The Complete Tragedies, Volume 1: Medea, the Phoenician Women, Phaedra, the Trojan Women, Octavia

The first of two volumes collecting the complete tragedies of Seneca.

Edited by world-renowned classicists Elizabeth Asmis, Shadi Bartsch, and Martha C. Nussbaum, the Complete Works of Lucius Annaeus Seneca series offers authoritative, modern English translations of the writings of the Stoic philosopher and playwright (4 BCE-65 CE). The two volumes of The Complete Tragedies present all of his dramas, expertly rendered by preeminent scholars and translators.

This first volume contains Medea, The Phoenician Women, Phaedra, The Trojan Women, and Octavia, the last of which was written in emulation of Senecan tragedies and serves as a unique example of political tragedy. The second volume includes Oedipus, Hercules Mad, Hercules on Oeta, Thyestes, and Agamemnon. High standards of accuracy, clarity, and style are maintained throughout the translations, which render Seneca into verse with as close a correspondence, line for line, to the original as possible, and with special attention paid to meter and overall flow. In addition, each tragedy is prefaced by an original translator’s introduction offering reflections on the work’s context and meaning. Notes are provided for the reader unfamiliar with the culture and history of classical antiquity. Accordingly, The Complete Tragedies will be of use to a general audience and professionals alike, from the Latinless student to scholars and instructors of comparative literature, classics, philosophy, drama, and more.

Shadi Bartsch is the Helen A. Regenstein Distinguished Service Professor of Classics at the University of Chicago. Her books include, most recently, Persius: A Study in Food, Philosophy, and the Figural, also published by the University of Chicago Press. Susanna Braund is the Canada Research Chair in Latin Poetry and its Reception at the University of British Columbia. She has published extensively on Roman satire, Latin epic poetry, and Seneca. Alex Dressler is assistant professor of classics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Elaine Fantham (1933-2016) was the Giger Professor of Latin at Princeton University from 1986 to 1999 and the author of many books and commentaries on Latin literature.