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2 - Staging Thyestes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 September 2009

Alessandro Schiesaro
Affiliation:
King's College London
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Summary

THE POETICS OF FUROR

libet reverti

(Seneca, Agamemnon 12)

Quis inferorum sede ab infausta extrahit

avido fugaces ore captantem cibos?

quis male deorum Tantalo visas domos

ostendit iterum? peius inventum est siti

arente in undis aliquid et peius fame

hiante semper?

Who drags me forth from the accursed abode of the dead, where I snatch at food ever-fleeing from my hungry lips? What god shows Tantalus again the homes he saw to his ruin? Has something worse been invented than parching thirst in the middle of water, worse than ever-gaping hunger?

The Thyestes begins by staging the process of its own construction. Tantalus not only wonders at the unexpected turn his punishment is taking, but also questions the very existence – the theatrical essence – of the drama that is bringing him on the scene. His questions, while ostensibly bearing on his fate as a mythic character, also look in anguish at the unfolding of the tragic action, as if he watches himself from the outside becoming a character of a dramatic text.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Passions in Play
Thyestes and the Dynamics of Senecan Drama
, pp. 26 - 69
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2003

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  • Staging Thyestes
  • Alessandro Schiesaro, King's College London
  • Book: The Passions in Play
  • Online publication: 22 September 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511482373.004
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  • Staging Thyestes
  • Alessandro Schiesaro, King's College London
  • Book: The Passions in Play
  • Online publication: 22 September 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511482373.004
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Staging Thyestes
  • Alessandro Schiesaro, King's College London
  • Book: The Passions in Play
  • Online publication: 22 September 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511482373.004
Available formats
×