セネカ『パエドラ』に於けるテセウスの呪詛 : セネカ悲劇, 特に説得場面の "mores" と劇の終りをめぐる試論

Abstract

Seneca's Phaedra seems to show a singularity especially at the end of the drama, where Theseus, after a series of bitter self-reproaches, calls down quite suddenly or surprisingly a curse upon the corpse of Phaedra (1279-80) . Such an ending of the drama is not found in the Greek versions of the Hippolytus-Phaedra's tragedy all of which end, or are supposed to end, in a sort of reconciliation or, to put it in an Aristotelian term, λύσις (Poet.18, 1455b24ff.) . To end a drama with a curse certainly presents a sharp conflict with this seemingly general rule of λύσις seen in the exodoi of almost all the Greek tragedies, without which, as Rozelaar says, tragedies could not fulfill their "kathartische Funktion". Theseus' curse seems to be not only quite abrupt in the context of the drama ( cf. Phaed.1213-16 ) , but also at great variance with this rule. Why did Seneca, who was well versed in Greek tragedies, choose to end his drama of Phaedra with such a curse? In this regard we can find many other Senecan tragedies which end with a similar, though not so abrupt, curse ( cf. Agamemn., Medea, Herc. Fur., Thyest., Oedipus ) . Acknowledging such an ending with a curse or condemnation to be a singularly Senecan tendency, we attempt in this paper to clarify the meaning of it in Phaedra and other tragedies. Our attention is first directed to the self-curses, so to speak, of the heroes at the ends of Herc. Fur. and Oedipus. Upon examination of Seneca's different treatments of these two dramas, we arrive at the conclusions; that Seneca's main concern or interest, at least in the latter half of the drama, does not lie, as the Greek dramatists' does, in a tragic situation or the tragedy itself, but rather in the "nefas" or "crimen" which causes the tragedy (or, from the Senecan understanding, is in itself the tragedy) and in a consciousness of guilt as the result of it; that among other things this Senecan concern manifests itself in the scenes of ex post facto-persuasion where the heroes, victims of cruel "fata", contrary to those in the Greek dramas, insist obstinately upon their own "nefas" or "crimen" and the defilement caused by it; and that the final self-curses of Hercules and Oedipus are closely related to this concern, which is ultimately derived from Seneca's dominant viewpoint of the tragedy. Our second argument, based on these conclusions, concentrates on those persuasion-scenes, chiefly that in Phaedra (129-273) , in which, while the protagonists' or deuteragonists' mores are put on trial, they attempt to defend and justify their causes of "nefas" in the immediate future, and which therefore can be regarded as reverse (that is, ante factum or before the fact) persuasion-scenes in relation to those in Herc. Fur. and Oedipus. Our analysis of these scenes and the correlations between them and the endings with curse shows that Senecan concern is working explicitly or implicitly through them as well and those conclusions mentioned above hold true again with regard to these dramas of "nefas scientium et volentium". Our last conclusion is that Theseus' curse seems indeed at first to be abrupt and surprising, but it is a structurally or organically natural and necessary outburst of his emotion, which is also the very voice of Seneca "als dichtenden Ich".