The Remains Of Your Sons: Reading Seneca’s Thyestes Online

Seneca, Thyestes 242-243

“…Look to Tantalus and Pelops—
My hands beg for their examples.”

Tantalum et Pelopem aspice;
ad haec manus exempla poscuntur meae.

Seneca, Thyestes 18-20

“Now a mob is is coming on from our family
Which will outpace us all and make me innocent,
Daring the undared.”

….iam nostra subit
e stirpe turba quae suum vincat genus
ac me innocentem faciat et inausa audeat.

Last year as the COVID19 pandemic closed theaters and sent all classrooms into digital space, Out of Chaos Theatre in collaboration with the Center for Hellenic Studies presented over 40 episodes of Reading Greek Tragedy Online: performances from every extant Greek tragedies, a few comedies, a satyr play, fragments and even some epic too.

2021 brings us an ongoing plague and a new season of Reading Greek Tragedy Online. This year we’re sticking with Greek myth, but getting Roman with it to start, turning to the early Empire and Seneca’s Thyestes.

Seneca, Thyestes 29-36

“Let no one have time to hate an ancient crime,
Have a new one always replace it and not
Merely one at a time but while a crime is punished
Let it grow! May the power slip from the arrogant brothers
And return when they’re exiled. May this house slip
On uncertain chance of violence among unsafe kings.
Ah, may the powerful fall low and the low get power.
May chance toss the kingdom on churning waves.”

nec vacet cuiquam vetus
odisse crimen: semper oriatur novum,
nec unum in uno, dumque punitur scelus,
crescat. superbis fratribus regna excidant
repetantque profugos; dubia violentae domus
fortuna reges inter incertos labet;
miser ex potente fiat, ex misero potens,
fluctuque regnum casus assiduo ferat.

Performers

GHOST OF TANTALUS (grandfather of Atreus and Thyestes) – Paul O’Mahony
FURY (a goddess from the Underworld) – Evelyn Miller
ATREUS (king of Argos) – Sara Valentine
ATTENDANT to Atreus – Paul O’Mahony
THYESTES (exiled brother of Atreus) – David Rubin
TANTALUS (son of Thyestes) – Evelyn Miller
MESSENGER –Tim Delap

Special Guest: Helen Slaney

Seneca, Thyestes 192-96

“Come, spirit, do what no future age will approve
But none will fail to mention. I must dare some crime
A fierce, bloody kind, one that my brother would want
To call his own. You do not avenge crimes unless
You commit greater ones.”

Age, anime, fac quod nulla posteritas probet,
sed nulla taceat. aliquod audendum est nefas
atrox, cruentum, tale quod frater meus
suum esse mallet. scelera non ulcisceris,
nisi vincis…

Production Crew

Artistic Director: Paul O’Mahony (Out of Chaos Theatre)
Host and Faculty Consultant: Joel Christensen (Brandeis University)
Executive Producer: Lanah Koelle (Center for Hellenic Studies)
Producers: Keith DeStone (Center for Hellenic Studies), Hélène Emeriaud, Janet Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott (Kosmos Society)
Production Assistant: Francesca Bellei (Harvard University)
Director of Outreach: Amy Pistone (Gonzaga University)
Dramaturgical Support: Emma Pauly and Emma Joy Hill
Associate Directors: Beth Burns, Liz Fisher, Tabatha Gayle, Laura Keefe, and Toph Marshall
Poster Designer: Allie Marbry (Center for Hellenic Studies)
Poster Illustration Artist: John Koelle

Seneca, Thyestes 247-8

“A mild tyrant murders: in my kingdom, people pray for death.”

perimat tyrannus lenis; in regno meo
mors impetratur.

Scenes (translation, Paul Murgatroyd)

ACT ONE (1–121) – Ghost of Tantalus, Fury
ACT TWO (176–335) – Atreus, Attendant
ACT THREE (404–545) – Thyestes, Tantalus, Atreus
ACT FOUR (623–788) – Messenger, Chorus Leader
ACT FIVE (885–1112) – Atreus, Thyestes

Seneca, Thyestes 348-353

“A king is someone who can put fear aside
Along with the evils of a harsh heart—
Someone over whom ambition has no power
And the fickle love of the raging mob
Can never move…”

rex est qui posuit metus
et diri mala pectoris;
quem non ambitio impotens
et numquam stabilis favor
vulgi praecipitis movet

Upcoming Performances (go here for previous episodes or to youtube for the full playlist)

Wednesday, February 24 | Seneca’s Thyestes with Helen Slaney (La Trobe University); translation by P. Murgatroyd

Wednesday, March 31 | TBA

Wednesday, April 28 | Apollonius of Rhodes’ Argonautica with Jackie Murray (University of Kentucky)

Wednesday, May 26 | TBA

Seneca, Thyestes 400-402

“Death rests heavy on the one
Who is known too well to all
But dies ignorant of himself.”

illi mors gravis incubat
qui, notus nimis omnibus,
ignotus moritur sibi.