This is most comprehensive study of Seneca's Hercules Furens to date and indeed of any Roman tragedy. Apart from illustrating the poetic language, the literary conventions and the dramatic technique of the play, the book highlights the figure of the Roman Hercules in relation to its Greek model, the Euripidean Herakles. The comprehensive introduction on myth, modern interpretations and textual transmission of the play is followed by a discussion of the newly discovered collation of the codex Etruscus by J.F. Gronovius. The detailed commentary is provided with a new critical...

The transmission of the Seneca tragedies first became an object of critical discussion by the Italian humanists and has continued to occupy scholars to the present day. Besides a brief account of the critical work of Jodocus Badius (Ascensiana 1514) and of Girolamo Avanzi (Aldina 1517) the repertory lists systematically the conjectures recorded since M.A. Delrio (Second ed., 1619) down to the year 2007 and arranges them in the context of the critical discussion of the text. Conceived in the first instance as a work of reference for future editors, commentators and critical readers of the...