All Scholars

MOTTO, Anna Lydia

  • Anna Lydia Motto
  • Date of Birth: July 1, 1924
  • Born City: New York
  • Born State/Country: NY
  • Parents: Michael & Mollie M.
  • Date of Death: February 21, 2014
  • Death City: Washington
  • Death State/Country: DC
  • Married: John R. Clark, November 7, 1959.
  • Education:

    Queens College (Flushing, NY), B.A. with departmental honors in classical languages; New York University, M.A.; teaching fellow, University of North Carolina- Chapel Hill, 1950-51; Ph.D. 1953; Fulbright for study at the American Academy in Rome, 1956; Resident, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ, summers 1979 and 1980.
  • Dissertation:

    “The Extent and Range of the Ideas in Seneca's Philosophy,” (UNC, 1953).
  • Professional Experience:

    Graduate student instructor, Mars Hill College (Asheville, NC); teacher, Northport High School (Long Island, NY) 1950-2; asst. prof., Washington College, (Chestertown, MD), 1953-7; asst. prof. and chair of Classics, Alfred University (Alfred, NY), 1958-65; asso. prof. and chair of Classics, Muhlenberg College (Allentown, PA), 1965-6; asso. prof., St. John’s University (Jamaica, NY) 1966-8; visiting professor, University of Michigan, summer, 1969; professor and chair of Classics, Drew University (Madison, NJ), 1968-73; professor, U. od South Florida, 1974-2001; chair, dept. Foreign Languages, 1974-8; chair, Classics dept., 1985-92; Vice President, CAAS, 1972-3; president, CAMWS, 1982-3;advisory council, AAR, 1983-2014;.Outstanding Scholar of the Year, University of South Florida, College of Arts and Letters, 1976-77; Ovatio, CAMWS,1989.
  • Publications:

    Books: Seneca Sourcebook: Guide to the Thought of Lucius Annaeus Seneca (Amsterdam: Adolf M. Hakkert, 1970); Seneca, Twayne World Authors Series (New York: Twayne, 1973); Seneca: Selected Moral Epistles, edited, with introduction, notes, and vocabulary. “American Philological Association Series of Classical Texts” (Chico, California: Scholars Press, 1985; repr. Wauconda, Illinois: Bolchazy-Carducci, 2001); Senecan Tragedy (Amsterdam: Adolf M. Hakkert, 1988); Seneca: A Critical Bibliography, 1900-1980 (Amsterdam: Adolf M. Hakkert, 1989); Essays on Seneca(with John R. Clark) (Frankfurt & New York: Peter Lang, 1993); Further Essays on Seneca (Frankfurt & New York: Peter Lang, 2001); Additional Essays on Seneca (Frankfurt & New York: Peter Lang, 2009).

    Articles: “Seneca on Theology,” CJ 50 (1955) 181-2; “Seneca on Death and Immortality,” CJ 50 (1955) 187-9; “Seneca, Exponent of Humanitarianism,” CJ 50 (1955) 315-18; “Seneca on the Perfection of the Soul,” CJ 51 (1956) 275-8; “Recent Scholarship on Seneca's Prose Works, 1940-1957,” CW 54 (1960) 13-18; “Recent Scholarship on Seneca's Prose Works, 1940-1957. Addenda, 1957-1958,” CW 54 (1961) 111-12; “Stoic Elements in the Satires of Horace,” in Classical, Mediaeval and Renaissance Studies in honor of B. L. Ullman, I (Rome: Ed. di Storia e Letteratura, 1964) 133-41; “Per iter tenebricosum: The Mythos of Juvenal 3,” (with John R. Clark), TAPA 96 (1965) 267-76; “Seneca on Trial. The Case of the Opulent Stoic,” CJ 61 (1966) 254-8; “Senecan Irony,” (with John R. Clark) CB 45 (1968) 6-7; “Paradoxum Senecae. The Epicurean Stoic,” (with John R. Clark) CW 62 (1968) 37-42; “Ἐΐση δαίς. The Honor of Achilles,” (with John R. Clark), Arethusa 2 (1969) 109-20; “Epistle 56. Seneca's Ironic Art,” (with John R. Clark), CP 65 (1970) 102-5; “Idyllic Slumming 'midst Urban Hoards. The Satiric Epos in Theocritus and Swift,” (with John R. Clark), CB 47 (1971) 39-44; “Et terris iactatus et alto. The Art of Seneca's Epistle LIII,” (with John R. Clark), AJP 92 (1971) 217-25; “Seneca's Prose Writings. A Decade of Scholarship, 1958-1968,” CW 64 (1971) 141-58; “Senecan Tragedy. Patterns of Irony and Art,” (with John R. Clark), CB 48 (1972) 69-76; “Seneca on Women's Liberation,” CW 65 (1972) 155-7; “Dramatic Art and Irony in Seneca's De providentia,” (with John R. Clark). LAC 42 (1973) 28-35; “Descensus Averno in Seneca's Epistle 55,” (with John R. Clark), CJ 68 (1972-3) 193-8; “Violenta fata. The Tenor of Seneca's Oedipus,” (with John R. Clark), CB 50 (1973-4) 81-7; “Ingenium facile et copiosum. Point and Counterpoint in Senecan Style,” (with John R. Clark), CB 52 (1975) 1-4; “’There's Something Wrong with the Sun’: Seneca's Oedipus and the Modern Grotesque,” (with John R. Clark), CB 54 (1977-8) 41-4; “Seneca's Thyestes as Melodrama,” (with John R. Clark), RSC 26 (1978) 363-78; “Hic situs est. Seneca on the Deadliness of Idleness,” (with John R. Clark), CW 72 (1978-9) 207-15; “Maxima virtusin Seneca's Hercules Furens,” (with John R. Clark), CP 76 (1981) 100-17; “Skeleton in the Closet of Hades. Agamemnon766-68,” (with John R. Clark), CB 58 (1982) 45-9; “Art and Ethics in the Drama. Senecan Pseudotragedy Reconsidered,” (with John R. Clark), ICS 7 (1982) 125-40; “Scholarship on Seneca's Prose, 1968-1978,” (with John R. Clark), CW 77 (1983) 69-116; “Volunteers to Necessity. Character in Seneca's Agamemnon,” (with John R. Clark) in From Pen to Performance. Drama as Conceived and Performed III, ed. Karelisa V. Hartigan (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1983) 81-90; “Satiric Plotting in Seneca's Apocolocyntosis,” (with John R. Clark), Emerita 51 (1983) 29-40; “The Idea of Progress in Senecan Thought,” CJ 79 (1984) 225-40; “Nefas: the Way of the World in Seneca's Troades, (with John R. Clark) Maia 36 (1984) 157-63; “Seneca's Troades. Hecuba's Progress of Tribulation,” (with John R. Clark), EClàs 26 (1984) 273-81; “Fata se vertunt retro. Seneca's Agamemnon,” (with John R. Clark) CB 61 (1985) 1-5; “Mayhem and Corruption in Seneca's Troades,” (with John R. Clark), Athenaeum 63 (1985) 62-6; “Seneca e il paradosso dell'avversità,” (with John R. Clark), A&R 30 (1985) 137-53; “Seneca's Agamemnon. Tragedy without a Hero,” (with John R. Clark), Athenaeum 63 (1985) 136-44; “Fluctus varii. Imagery in the Senecan Agamemnon,” (with John R. Clark), CB 63 (1987) 113-18; “Paradox, Reversal & Mental Disorder in the Senecan Troades,” (with John R. Clark), CB 63 (1987) 99-103; “Time in Seneca, Past, Present, Future,” (with John R. Clark), Emerita 55 (1987) 31-41; “Heraclitus and the Ambivalence of Greek Tragic Idealism,” (with John R. Clark), CB 64 (1988) 3-5; “Tempus omnia rapit: Seneca on the Rapacity of Time,” (with John R. Clark), CFC 21 (1988) 129-38; “Tenebrae and the Wandering Spouse. Irony in Seneca, Medea 114-115,” (with John R. Clark), RhM 131 (1988) 338-42; “Knaves and Fools in Senecan Drama,” (with John R. Clark), ICS 14 (1989) 119-34; “Seneca on Drunkenness,” (with John R. Clark), RCCM 32 (1990) 105-10; “The Art of Paradox in Seneca's Epistle 60,” (with John R. Clark), Maia 42 (1990) 47-50; “Seneca and Ulysses,” (with John R. Clark), CB 67 (1991) 27-32; “The Artistry of Seneca's Epistle 62,” (with John R. Clark) Athenaeum 69 (1991) 583-8; “The Paradox of Genius and Madness: Seneca and His Influence,” (with John R. Clark), CFC(L) 2 (1992) 189-99; “Seneca and the Paradox of Poverty,” RPL 15 (1992) 77-82; “Seneca (a proposito del lusso),” (with John R. Clark) StudRom 41 (1993) 310-16; “Seneca on Friendship,” (with John R. Clark), A&R 38 (1993) 91-8; “Seneca on the profanum vulgus,” (with John R. Clark), CB 69 (1993) 35-9; “Seneca on Vice,” (with John R. Clark) Euphrosyne 21 (1993) 239-48; “Sénèque et le paradoxe de felicitas,” (with John R. Clark) REL 71 (1993) 25-32; “Serenity and Tension in Seneca's De tranquillitate animi,” (with John R. Clark) in Essays on Seneca, 133-54; “The Development of the Classical Tradition of Exile to Seneca,” (with John R. Clark) in Essays on Seneca, 189-96; “Exemplary Villains in Seneca's Prose,” (with John R. Clark), BStudLat 23 (1993) 309-19; “Exemplary heroes in Seneca and Swift,” (with John R. Clark) CML 14 (1993-4) 157-65; “Satire in Seneca's De breuitate uitae,” (with John R. Clark) LAC 63 (1994) 161-71; “Seneca on Cruelty,” (with John R. Clark), MAIA 46 (1994) 273-9; “Seneca on the vir ingratus,” (with John R. Clark) AClass 37 (1994) 41-8; “Seneca Gives Thanks to Nero (with John R. Clark), SIFC 12 (1994) 110-17; “The Monster in Seneca's Hercules furens926-939,” (with John R. Clark), CP 89 (1994) 269-72; “Senecan Paratragœdia,” (with John R. Clark), CFC (L) 9 (1995) 135-49; “Seneca on Pleasure,” Helmantica 47 (1996) 85-103; “Seneca's Visionary Drama,” (with John R. Clark), Listy Filologické = Folia Philologica 120 (1997) 34-41; “Seneca on Restlessness and Inconstancy,” Eirene 33 (1997) 96-105; “Seneca on Old Age,” CFC (L) 19 (2000) 125-39; “Seneca on the Emotions,” RPL n.s. 6 (2003) 39-46; “Séneca [sic] contra Iram,” Helmantica 57 (2006) 313-29; “Innuendo and Incrimination in Thyestes, 314-316,” LEC 74 (2006) 261-4; “Seneca on the Bestowal of Benefits,” Euphrosyne n.s. 35 (2007) 319-26; “Seneca on Love,” CFC (L) 27 (2007) 79-86; “Seneca on Envy,” RPL n.s. 11 (2008) 28-38; “Seneca's Quest for the vita beata,” Athenaeum 97 (2009) 187-96.

    Festchrift:  Veritatis Amicitiaeque Causa: Essays in Honor of Anna Lydia Motto and John R. Clark. eds. Shannon N. Byrne and Edmund P. Cueva, (Chicago: Bolchazy-Carducci, 1999).
  • Notes:

    Anna Lydia Motto’s colleague in life and in scholarship was her husband, Jack Clark (1930-95), with whom she wrote most of her many articles. Clark earned his doctorate in English at the University of Michigan with a dissertation concerning Jonathan Swift’s Tale of a Tub. From 1973 to 1978 he was chair of English at the University of South Florida. As a team for decades, they used their wide-ranging expertise to explore both ancient and modern literature. Over the years they travelled to many conferences together to present their scholarly findings and by their example encouraged their students to employ their own intellects to do the same. 

         Motto’s dissertation was the springboard to most of her later work. Occasionally she and Clark addressed other topics such as classical studies in higher education (“Classics in Revolt,” CW 63 (1969) 109-112; “Classics at the Rubicon,’’ CW 66 (1973) 450-6) or their study of Achilles (“Ise Dais: The Honor of Achilles,” Arethusa 2 (1969) 109-25). She continually challenged the predominantly negative attitudes toward Seneca that pervaded mid-twentieth century scholarship. Michael Winterbottom, in his review of her 1971 biography of Seneca, noted that she had well illustrated “his genuine concern with the problems of human life” (CR 25 (1975): 150). Zeph Stewart, reviewing the same volume, noted that her “straight-forward attitude” and “her transparent bias…was certainly in a tradition of Senecan criticism” (CP 72 (1977): 186-187). Her edition of Seneca’s letters with Scholars Press was designed to acquaint the average college student with Seneca and, as J. F. Makowski observed in his review of the work (CW 81(1988) 329-330), it provided “accessibility to an important, but sometime difficult author.”
  • Sources:

    “Ninth Commencement Exercises,” Queens College of the City of New York (25 June, 1946):2; “Class of 1957, Yearbook” Pegasus (Washington College, 1957): 49; “Dr. Motto Receives Fulbright Grant For Rome Studies: Award Includes 6 Week Summer Session at the American Academy,” The Washington Elm [Washington College] (12 May 1956):1; “Summer Research Grant, Alfred University Foundation,” Fiat Lux [Alfred University]  (9 October 1959) ; “Dr. Motto to Publish Articles for ‘Classical World’ Journal,” Fiat Lux [Alfred University]  (4 October, 1960):4; “AU Faculty Increased, Several Depts. Benefit,” Fiat Lux [Alfred University] (26 September, 1961): 3; “Faculty Notes, Classical Languages,” The St. John’s University Newsletter, (Fall, 1966): 2; “Faculty Notes,” Humanitas: President’s Advisory Council. St. John’s University  (Fall, 1967): 1-2; Shannon N. Byrne and Edmund P. Cueva, “Preface” and “Some Published Works of Anna Lydia Motto and John R. Clark,” Veritatis Amicitiaeque Causa: Essays in Honor of Anna Lydia Motto and John R. Clark (Chicago: Bolchazy-Carducci, 1999): vii-viii; x-xvi. I am grateful to Dr. Motto’s son Bradford R. Clark, William Cranch Research Professor of Law, George Washington University, Washington, D.C.  for his help writing this biography and to Dr. Motto with whom I studied Seneca’s Epistulae Morales at age 18.
  • Author: Michele Valerie Ronnick