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Document Details : Title: Scelus occupandum est Subtitle: Seneca tragicus and the Psychology of Pre-empion Author(s): MADER, Gottfried Journal: Latomus Volume: 83 Issue: 3 Date: 2024 Pages: 507-533 DOI: 10.2143/LAT.83.3.3293729 Abstract : This paper revisits a subset of revenge-driven acts in Seneca tragicus that are overtly referenced or clearly conceived as moves of anticipatory retaliation (Oedipus, Clytemnestra, Deianira and Atreus). Declarations of “first strike” intent, marked (e.g.) by scelus occupandum est, are not stand-alone moments, but are co-ordinated in the larger dramatic design and appear at key moments to highlight a spectrum of underlying anxieties that in turn catalyse the ultimum scelus. The cognitive mechanisms involved are treated as a dynamic continuum based on categories from the De Ira model of Seneca, Florence Dupont’s tripartite dolor – furor – nefas schema, and the 'affective spiral' from modern literature on strategic interaction. Notwithstanding clear differences between the traditional and non-traditional perspectives, this less orthodox approach is well suited to re-evaluating both the surface rhetoric and psychological deep structure of four luminous moments, and demonstrates the uncanny vitality of the tragic pathologies. |
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