Some Notes on the Text of Seneca’s Phoenician Women

Abstract

This article aims to revise previous findings concerning selected passages of Seneca’s Phoenician Women (374-375; 610-613; 184-187; 314-315; 437-439; 631-632). In each of them, the unanimous reading of the MSS was replaced by conjectures which are now almost universally accepted by reputable editors and commentators. To justify these emendations, it was argued that the MS phrase did not make sense or was grammatically or stylistically incorrect; sometimes, the text was modified on the assumption that the author had imitated another poet when working on a particular line. In this paper, the passages are analysed in the light of Seneca’s other statements and against the broader background of ancient literary tradition. The results show that the conjectures are based on unconfirmed assumptions or flawed premises and thus should be rejected in favour of the MS reading.