Seneca: Hercules Furens

Neil W. Bernstein is Professor of Classics and World Religions, Ohio University, USA. He has written extensively on Roman literature and identity, including In the Image of the Ancestors: Narratives of Kinship in Flavian Epic (2008) and Ethics, Identity, and Community in Later Roman Declamation (2013).

This slender yet richly informative book does much to cultivate greater appreciation for Seneca’s Hercules Furens … Its prose is lucid, engaging, and remarkably well-edited (I did not notice a single typographical error), and it offers a wealth of insights and a multiplicity of perspectives on Hercules Furens, and on representations of Hercules in Greek and Roman antiquity and beyond. It should inspire more people to read and teach this underappreciated play. One can envision it being effectively utilized in an undergraduate Advanced Latin Course focusing on Hercules Furens, or in an undergraduate mythology course that looks closely at the figure of Hercules.

• List of Illustrations DedicationAcknowledgmentsPrefaceChapter 1. Introducing Hercules FurensChapter 2. Major Themes in Hercules FurensChapter 3. Monster-slayer, moral exemplar, and madman: Hercules' ancient rolesChapter 4. Hercules Furens and Seneca’s careerChapter 5. Performance and ReceptionFurther readingBibliographyChronologyGlossary of Greek and Latin terms