A Short Introduction to Seneca's Apocolocyntosis

Claudius Caesar was an enigmatic figure who was widely-known for his eccentricity, both mental and physical, and for being controlled by his wife, Agrippina, and by his freedmen. This semester in my Advanced Latin class we read the "Life of the Divine Claudius" by the historian Suetonius and are currently working our way through what is hesitantly called the "Apocolocyntosis" by Seneca. This work is satirical in nature and seems to be meant to praise Claudius' step-son Nero who succeeded the throne after Claudius died and his true son, Britannicus, was murdered.

Scholars have debated mainly about two major characteristics of the work: the title and the author. P. T. Eden who edited the Cambridge edition of the "Apocolocyntosis" [a play off the Greek word ἀποθέωσις (deification)] has dismissed the doubt of whether the work was composed by Seneca or not in a lengthy argument which I advise you to check out if you have the chance. Basically he says that through close analysis (and this guy is all about reading every word far too in-depth) the work must have been written by someone in the close circle of advisors of Nero and if not Seneca then someone else in the same circle. He says it doesn't really matter who wrote it but that recognizing that they were close to Nero is the important part. Concerning the title of the work, the "Pumpkinifciation" (to put it literally) scholars debate over the name since there is little if anything to do with pumpkins or gourds in the work at all, though several people have published articles analyzing certain words and scenes as being representative of a gourd-like Claudius.

The work itself is short being only divided into 15 sections of roughly 30 lines on average. The Latin itself is fairly easy though some colloquialisms creep in at points and the more "vulgar" vocabulary strays away from the more refined writings of other famous authors. There are many subjects parodied in this work from historians, to philosophers, and of course Claudius himself. I shall try and publish a fairly literal and as-accurate-as-possible translation of each section daily or biweekly at least. So hopefully someone will come by in time to see this.

As far as my plans for the future of this blog are concerned, I plan on publishing a translation (answer key) to the beginning Greek textbook I am using in my Elementary Greek class. It's an interesting book that has plenty of humour though I would not recommend it for self-study as the supplementary material is quite lacking. Aside from that, I may revise my Suetonius translation to complement the "Apocolocyntosis". And possibly something concerning Latin Composition, which I have been ardently struggling through this past semester to mixed results.