Portraits of aging and old age in Seneca's Moral Epistles

Title: Portraits of aging and old age in Seneca's Moral Epistles
Author: Duarte, Ricardo
Source document: Graeco-Latina Brunensia. 2020, vol. 25, iss. 2, pp. 73-85
Extent
73-85
  • ISSN
    1803-7402 (print)
    2336-4424 (online)
Type: Article
Language
 

Notice: These citations are automatically created and might not follow citation rules properly.

Abstract(s)
In the Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium, written near the end of his life, Seneca frequently allies meditation on death – a theme that, as a Stoic, had always deserved his special attention – with reflections on the passage of time, the meaning of human existence, and the meaning of life in its different phases: childhood and youth, adulthood and old age. In this paper, I will study Seneca's most significant portraits of aging and old age, and articulate them via the literary anthropology that characterizes the Epistulae and his other works in general.
Note
A preliminary version of this article was delivered at "Age, Aging and Old Age in Greco-Roman Antiquity", Gothenburg (Sweden), 2017. This article was written as part of my postdoctoral research on Seneca, funded by the FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (SFRH/BPD/117758/2016).
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