I shall complete the crime. (495-500)

Amphitryon: Why make vain prayers to the gods? Wherever you are, my son, hear me! Why is the shrine rocking and shaking with sudden movement? Why is the earth rumbling? A thunderous noise comes from the depths, from the underworld. We are heard! It is the sound of Hercules’ step. (520)

Chorus: What purpose drove you to the precipitous underworld, to travel boldly irretraceable paths, and to see the realm of Sicilian Prosperpine? There no southerly, no westerly wind causes seas to rise with swelling waves; there no twin Tyndarids come to the aid of fearful ships in starlike form. The sea stands inert with its black flood, and when Death, pale-faced with ravening teeth, has brought innumerable throngs to the shades, one oarsman transports so many peoples.
May you vanquish the laws of cruel Styx, and the irreversible distaffs of the Fates. The king who here rules numerous peoples, when you were attacking Nestor’s Pylos, raised his baneful hands against you, wielding his triple-pointed weapon; once injured with a slight wound, he fled – the lord of death terrified to die. Break through doom by force! For the gloomy underworld let a view of the light be opened, and the impassable boundary give easy passage to the upper world.
Orpheus could sway the pitiless rulers of the shades with songs and suppliant prayers, when he sought back his Eurydice. The art that had drawn trees, birds, and rocks, that had caused rivers to tarry, at whose sound beasts had stood still, soothes the lower world with unwonted song, and rings out clearer in those soundless places. The Eumenides weep for the Tracian bride; so too weep the gods who are proof against tears. Even those who investigate crimes with sternest brows and examine erstwhile culprits, those seated judges weep for Eurydice. At last death’s ruler said, “We submit. Go forth to the world, but with this proviso: you may escort your husband, but behind him; you may not look back on your wife until bright daylight discloses the heavens, and the door of Spartan Taenarus is near.” True love hates delays and cannot endure them: in hurrying to behold his prize, he lost her.
The kingdom that could be conquered by song can and will be conquered by force. (547-591)

Hercules: Lord of the life-giving light, glory of heaven, who circle through two expanses alternately in your fiery chariot and reveal your glorious face to the broad lands: grant pardon, Phoebus, if your gaze has beheld what is forbidden. I brought earth’s hidden things into the light under orders. And you, ruler and father of the heavenly gods, hold out the thunderbolt to shield your vision; and you who rule the seas with the second-drawn sceptre, make for your deepest waters. All who look from on high on earthly things, at risk of defilement from this strange sight, should turn their gaze away and lift their eyes to heaven, shunning such a monstrosity. Only two should behold this enormity: he who fetched it, she who ordered it. (592-604)

Theseus: There rises in the land of Sparta a far-famed ridge, where Cape Taenarus hems the sea with its dense forests. Here the house of hateful Dis opens its mouth; a tall cliff gapes wide, a cavernous abyss extends its vast jaws and spreads a broad path for all the nations. At the outset the way is not obscured by darkness: there falls a faint brightness from the light left behind, a twilight glow of the weakened sunshine, which baffles the eye. Such is the light, mingled with darkness, familiar at dawn or dusk. Then there open up empty regions, spaces extensive enough for all the human race to enter, once plunged into the earth. To travel is no toil: the path itself draws you down. As often a current sweeps ships unwillingly off course, so the downward breeze and the greedy void hurry you on, and the clutching shades never allow you to turn your steps backward.
In the immense abyss within, the River Lethe glides quietly with calm waters, and takes away cares; and lest an opening for return should ever appear, it entwines its sluggish stream in many winding turns, just as the wandering Meander plays with its puzzled waters, bends back on itself and presses forward, uncertain whether to head for the seacoast or its source. Here lies the foul swamp of the torpid Cocytus; here is the shriek of the vulture, there of the foreboding owl, and the grim echoing omen of the unlucky screech owl. Black bedraggled foliage hangs in shadowy fronds on an overhanging yew tree, the haunt of sluggish Sleep. There lies sad Hunger with wasted jaws, and Shame, too late, covers its guilty face. There are Fear and Panic, Death and gnashing Resentment;… (658-694)

…As ferryman, [Charon] he controls his craft himself with a long pole. He was bringing the boat to shore empty of cargo to collect more shades. Alcides demanded room, but as the crowd gave way, dread Charon shouted, “Where are you heading so boldly? Check your hurried steps.” Alcmene’s son brooked no delay, but coerced the sailor into subjection with his own pole, and climbed aboard. The skiff, which could carry crowds, foundered beneath this one man; it settled overburdened in the water, and drank in the Lethe on each side as it rocked. Then the monsters he had conquered panicked, savage Centaurs…; seeking the farthest recesses of the Stygian swamp, the Lernean labour submerged its prolific heads.
After this there came into sight the house of greedy Dis. Here the fierce Stygian hound keeps the shades in fear and guards the kingdom, tossing his triple heads with clamorous noise. Snakes lick the heads foul with pus, his manes bristle with vipers, and a long serpent hisses in his twisted tail. His rage matches his appearance. As he heard the movement of feet, his shaggy coat bristled with quivering snakes, and he pricked up his ears to catch the sound, being practiced in hearing even ghosts. When Jove’s son took his stand closer to the cave, the hound sat back uncertain, and each felt fear. Suddenly with deep barking he alarmed the silent region; the snakes hissed threateningly all over his shoulders. The din of his fearsome bark, emerging through his three mouths, frightened even the shades in bliss…(768-797)

Select Bibliography:

Boyle, A. J. Seneca Tragicus: Ramus Essays on Senecan Drama. Berwick, Victoria: Aureal, 1983.

Fitch, John G. 'Notes on Seneca's Hercules Furens.' Transactions of the American Philological Association 111 (1981) 65-70.

Fitch, John G. 'Pectus o nimium ferum: Act V of Seneca's Hercules Furens.' Hermes 107 (1979) 240-248.

Lawall, Gibert. 'Virtus and Pietas in Seneca’s Hercules Furens.' Senecan Tragedy. Spec. issue of Ramus 12.1-2 (1983): 6-26.

Motto, A. L. and J. R. Clark. 'Maxima Virtus in Seneca’s Hercules Furens.' Classical Philology 76.1 (1981): 101-17.

Motto, A. L. and J. R. Clark. 'The Monster in Seneca’s Hercules Furens 926-939.' Classical Philology 89.3 (1994): 269-72.

Rose, A. R. 'Seneca’s Dawn Song (Hercules Furens, 125-58) and the Imagery of Cosmic Disruption.' Latomus 44.1 (1985): 101-23.

Segal, Charles, ‘Dissonant Sympathy: Song, Orpheus and the Golden Age in Seneca's Tragedies’ in Boyle (see above)

Sutton, Dana F. ‘Seneca’s Hercules Furens: One Chorus or Two?’ American Journal of Philology 105 (1984), 301 – 305.

Sutton, Dana F. Seneca on the Stage (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1986).