La scena doppia: spazi drammaturgici nel teatro di Seneca

Recognising the rhetorical element as a constituent part of Seneca's fabulae certainly does not mean denying its specific dramatic features. On the contrary, the power and richness of his words enable "alternative" scenes to be created. Hence the various levels of meenings-the play's most innovative aspect. The antagonistic places in "Phaedra"('silvae' vs 'aula', 'Arcadia' vs 'urbs', 'terra' vs 'Ade') thus have meaning in terms of the oppositions between nature/culture and golden age/iron age. The destruction of Hippolytus'Eden-like 'locus amoenus', however, reveals how vain the illusion is for those who seek to avoid the pestilence of 'regnum' in a phisically determined space, no matter how far and isolated from the places of power. Yet again it is the power of the word which evokes through the Chorus's songs an alternative scene containing the existential dimension of the flighi into the sphere of interiority, the only conceivable salvation from the universal rule of evil.