Seneca's Mother

[Octavia]

Hello all. I read somewhere that Seneca wrote a poem or a story about his mother, Helvia. Who was she and did she hold any importance in the roman world?

[ASCLEPIADES]

Hello all. I read somewhere that Seneca wrote a poem or a story about his mother, Helvia. Who was she and did she hold any importance in the roman world?

Salve, Lady CO!

 

Not surprisingly, Helvia seems to have been important mainly to her notorious family.

 

This is what the "Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology" by Sir William Smith tell us about Helvia of Corduba:

 

"Wife of M. Annaeus Seneca, of Corduba, the rhetorician, and mother of his three sons, M. Annaeus Novatus, L. Annaeus Seneca, the philosopher, and L. Annaeus Mela. (Sen. Consol. ad Helv. 2.) Helvia was probably a native of Spain, and followed her husband to Rome, about A. D. 3-5, while her second son was an infant. (Ibid. 17.) The life Helvia is contained in Seneca's address of condolence to his mother (Consolatio ad Helviam) on his exile to Corsica, in the reign of Claudius, A. D. 47-9.Through the rhetorical amplifications of this address we discover that Helvia had borne her full share of the sorrows of life. Her mother died giving birth to her. She was brought up by a step-mother. She had lost her husband and a most indulgent uncle within a month of each other; and her grief for the untimely decease of one of her grandsons was embittered by the exile of her son Helvia had at least one sister (Cons. ad Helv. 17), but her name is unknown."

 

Seneca DE CONSOLATIONE AD HELVIAM is the Book XII of his Essays, following this link. It's a bit long (20 chapters).

 

I hope this may be useful.