Can Senecan Theater of Passions Educate a Virtuous Person?

Abstract

The article is devoted to the consideration of the pedagogical content of Seneca’s tragedy. The article provides a solution for the problem, which is contained in the controversy – on the one hand, Seneca as other Stoics believes that the passions negatively affect the soul of human being, on the other hand, his tragedies portray plots overrun with passions involving murder, perfidy, betrayal and other crimes. The author suggests that this feature of the plot of dramatic works of Seneca cannot be explained by simple respect of the tradition, according to which the passion is the main driving force of both the ancient Greek and ancient Roman tragedies. The author shows that Seneca intentionally uses certain artistic techniques to achieve the pedagogical effect.