Saturday, August 31, 2024
Escape from Bondage
Seneca, Agamemnon 604-610 (tr. John G. Fitch):
This is how Seneca himself escaped from bondage. On his suicide see Miriam T. Griffin, Seneca: A Philosopher in Politics (1976; rpt. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2003), pp. 367-388.
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Who can fully break out of bondage?R.J. Tarrant ad loc.:
Only one who scorns the fickle gods,
who looks without gloom at gloomy Styx,
looks upon dark Acheron’s face,
and has courage to set an end to life:
such a one is a match for kings, for gods.
How wretched to be unschooled in dying!
solus servitium perrumpet omne
contemptor levium deorum, 605
qui vultus Acherontis atri,
qui Styga tristem non tristis videt
audetque vitae ponere finem:
par ille regi, par superis erit.
o quam miserum est nescire mori! 610
