Recognition and the Character of Seneca's Medea

Bexley, E.M.

Abstract

This article examines the character and identity of Seneca's Medea. Focusing on the recognition scene at the end of the play, I investigate how Medea constructs herself both as a literary figure and as an implied human personality. The concluding scene of Seneca's Medea raises crucial questions about self-coherence and recognisability: in contrast to other moments of anagnōrisis in Greco-Roman drama, it confirms the pre-existing facets of Medea's identity, rather than revealing new ones. This concept of recognition as self-confirmation is also integral to Seneca's Stoic view of human selfhood, and Medea's use of Stoic principles in this play reinforces her dual status as textual entity and quasi-person.

Citation

Bexley, E. (2016). Recognition and the Character of Seneca's Medea. The Cambridge Classical Journal, 62, 31-51. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1750270516000051

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Online Publication Date: Aug 8, 2016
• Publication Date: Dec 1, 2016
• Deposit Date: Sep 27, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 2, 2017
• Journal: The Cambridge Classical Journal
• Print ISSN: 1750-2705
• Electronic ISSN: 2047-993X
• Publisher: Cambridge Philological Society
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 62
• Pages: 31-51
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/s1750270516000051
• Related Public URLs: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa27562#details