RECEPTION OF THE CLASSICS: DIALOGUES BETWEEN FELLINI AND PETRONIO

Medea is the tragic female character most identified with anger and its consequences, but she is not the only one. Clytemnestra, Dejanira and even Andromache and Octavia, in ancient tragedies written in Latin, say they are moved by anger without, however, reaching the heroic status of Medea. According to Seneca, anger is the most terrible of passions (De ira I.1.1), unbridled and indomitable (De ira I.9.3). According to Cicero (Tusc. Disp. IV.21), anger is one of the passions subordinated to desire (libido): it is the desire for revenge (ulciscendi libido), whose trigger is excruciating suffering (dolor), caused by an incorrect judgment (opinion/doxa) of what is evil (Tusc. Disp. III.23-24). This article discusses how anger can be only discursive or attended by a cruel hand.