Abstract:

Seneca’s Medea has been repeatedly discussed as a tragedy that shows through mythos a representation of ira based upon the moral discourse of Seneca himself. Though accepting this interpretation, we aim to show that Seneca’s Medea might also be interpreted as an ambiguous exposition of the end of a primeval Golden Age through Jason and the Argonauts’ journey. The action of the Argonauts can be interpreted simultaneously as a dissolving gesture which brings about contemporary, non-Golden Age world, and as a manifestation of uirtus which also has a place in Senecan moral project.