Marcus Aurelius and Non-Tragic Living

International audienceThe focus of the article is the recurring appeal in Marcus Aurelius' Meditations to live non-tragically. This appeal presents an original usage of the theatrical metaphor for life rooted in stoicism. The usage is based on the opposition of proper (oikeios) and alien (xenos) which can be understood within the framework of the Stoic theory of appropriation (oikeiosis) and particularly the Chrysippean differentiation between appropriation and alienation (DL VII, 85). An alienated person, carried away by passions and surprised by events, is perceived as alienated from nature, an actor of life's tragedy. On the contrary, the one who acts rightly is presented as an actor of non-tragic theatre who at the same time unifies themself with the universal cause and nature and distances themself from passions and usual roles distributed in life