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Jul. 1st, 2004
"Octavia" update
Jul. 1st, 2004 12:14 pmAfter making my last post, I went to check work-related e-mail, which includes lots of academic list stuff. On Classics-L I was surprised to see a timely thread concerning whether there existed an online text of the Octavia, and there was one I had overlooked, so I can now provide the quote for y'all (Oct. 18-20) to emblazon in blood-red text on a black t-shirt or something:
O lux semper funesta mihi,
tempore ab illo
lux est tenebris invisa magis
(O light always fatal to me --
from that time
light has been more hated than shadows.)
Rolando Ferri, in his 2003 edition of the tragedy, mentions, but does not adopt, a reading es (you are) for est (it is) that would avoid the sudden switch from addressing the light to talking about it behind its back.
There's also this oh-so-goth exchange I noted yesterday (lines 77-79):
NVTR. Quis te tantis solvet curis,
miseranda, dies?
OCT. Qui me Stygias mittet ad umbras.
(Nurse. What day, you poor thing, will release you from such great cares?
Octavia. The one that will send me to the Stygian shades.)
Incidentally, the Octavia is a tragedy of uncertain date and authorship, often attributed to Seneca the Younger, concerning Nero's doomed wife/stepsister.
O lux semper funesta mihi,
tempore ab illo
lux est tenebris invisa magis
(O light always fatal to me --
from that time
light has been more hated than shadows.)
Rolando Ferri, in his 2003 edition of the tragedy, mentions, but does not adopt, a reading es (you are) for est (it is) that would avoid the sudden switch from addressing the light to talking about it behind its back.
There's also this oh-so-goth exchange I noted yesterday (lines 77-79):
NVTR. Quis te tantis solvet curis,
miseranda, dies?
OCT. Qui me Stygias mittet ad umbras.
(Nurse. What day, you poor thing, will release you from such great cares?
Octavia. The one that will send me to the Stygian shades.)
Incidentally, the Octavia is a tragedy of uncertain date and authorship, often attributed to Seneca the Younger, concerning Nero's doomed wife/stepsister.