Seneca on love and desire Flashcards
(19 cards)
“sexual lust is given to man…
not for pleasure, but for the propagation of the human race” Seneca explains how lust can be channelled positively, yet maintains that pleasure is not a priority. Consolation to Helvia.
“What can reason…
do? Madness conquers and rules.“ A line from ‘Phaedra’, explains how lust overcomes a person once it is let in. Similar to how Sappho describes it, yet she does not condemn.
“maddened…
friendship.” Seneca describes passion/love as a crazed version of friendship.
“when what had been…
“it is easier to keep them in check when…
vices are habits.” from Letters on Morality to Lucilius
they have just begun than to rule them when they are at full force.”
“just like she should not be with…
an adulterer, so you should not be with a mistress; and you don’t do this” On the Shortness of Live
“He is not assaulted by…
the stings of lust which rips the soul apart through its pleasure.” Consolation to Marcia - better to be dead than lustful! Very extreme.
“ultimately…
foul.” Here, Seneca expresses that pleasure is overall foul, in On Benefits.
marriage
“The wise man should…
love his wife with discernment… he controls the impulse of pleasure.” On Marriage.
“a man who demands chastity…
from his wife, while seducing other men’s wives, a villain.” On Marriage.
beauty
“the most splendid form…
of beauty that lasts to any age… your modesty.” Seneca traditionally prefers natural and modest beauty over “defile (ing) your face with paints and cosmetics.” Consolation to Helvia
“Virtue will elevate any union…
regardless of social standing.” Seneca supports companionate marriage, which was common at the time, but radicalises it by placing virtue over wealth or status (unlike Sappho)
“What is more pleasing than becoming…
so dear to your wife that you become dearer to yourself?”, Seneca on his own marriage to his wife, Paulina.
“The wise man should love his wife…
with discernment, not passion.”
Succumbing to physical pleasure and depravity, “Hostius Quardra… his depravity…
was not reserved to only one sex, but he was voracious for men and women alike.”
“A maddened…
“If you want to be loved…
friendship.”
then love.”
Seneca praises selfless, unromantic love which should benefit the other person and not the self.
“Widowhood and….
bachelorhood have become general practice.” Massively contradicting Ovid, Seneca condemns fleeting and noncommittal relationships.
“Remedy ceases to exist…
“seize animals…
when what had been vices are habits.” He warns that indulging in lust will on worsen it, resist passion or you become inhumane, “more than humans.”
Seneca on homoeroticism?
“Cruel and wretched”, he most of all condemns pederasty, “A boy in the bedroom and a man at the feast.”
“Men who wear women’s clothing…
live in contrary to nature.” Quite similar to Ovid, who warms women against men who are too effeminate as dangerous.
