How Letters from a Stoic drew on Metamorphoses
A documented line of influence: Seneca demonstrably engaged Ovid’s work. The commentary below is Gröblé’s, verbatim from each work’s page.
The source
Metamorphoses
Ovid · 8
Ancient RomeThe influenced
Letters from a Stoic
Seneca · c. 64
Ancient RomeRelevance
5/10
On Letters from a Stoic’s page
- Seneca quotes Ovid directly in the Letters, the Metamorphoses among his sources
- His Epistle 90 draws on Ovid's portrait of early humankind — reading the Metamorphoses first shows you the poetry Seneca is turning to Stoic ends
On Metamorphoses’s page
- Ovid is among the poets Seneca quotes in the Letters — the Metamorphoses feeds his prose as well as his arguments
- Seneca leans on Ovid's picture of primitive humankind in Epistle 90, borrowing the poem's vision to make a Stoic point