Seneca’s Phaedra 406–430 and the E-branch of the MS Tradition

This paper aims to revise previous findings concerning lines 406–430 of Seneca’s Phaedra. Referring to the manuscript tradition, it demonstrates that the heading before 406 and the marginal notation used to identify speaking characters may have been misinterpreted as a result of this notation having been erased from codex Etruscus, the main representative of one of the two branches of the manuscript tradition of Seneca’s plays. Next, it argues that because of the formal consistency of this codex reading (E) – as contrasted with the inconsistencies in A – and the fact that E makes satisfactory sense here, the reconstructed reading of Etruscus should be taken into consideration in future editions of Seneca’s drama.