Selection 3 (3.30.1-8)

Selection 3 (3.30.1–8): The end of the world and regeneration.

Someday a Flood will destroy all life on earth, after which animals will reemerge.

This “world cycle” parallels, in miniature, the end of a cosmic cycle in ekpyrosis. The Flood will come from rain, exceptional tides, and the transformation of elements into water independently. The flood story of Deucalion and Pyrrha is common in Greek myth, and Roman versions of the flood can be found at Lucr. 5.411–15, Verg. Eclogues 6.41, and especially Ovid’s Metamorphoses 1.253–415 (a major influence on Seneca’s account, see Berno 2012). At the conclusion, Seneca writes how at the end of one “world cycle,” another soon begins, and things go downhill fast. This may resemble Stoic ideas of eternal recurrence, and some of the repetitions found in this section can be read as textual evocations of such a Groundhog Day sort of cycle.

Further Reading: For more about how this flood evokes floods of the Tiber and may have political significance, see Berno 2019.

[3.30.1] The Flood has been planned from the first day of the world. Terrestrial waters have been practicing for the deluge all along.

ut dixi: Seneca had written nihil difficile naturae est at NQ 3.27.2. There is ring composition both within this section and the book as a whole shown in this selection. This rhetorical technique not only stresses the points under consideration, but it also hints at the cyclical repetition of these cataclysms.

utique: “especially”

quae a primo facere constituit: quae is the accusative direct object of constituit; a primo = “from the beginning.” The verb constituo helps to personify nature, who has decided to do these things like a human being.

non subito sed ex denuntiato vēnit: “not suddenly but after due warning.” vēnit is perfect.

iam autem: “indeed, already”

a primo die mundi: for other descriptions of the first day of the world, see Lucr. 2.1105–1117, Verg. Georgics 2.336–42, and Ovid Metamorphoses 1.5–88, which is the most thorough depiction of the movement from primordial chaos to the world as we know it.

cum ... discederet: temporal cum clause (AG 545)

quando: “when,” “at what time,” introducing an indirect question after decretum est (AG 574).

terrena: “earthly things,” “the lands” (as opposed to the sea), neuter plural > terrenus -a -um.

ne sit quandoque velut in novo opere dura molitio: ne sit is a negative purpose clause (AG 563), “in order that, whenever it happens (quandoque), it is not tough work, as in (velut) a new endeavor.” Take the olim clause first in order to set up this clause. The seas have been “practicing” to do this for a long time. Note the personification of the seas.

se exercent: with expressions of past time like olim, the present tense can be used to denote an action continuing into the present: “are (and have long been) practicing” (AG 466).

ad hoc: “for this,” ad + accusative for purpose.

[3.30.2] Tidal activity and sea waves are indications of the coming flood.

non vides ut: the anaphora of this phrase invokes the reader’s own experience and sensory perception. One might also think of these repetitions like the waves coming to shore again and again. The ut here should be translated as “how” and it introduces an indirect question (AG 574).

tamquam exiturus: “as if it is about to come out.” exiturus is a future active participle and modifies fluctus.

aestus: “tide” (LS aestus I.C)

illi: refers back to the aestus and it is a dative of possession with the verb esse (AG 373).

claustris: “barriers,” “bounds”

quid porro: “what else?” “what further?” introducing a fourth, climactic rhetorical question.

istinc tantum unde … metus est: “Is there fear only (tantum) from that point (instinc) where you see a disturbance? ”There is more to be feared than meets the eye.

e mari ... fluviis: These are the visible sources, but Seneca will shortly list additional sources of water that could cause the flood.

[3.30.3] Natura has distributed waters below our feet as well as above ground and these can be called upon to help flood the earth as well.

ubi: “where”

ut… posset: purpose clause (AG 563), which helps to personify natura. Natura has a will (voluisset) and is interested in attacking (adgredi) us. The cum clause inside the purpose clause follows the sequence of tenses (AG 485) and the pluperfect subjunctive here shows that nature had planned this before its manifestation.

mentior nisi: “I am lying unless,” a strong assertion of the following claims about underground water.

eruentibus: “to those digging,” substantive use of the present active participle. Miners would encounter water, and it seems clear that many hydrological inventions were designed to help be able to dig deeper in search of gold and precious metals. Mining will be the subject of a digression in NQ 5 (see Selection 6).

avaritia nos defodit: “avarice sends us underground” to mine metals—a striking phrase, since the usual meaning of the verb is “to bury” (see OLD defodio 1.b). The language here will reappear at 5.15.3 (forms of defodio and eruere) and there is a sense that greed will “bury” us in our quest for wealth by mining, but also metaphorically will cause our death. Seneca often attacks greed in his dialogues and letters, and it features prominently when discussing Stoicism at Ep. 89.19–22 and 90.38–39.

a liquido: ablative of source (AG 403), but almost approaching an ablative of agent with liquido personified (the ablative of agent was originally an ablative of source, AG 405).

adice quod: “add (the fact) that… ”

multum maris ... multum fluminum: “much sea ... much river water.” multum + partitive genitive, stressing the quantity of water, rather than the number of seas and rivers. There is a striking amount of nasal sounds (“m” and “n”) in this passage – one wonders if Seneca thought such sounds evoked the sound of water.

multum fluminum … labentium: the rivers “slipping” through their underground channels evokes a similar phrase in both Vergil (Georgics 4.365–67) and Ovid (Metamorphoses 1.188–89). The metapoetics of water (e.g. the spring of Helicon or Callimachus’ preference for the pure stream than an epic muddy river) are often evoked by Seneca through such intertexts, see Trinacty 2018 for such metapoetics in the NQ and Worman 2015: 213-21 for Latin poetry more general.

[3.30.4] The sources of the deluge are multiple and surround us.

undique ergo: ergo sums up, drawing the necessary conclusion from the evidence just cited. undique is strongly emphasized by its position: “from everywhere.”

diluvio: dative of possession.

aliae … aliae: “some … others” (AG 315)

diu coercitae: “though long restrained,” a concessive use of the perfect passive participle > coerceo.

iungent: the subject is still aliae.

omnium … ora fontium: ora is the direct object, omnium fontium genitive plural. Os can indicate the source of a stream, but also a “mouth,” thus Seneca once again personifies natural phenomena. The various underground waters and separate veins for the sea (NQ 3.14.3) are jumbled together in the flood to allow seawater to fill the rivers’ sources.

maiore hiatu solvet: the founts now “gape” more widely, a personification that may evoke Scylla (Sen. Medea 352) and Charybdis, who “swallows ships with its vast gaping mouth” (magno hiatu profundoque navigia sorbentem, Sen. Consolatio ad Marciam 17.2). See Swantek 2016.

quemadmodum … quemadmodum … ita: “just as … just as … so.” Two further analogies from the human body help to reinforce the point that this flood is natural (and explainable). Both analogies imply that the strength and matter of the human body can be liquefied.