Pseudo-Seneca, Hercules Oetaeus, the longest dramatic play of classical antiquity (1996 lines), has been handed down in the corpus of Senecan tragedies. Among these ten plays, the Hercules Oetaeus and the Octavia are apparently not written by the same author as the other eight dramas. In one of the manuscript traditions, the genuine Hercules Furens and the Hercules Oetaeus are the first and the last play respectively of the collection. Indeed the Hercules Oetaeus seems to be a sequel and counterpart to the Hercules Furens, since the latter tragedy stages the last days of the hero in which he has to kill himself eventually in order to ascend to heaven, whereas in the Hercules Furens …
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Citation: Walde, Christine. "Hercules Oetaeus". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 05 December 2013 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=13469, accessed 03 May 2024.]
