Hercules’ Affectus : The (In)Human Body in Seneca’s Hercules Furens

This article navigates the development of Hercules’ physical and psychological identity in Seneca’s Hercules Furens through the lens of affect theory (and germane theoretical approaches). By combining this theoretical framework with ancient philosophical and medical conceptions of the human body, Hercules’ fury is reinterpreted as an extreme example of embodied emotional experience. Thus, the borders between abstract and concrete appear blurred; Hercules’ “affective” objects—his weapons—become both prosthetic extensions of his body and hypostases of his emotions. By taking control of Hercules as a mind-body-object continuum, anger not only determines Hercules’ physical agency but also contributes to the reshaping of his identity tout court. The rupture of the distinctions between human affections and their concrete manifestations, between human agency and object agency, which characterizes the Hercules Furens leads us to question traditional (Stoic) notions of the unity of the subject, as well as definitions of (human) personhood.