Funzioni della paura nell'Oedipus di Seneca

The article is dedicated to the study of the functions of fear in Seneca’s Oedipus. The analysis of the emotional theme is firmly intertwined with that of the communication of evil. The search for truth, in fact, develops along a path of communication of the unspeakable, in which fear plays a decisive role. The main aim of the work is to show how this adfectus, which operates according to mechanisms in line with the Stoic theory of passions, assumes, during the process that leads to the emergence of truth, a function of a heuristic kind. A fundamental tool of this study is the analysis of the phenomenology of passions, which signals the main stages of emotional development.