Symbolae Philologorum Posnaniensium, 2012, nr XXII/2

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(Wydawnictwo Poznańskiego Towarzystwa Przyjaciół Nauk, 2012) Skrzynecka, Joanna
In Natural Question 1 Seneca presents the survey of the rainbow theories and declares himself in favour of the mirror theory drawn from Posidonius. He pronounces the rainbow to be the reflection of the sun in a moist, hollow cloud. This reflection is distorted due to the defectiveness of the natural mirror which is the above mentioned cloud. The scientific argument in Natural Question 1 is closed by the tale about Hostius Quadra, a sexual deviant who sees pleasures in watching his bodily acts in magnifying mirrors. The link between the scientific discourse and the Hostius episode is supplied by the theme of the rainbow or precisely the mirror and its wrong application by humans. Thus Seneca refers the catoptrical inquiry in the nature to the debate over the moral condition of the Roman society.