Seneca

Question 1

Seneca’s view on love (4)

Answer 1

• Love is mutual
• It is like a maddened friendship
• Live/die for the other person
• Wants friends but doesn’t NEED them

Question 2

Seneca’s Symptoms of desire (2)

Answer 2

• Takes control (gittery, burning sensation, no sleep indecision)
• Loss of: strength, grace, beauty

Question 3

Seneca’s Difference between love + desire (2+4)

Answer 3

Desire:
- 'foul passion'
- Rips the soul apart, festers like a wound
Love:
- Mutual, Earned
- No thought of advantage
- Natural
- Focus is what you could give them

Question 4

Seneca’s Why should desire be controlled (4)

Answer 4

• Wastes time + energy (could think about philosophy)
• Over comes you like a torrent
• Reason should rule
• No turning back

Question 5

Seneca’s How should desire be controlled (3)

Answer 5

• Stop immediately
• Don’t allow vices to come out
• No alcohol or PDA

Question 6

Seneca’s view on Homoerotic relationships (3)

Answer 6

• Against nature
• Only about desire so bad
• No procreation

Question 7

Seneca’s Nature of good/bad conduct (3)

Answer 7

• No adultery
• Treat slaves well
• No homoerotic relationships

Question 8

Seneca’s contemporary context (4)

Answer 8

• Was teaching tyrannical Nero
• Defending Nero to senate for killing his mother
• Wrote ideals because he worked for a tyrant
• Wrote about morality when in exile

Question 9

Seneca’s Received by his contemporary audience (4)

Answer 9

• Stoicism = old-fashioned (S mocked for living wealth)
• Stoics + elite favoured his work
• Romans thought it was worth reproducing
• Considered good in early years of Nero