seneca quotes

Question 1

definitions of love (all views are from letters on morality)

Answer 1

• more that of friendship than romantic ‘the passion of lovers has something similar to friendship; you might say that it is maddened friendship’
• the wise man does not need love ‘it is not the utility of it which draws (the wise man) to friendship, but a natural instinct… just like there is an innate pleasantness for us in other things, so there is in friendship’ but recognises the enjoyment of it
• no thought of advantage. the reasons for having a friend are ‘to have someone i can die for… follow into exile, for whose death i might exchange my own and pay the price instead’
• what you can give to the other person. someone who only looks after themselves cannot live happily ‘you must live for another, if you want to live for yourself’ similar to ‘what could be more pleasant than to be so dear to a wife that because of this you become dearer to yourself’, when his wife, Paulina, is concerned over his bad health
• love has to be mutual ‘if you want to be loved, then love’ love has to be earned, by sharing it

Question 2

stoicism

Answer 2

• elevating reason above bodily desires, to attain apatheia (immunity to pain)
• needing nothing, because ultimate happiness comes from complete control of the emotions, so the true wise man would feel the influence of neither pleasure nor pain
• the aim of a wise man is to attain virtus or aretē, which comes from freeing himself of desire and giving full authority to reason
• seneca specifically does seem to slightly modify stoic teachings for his audience, he advocates for friendship and also permits grief, admitting that the path to apatheia is a difficult one. he allows for human interaction and therefore for love

Question 3

physical symptoms of desire

Answer 3

• the body taking control of the mind
• overindulgence of desire leads to a ruining of the body ‘when pleasures, which have been enacted on a body too small to have taken them, have begun to fester (suppurate)’ letters on morality
• each time you give in to desire you create a new wound in your soul
• ‘the stings of lust which rips the soul apart through its pleasure’ consolation to marcia
• ‘no overly violent passion (lust) enters us which does not change our expression’ on anger. our face is a key indicator of desire.
• ‘she feels no congener for food or her health; she goes around on uncertain feet, now completely drained of her strength’ phaedra. looses her grace, strength and beauty (although talking about her desire for her stepson hippolytus)

Question 4

difference between love and desire

Answer 4

• ## love is a sort of friendship, desire is the physical longing of the body

Question 5

how desire should be controlled

Answer 5

• ‘it is easier to keep them in check when they have just begun than to rule them when they are at full force’ letters on morality
• only in excess though- there is a need for desire. without sex the ‘earth will lie filthy in its would state… the sky will lack the bird and the forest the beast’ phaedra
• abstinence from alcohol- ‘drunkenness does not create vices, but it brings them out’ letters on morality

Question 6

why desire should be controlled

Answer 6

• from affection comes a ‘foul passion’ letters on morality
• ‘there is a dishonourable stain on those who throw themselves into gluttonous pleasures and lust’ on the shortness of life
• reason needs to be allowed to rule ‘if you give any passions to the wise man, his reason will be unequal to them and… it will be carried away’
• ‘lust was given to humanity not for the sake of pleasure, but for the propagation of the human race’ consolation to helvia
• ‘vices… do not allow us to… raise our eyes for the examination of truth’ on the shortness of life
• ‘give his full attention to his body, leaving his mind behind’ on the shortness of life
• compares god, humans and animals. if desire were a good thing, the true hierarchy would be reversed. it is bad, because god does not feel it at all, while animals do not possess the mind not to. we should strive to be like god- letters on morality

Question 7

homoerotic relationships

Answer 7

• condemns men who dress as women ‘does it not seem to you to be living against nature’ letters on morality
• men should not engage with passive sex with other men ‘and although his sex ought to have rescued him from this abuse, will not even his age rescue him from it?’. those engaging in passive sex are imitating young boys. being a man should preclude one from being involved in passive sex acts with other men.
• sex is just for reproduction

Question 8

ideas

Answer 8

• uncomfortable with slavery, especially while people remain slaves to their own desire and emotions
• uncomfortable with unequal treatment- men should not expect their wives to remain chaste if they do not themselves
• must not have sex with slaves, as then it is purely for pleasure

Question 9

context

Answer 9

• advised nero- hard to reconcile teachings against tyranny with his position
• was exiled
• had a huge wealth