El motiu del "mirall de l'ànima" en les Lletres a Lucili

Resumen

According to the Socratic tradition, the mirror is considered the metaphor of self-knowledge, which is indispensable to any politician to be. Indeed, if one wants to rule his fellow-citizens one needs first to rule himself by knowing his real-self, real nature. In his Letters Seneca gives the Socratic topic of the mirror a parenetic function. His correspondence can be considered as one's mirror because the reader is invited to mirror his mistakes and correct them. This paper aims at showing the innovative approach of this topic in Seneca's Letters: at the moment when Seneca introduces the Socratic image of the mirror into Latin correspondence he radically dissociates it from any participation into Roman political life. Moreover, through the Socratic topic of the mirror Seneca explores his divine origin and also faces his mortal condition and therefore his future death.