Melancholy in the Consolation of Marcia: Stoic perspectives and philosophical updates

Abstract

This article aims to analyze, reflect on, and problematize the issue of melancholy in Seneca's epistolary text, Consolation to Marcia, examining the Stoic conception of pain and loss caused by death, expanding the reflection through a dialogue with modern authors, especially Michel Foucault and Pierre Hadot. It seeks to understand how ancient philosophy, especially Stoicism, offers possibilities for timeless reflections that can enable the implementation of practices that contribute to the elaboration of the subject's relationship with death and its consequences, such as mourning, absence, and sadness, directing the subject toward a care of the self that emerges from pain.