Blinded by the Vice. A Reading of Seneca’s Letter 50

Abstract

This paper offers a reading of Seneca’s E p. 50, focusing on the opening anecdote, the story of the fool slave Harpaste, who suddenly became blind but thought that it was the outside that had darkened rather than her sight. Harpaste is a speaking name, which hints at her being a joke of nature and at her becoming blind. She is foolish, mad and blind, so she represents in many respects our actual condition: we all are foolish, so we act like mad people, blinded by our vices. Yet her blindness is due to a physical disease while ours is ethical, and it is due to our moral feebleness. Besides the medical metaphor, the main semantic field of the letter is that of learning and knowing: this leads us to understand that our moral diseases come from a refusal to admit our limits, that is, to know ourselves, which is the first and crucial step towards wisdom.