The way I like to explain this is in terms of lexicographic preferences : there are certain goods that fall into the top category, others that belong a slightly lower category, and so forth, until things that are neutral.
Then there are the sets of things that are mildly bad, worse, really worse, and finally truly evil. The Stoics think that the top and the bottom categories in this series are occupied respectively by the only true good virtue and the only true bad un-virtue. Still, goods within a given category are not fungible with goods in another, higher, category. If one looks at things that way, it makes perfect sense for Seneca to agree with Marcia that what befell her is worthy of tears, and yet at the same time to maintain that the only intrinsic evil would be for her friend to act contrary to virtue.
Why do I say this? There are four references to exile. References to Socrates and Rutilius as philosophers who were wrongly persecuted. Also there are striking similarities between this consolation and the consolation Seneca wrote to his mother Helvia on his exile think about how surprising it is to have the victim writing the consolation. It is always helpful to think about the motivation for why a writer writes.
Like Liked by 1 person. You must be logged in to post a comment. Share this: Twitter Facebook Pocket Email. His mother was not permitted to receive his last kiss and gather the last fond words from his dying lips: she followed the relics of her Drusus on their long journey, though every one of the funeral pyres with which all Italy was glowing seemed to renew her grief, as though she had lost him so many times.
When, however, she at last laid him in the tomb, she left her sorrow there with him, and grieved no more than was becoming to a Caesar or due to a son. She did not cease to make frequent mention of the name of her Drusus, to set up his portrait in all places, both public and private, and to speak of him and listen while others spoke of him with the greatest pleasure: she lived with his memory ; which none can embrace and consort with who has made it painful to himself.
Why would someone want more torture, instead of trying to escape the whips of misfortune, why would one plead for more lashes? He simply offers a question, should grief and emotions in general be deep or unceasing? Seneca then discusses three ways Marcia should consider in order to fight her grief. You must be aware that none of them know how to behave, whether to mention Drusus in your presence or not. Some foul weather is wanted to prove his courage. And then in astoundingly uncompromising Stoicism Seneca states:.
I am not soothing you or making light of your misfortune: if fate can be overcome by tears, let us bring tears to bear upon it: let every day be passed in mourning, every night be spent in sorrow instead of sleep: let your breast be torn by your own hands, your very face attacked by them, and every kind of cruelty be practiced by your grief, if it will profit you. But if the dead cannot be brought back to life, however much we may beat our breasts, if destiny remains fixed and immoveable forever, not to be changed by any sorrow, however great, and death does not loose his hold of anything that he once has taken away, then let our futile grief be brought to an end.
Let us, then, steer our own course, and no longer allow ourselves to be driven to leeward by the force of our misfortune. He is a sorry pilot who lets the waves wring his rudder from his grasp, who leaves the sails to fly loose, and abandons the ship to the storm: but he who boldly grasps the helm and clings to it until the sea closes over him, deserves praise even though he be shipwrecked.
Seneca encourages Marcia to put things in perspective, and examine the true nature of life. He argues that although we come to witness all forms of misfortune striking other people in an almost daily basis, we never consider that this might as well happen to us one day, and we act like we never considered this possibility in a largely unfair and cruel world. Seneca states:.
Yet we do not think of death. How many untimely deaths? How many rich men suddenly sink into poverty before our very eyes, without its ever occurring to our minds that our own wealth is exposed to exactly the same risks? When, therefore, misfortune befalls us, we cannot help collapsing all the more completely, because we are struck as it were unawares: a blow which has long been foreseen falls much less heavily upon us.
Seneca continues on to explain that we do not own things or people, and that they are simply lent to us by the universe, and that at any instance this universe can take what was lent.
We should always keep in mind that the things around us, the things we care about, people we love and enjoy their presence can be taken away from us, and that we should return these things the moment they are called upon, without any fuss and outrage.
Why need we weep over parts of our life? You, therefore, who allow them to trouble you to an unreasonable extent ought especially to restrain yourselves, and to muster all the powers of the human breast to combat your fears and your pains.
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