Movenda iam sunt bella: Persuasion in Juno’s Prologue to Hercules Furens

Seneca’s Hercules Furens opens with a monologue delivered by Juno (lines 1–124). Similar to other Senecan prologues, Juno’s speech is widely considered a train of thought whose main dramatic function is to display the goddess’ violent emotions. This paper, by contrast, considers the prologue’s rhetorical side, exploring the idea that it is shaped as a piece of communication aimed at persuading the audi-ence to side with Juno’s negative evaluation of Hercules. Relying on an approach that combines insights from Discourse Analysis and common ground theory, we study the prologue both on a macro-level, by looking at its structure, and on a micro-level, by analyzing the linguistic elements that index the communicative function of Juno’s words. Rather than uttering an erratic flow of words dictated by her anger and hunger for revenge, Juno in her prologue builds upon a specific aspect of her current circumstances to argue that her personal situation applies (or will apply) to the whole universe. This structure ultimately underlines the urgency to stop Hercules.