ABSTRACT
Seneca’s intertextual engagement with Ovid has been repeatedly pointed out, with particular focus upon his multiple explicit poetic quotations from the Ovidian corpus within his philosophical treatises. Seneca’s first citation is particularly significant, due to the corresponding bearing of the Ovidian verses within their original context. Ovid’s example explicitly refers to the effect of water that transforms the body and turns it into stone. In cases that the sulphuric force of water is less harsh, Seneca suggests that the effect upon men is more similar to that of strong undiluted wine , which brings about drunkenness. Seneca then turns to waters that, even though not dangerous, are associated with a certain marvelous phenomenon. Seneca discusses the processes of sinking and floating with respect to the relevant weight of waters; more precisely the regulating factors of these processes are considered to be the density of both the waters and the sinking or floating object.
