The Book Club selection for May is a drama: Seneca the Younger’s Oedipus. The discussion will start and continue in the Kosmos forum, with a live conversation on Tuesday May 28 at 11 a.m. EDT.
There will also be a community reading on Tuesday May 21 at 11 a.m. EDT, with an estimated duration of 2–3 hours.
We are familiar with the treatment of the myth by Sophocles from The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, Hour 19, so it will be interesting to compare it with Seneca’s version, which dates from around 55 CE. Seneca himself was a Stoic philosopher as well as a dramatist.[1]
You can read any translation you like for the Book Club discussion, but for the community reading we will all use the translation by Frank Justus Miller. Here are links to free online editions:
- Translation by Frank Justus Miller
on theoi.com
on archive.org - Verse translation by Ella Isabel Harris
on archive.org - Latin text:
on Perseus
Happy readings!
[1] You may read more about Seneca’s life at Vogt, Katja, “Seneca”, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2016 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.)
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.