The Poetics of Eros in Ancient Greece

by Calame, Claude

• ISBN13: 9780691043418
• ISBN10: 0691043418
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-04-12
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr

Summary

The Poetics of Eros in Ancient Greeceoffers the first comprehensive inquiry into the deity of sexual love, a power that permeated daily Greek life. Avoiding Foucault's philosophical paradigm of dominance/submission, Claude Calame uses an anthropological and linguistic approach to re-create indigenous categories of erotic love. He maintains that Eros, the joyful companion of Aphrodite, was a divine figure around which poets constructed a physiology of desire that functioned in specific ways within a network of social relations. Calame begins by showing how poetry and iconography gave a rich variety of expression to the concept of Eros, then delivers a history of the deity's roles within social and political institutions, and concludes with a discussion of an Eros-centered metaphysics. Calame's treatment of archaic and classical Greek institutions reveals Eros at work in initiation rites and celebrations, educational practices, the Dionysiac theater of tragedy and comedy, and in real and imagined spatial settings. For men, Eros functioned particularly in the symposium and the gymnasium, places where men and boys interacted and where future citizens were educated. The household was the setting where girls, brides, and adult wives learned their erotic roles--as such it provides the context for understanding female rites of passage and the problematics of sexuality in conjugal relations. Through analyses of both Greek language and practices, Calame offers a fresh, subtle reading of relations between individuals as well as a quick-paced and fascinating overview of Eros in Greek society at large.

Author Biography

Claude Calame is Professor of Greek Language and Literature at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	xi
Foreword	xiii
Preface	xvii
Note on Translations	xix
List of Abbreviations	xxi
TRAGIC PRELUDE
The Yoke of Eros	3	(8)
PART ONE: THE TOPICS OF EROS	11	(38)
The Eros of the Melic Poets	13	(26)
The Actions of Bittersweet Eros	14	(5)
Physiologies of Erotic Desire	19	(4)
Strategies of Love	23	(6)
A Variety of Passions	29	(4)
Metaphors for the Assuaging of Desire	33	(3)
The Erotic Charms of Poetry	36	(3)
The Eros of Epic Poetry	39	(10)
Scenes of Mutual Love	39	(4)
Scenes of Seduction	43	(3)
Beguiling Words	46	(3)
PART TWO: THE SYMBOLIC PRACTICES OF EROS	49	(40)
The Pragmatic Effects of Love Poetry	51	(14)
The Erotic Functions of Melic Poetry	52	(4)
The Loves of Alexandrian Writers	56	(9)
The Pragmatics of Erotic Iconography	65	(24)
Figurative Representations of Love	65	(7)
The Functions of Erotic Images	72	(17)
PART THREE: EROS IN SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS	89	(62)
Eros in the Masculine: The polis	91	(19)
The Propaedeutic Practices of the Symposium	93	(8)
Erotic Practices of the Palaestra	101	(9)
Eros in the Feminine: The Oikos	110	(20)
An Intermediate Status: The Hetaira at the Banquet	111	(5)
The Transition to Maturity: The Young Wife	116	(14)
Dionysiac Challenges to Love	130	(21)
The Institution of Comedy	133	(8)
The Institution of Tragedy	141	(10)
PART FOUR: THE SPACES OF EROS	151	(24)
The Meadows and Gardens of Legend	153	(12)
Eroticized Meadows	154	(3)
The Orchards and Gardens of Aphrodite	157	(3)
Flowers, Fruits, and Cereals	160	(5)
The Meadows and Gardens of the Poets	165	(10)
The Metaphorical Spaces of Love	165	(2)
The Ideal Domains of the Gods	167	(3)
Religious Gardens	170	(5)
PART FIVE: THE METAPHYSICS OF EROS	175	(26)
Eros as Demiurge and Philosopher	177	(15)
Eros as a Cosmogonic Principle	178	(3)
Erotic Forms of the Initiation to Beauty	181	(5)
Love as a Metaphysician	186	(6)
Mystic Eros	192	(9)
Eros in the Orphic Theogonies	193	(2)
The Mystic Aspects of Eros	195	(3)
ELEGIAC CODA
Eros the Educator	198	(3)
Bibliography	201	(6)
Name Index	207	(4)
Subject Index	211