So Many Names Will Perish: Demise and Modes of Thought in Seneca’s Natural Questions

Abstract

In the Natural Questions, Seneca both imparts and combats anxiety about death: the reader’s, his own, and even that of philosophy. As a culminating memento mori in Q. Nat. 3 he rewrites Ovid’s flood narrative as the Stoic cataclysm. Following Stoic cyclical theory, however, Seneca claims that humankind will be reborn, implying a potential exceeding of death. By tracing Seneca’s numerous hints about postmortem continuity we gain insights into the specific blend of natural investigation, ethical philosophy, and literature in the Q. Nat. Through their combinations and mutual corrections Seneca constructs his own afterlife.