ATREUS ARTIFEX (SENECA, THYESTES 906–7)

Thus Atreus, savouring in advance the torment he will inflict upon Thyestes: unconstrained by an Eighth Amendment, he intends his revenge to take precisely the form of some transcendentally cruel and unusual punishment. Emphasis on the gaze in particular captures both the speaker’s sadistic glee and his artistic genius, making him a gloating spectator, keenly observing the tormented observer within his own carefully staged performance. Commentators have often noted these interconnected aspects. ‘Atreo ritorna al monologo, dicendo e pregustando la malvagia gioia che si ripromette dal vedere le reazioni di Tieste alla vista delle teste mozze dei figli.’1 ‘As Atreus steps back and watches the performance that he has staged, he impersonates ... an affected, undetached spectator, who derives direct satisfaction from witnessing the spectacle: libet uidere, capita natorum intuens ... (903).’2 ‘Viewing pleasure is interwoven with the pleasure of mastery, and this is nowhere better seen than in Atreus’ enjoyment in the shifting colours of Thyestes’ face.’3 Nefas parades as art, the aesthetic dimension is paramount here: ‘Es ist konsequent, daß für Atreus die Form des Verbrechens vor seinem “Inhalt” Vorrang hat.’4 Lines 906–7 in particular come crucially into play here: I shall argue that Atreus’ gloating connects with an identifiable aesthetic discourse, which in turn gives sharp point to the torment-as-art theme at a climactic moment in the drama. The voyeuristic impulse, first, betokens the raw savagery familiar from a number of other Senecan passages: thus the avid spectatorial interest at gratuitous displays of butchery in the arena (Ep. 7.2–5) or at the execution of Astyanax and Polyxena (Tro. 1075–87, 1125–37), thus also Caligula’s desire, in an analogous situation, to observe the reactions of the wretched Pastor, invited to dine in grand style with the emperor on the same day that his son had been executed by Caligula (De ira 2.33.3–5). Atreus, in the same way as Medea, prolongs the climactic moment and luxuriates in the victim’s anguish (Med. 1016, perfruere lento scelere, ne propera, dolor), but more explicitly than in Medea’s monologue, the crowning atrocity is now consciously conceived as an artistic triumph (fructus hic operis mei est) with a