Ira funesta. Metafore e personificazioni nel De ira di Seneca

Abstract

Considering the frequency of the term ira (“anger”) in the singular nominative form in Seneca’s De ira, this work proposes to classify the compound sentences in which ira functions as the syntactic subject according to their themes, and to reflect on the metaphors Seneca employs. This study seeks to balance an approach informed by Cognitive Linguistics with Seneca’s Stoic philosophy and the social and cultural milieu in which De ira was written. The proposed criterion for classification is the degree of agency Seneca attributes to ira: compound sentences in which ira displays a lower degree of agency employ sum and passive verb forms, whereas those in which ira exhibits a higher degree of agency use verbs related to movement and ownership, or even present ira as ordering or directly performing certain actions. It was possible to observe a connection between the degree of agency Seneca attributes to ira and the evolution of anger from a manageable emotion to an uncontrollable impulse, as described in the theory of passions in three motus in the second book of De ira.