Frisbee Sheffield
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199286775
- eISBN:
- 9780191713194
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199286775.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Ancient Greek, Roman, and Early Christian Philosophy
This book is concerned with Plato's examination of the nature and aims of human desire, and the role that it plays in our ethical lives. For Plato, analysing our desires is a way of reflecting on the ...
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This book is concerned with Plato's examination of the nature and aims of human desire, and the role that it plays in our ethical lives. For Plato, analysing our desires is a way of reflecting on the kind of people that we are, and on our prospects for a worthwhile and happy life. This assumes that desires are the sorts of thing that are amenable to such reflection. This book considers why Plato held such a view, and in what direction he thought our desires could best be shaped. The kind of relationships which typically took place at symposia was an important way in which young men learnt how to value and desire the right kinds of things, and in the appropriate manner. They were, in short, a way in which virtue was transmitted to the young. The book argues that seen in this light, the Symposium belongs amongst those dialogues concerned with moral education. The Symposium offers a distinctive approach to central Platonic themes concerning education, virtue, epistemology, and moral psychology, one that is grounded in an account of the nature and goals of a loving relationship.Less
This book is concerned with Plato's examination of the nature and aims of human desire, and the role that it plays in our ethical lives. For Plato, analysing our desires is a way of reflecting on the kind of people that we are, and on our prospects for a worthwhile and happy life. This assumes that desires are the sorts of thing that are amenable to such reflection. This book considers why Plato held such a view, and in what direction he thought our desires could best be shaped. The kind of relationships which typically took place at symposia was an important way in which young men learnt how to value and desire the right kinds of things, and in the appropriate manner. They were, in short, a way in which virtue was transmitted to the young. The book argues that seen in this light, the Symposium belongs amongst those dialogues concerned with moral education. The Symposium offers a distinctive approach to central Platonic themes concerning education, virtue, epistemology, and moral psychology, one that is grounded in an account of the nature and goals of a loving relationship.
CATHERINE OSBORNE
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198267669
- eISBN:
- 9780191683336
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198267669.003.0010
- Subject:
- Religion, Early Christian Studies, Religion in the Ancient World
There are two main claims that this book tries to defend. One is that the correct way to understand the ancient tradition concerning Eros is to see love as inexplicable, in the way suggested by the ...
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There are two main claims that this book tries to defend. One is that the correct way to understand the ancient tradition concerning Eros is to see love as inexplicable, in the way suggested by the motif of Eros the god of love with his arrows. The second claim follows from this; namely, that where desire or admiration of fine qualities occurs and is associated with love, it would be a mistake to suggest that the desire or appreciation was itself love, or was the motive that inspired us to love. Rather, it makes more sense to see desire, and appreciation of what is good, occurring as a result of love, as the expression of the love that enables us to see such qualities as good and desirable.Less
There are two main claims that this book tries to defend. One is that the correct way to understand the ancient tradition concerning Eros is to see love as inexplicable, in the way suggested by the motif of Eros the god of love with his arrows. The second claim follows from this; namely, that where desire or admiration of fine qualities occurs and is associated with love, it would be a mistake to suggest that the desire or appreciation was itself love, or was the motive that inspired us to love. Rather, it makes more sense to see desire, and appreciation of what is good, occurring as a result of love, as the expression of the love that enables us to see such qualities as good and desirable.
Suzanne Obdrzalek
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199644384
- eISBN:
- 9780191743344
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199644384.003.0003
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Ancient Philosophy
This chapter examines Plato's moral psychology in the Phaedrus. It argues against interpreters such as Burnyeat and Nussbaum that Plato's treatment of the soul is increasingly pessimistic: reason's ...
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This chapter examines Plato's moral psychology in the Phaedrus. It argues against interpreters such as Burnyeat and Nussbaum that Plato's treatment of the soul is increasingly pessimistic: reason's desire to contemplate is at odds with its obligation to rule the soul, and psychic harmony can only be secured by violently suppressing the lower parts of the soul.Less
This chapter examines Plato's moral psychology in the Phaedrus. It argues against interpreters such as Burnyeat and Nussbaum that Plato's treatment of the soul is increasingly pessimistic: reason's desire to contemplate is at odds with its obligation to rule the soul, and psychic harmony can only be secured by violently suppressing the lower parts of the soul.
Tilo Schabert
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780226038056
- eISBN:
- 9780226185156
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226185156.003.0011
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
As Plato shows most lucidly, Eros both arises out of the opposition of things and is also the force that brings things together. But alongside the sociable Eros, there is also the force of ...
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As Plato shows most lucidly, Eros both arises out of the opposition of things and is also the force that brings things together. But alongside the sociable Eros, there is also the force of quarrelsome discord. In human beings, Eros is manifested through the division into male and female, a division that is at the same time the reason for their desire for re-union. But this desire has a different aim according to the way that a human being is pulled by the “strings” of pleasure and pain. A wholly disordered, i.e., and evil soul, is attracted to the other for the sake not of letting it be but of possesssing and devouring it; this is the eros tyrannos. An ordered soul, on the other hand, maintains the proper relation to the other by letting things be what they are, and by relating to other human beings according to the model of the harmony between heaven and earth, humans and gods; this is the eros philosophos, which is a form of the presence of the Divine in human existence.Less
As Plato shows most lucidly, Eros both arises out of the opposition of things and is also the force that brings things together. But alongside the sociable Eros, there is also the force of quarrelsome discord. In human beings, Eros is manifested through the division into male and female, a division that is at the same time the reason for their desire for re-union. But this desire has a different aim according to the way that a human being is pulled by the “strings” of pleasure and pain. A wholly disordered, i.e., and evil soul, is attracted to the other for the sake not of letting it be but of possesssing and devouring it; this is the eros tyrannos. An ordered soul, on the other hand, maintains the proper relation to the other by letting things be what they are, and by relating to other human beings according to the model of the harmony between heaven and earth, humans and gods; this is the eros philosophos, which is a form of the presence of the Divine in human existence.
Richard Sorabji
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- May 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199256600
- eISBN:
- 9780191712609
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199256600.003.0019
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
In ancient philosophy, sex, being in love (erôs), marriage, and rearing children each got advocated in separation from the others. Moreover, a good form of erôs got distinguished from one or two bad ...
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In ancient philosophy, sex, being in love (erôs), marriage, and rearing children each got advocated in separation from the others. Moreover, a good form of erôs got distinguished from one or two bad forms, most influentially by Plato's Socrates. The Stoics agree and so are able to advocate a good form of erôs as not emotional, namely being led by beauty to make friends in order to inculcate virtue. The Epicureans are against erôs and in most circumstances against marriage. Sex would be alright as a palliative, if it did not lead to illusion, harm, and pain, so casual sex is better. Among the Neoplatonists, Porphyry wants the philosopher to avoid anything that might even arouse sexual desire, but Iamblichus rebukes him: erotic rituals for ordinary people provide Aristotelian catharsis.Less
In ancient philosophy, sex, being in love (erôs), marriage, and rearing children each got advocated in separation from the others. Moreover, a good form of erôs got distinguished from one or two bad forms, most influentially by Plato's Socrates. The Stoics agree and so are able to advocate a good form of erôs as not emotional, namely being led by beauty to make friends in order to inculcate virtue. The Epicureans are against erôs and in most circumstances against marriage. Sex would be alright as a palliative, if it did not lead to illusion, harm, and pain, so casual sex is better. Among the Neoplatonists, Porphyry wants the philosopher to avoid anything that might even arouse sexual desire, but Iamblichus rebukes him: erotic rituals for ordinary people provide Aristotelian catharsis.
Dominic Scott (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199289974
- eISBN:
- 9780191711008
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199289974.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Ancient Philosophy
This book pays tribute to the highly influential work of Myles Burnyeat, whose contributions to the study of ancient philosophy have done much to enhance the profile of the subject around the world. ...
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This book pays tribute to the highly influential work of Myles Burnyeat, whose contributions to the study of ancient philosophy have done much to enhance the profile of the subject around the world. What is distinctive about his work is his capacity to deepen our understanding of the relation between ancient and modern thought, and to combine the best of contemporary philosophy — its insights as well as its rigour — with a deep sensitivity to classical texts. Nineteen experts in the field examine a wide range of topics in ancient philosophy, with a particular focus on Plato. Topics include Socrates and the nature of philosophy; the different aspects of eros in the Symposium, Republic, and Phaedrus; the Phaedo's arguments for immortality, wars, and warriors in Plato; and the different aspects of the cave allegory in the Republic.Less
This book pays tribute to the highly influential work of Myles Burnyeat, whose contributions to the study of ancient philosophy have done much to enhance the profile of the subject around the world. What is distinctive about his work is his capacity to deepen our understanding of the relation between ancient and modern thought, and to combine the best of contemporary philosophy — its insights as well as its rigour — with a deep sensitivity to classical texts. Nineteen experts in the field examine a wide range of topics in ancient philosophy, with a particular focus on Plato. Topics include Socrates and the nature of philosophy; the different aspects of eros in the Symposium, Republic, and Phaedrus; the Phaedo's arguments for immortality, wars, and warriors in Plato; and the different aspects of the cave allegory in the Republic.
Ika Willis
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199545544
- eISBN:
- 9780191720598
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199545544.003.0014
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter explores Derrida's queer deconstruction of the father/son ‘couple’ Socrates and plato in the ‘Envois’ section of The Post Card. It argues that ‘Envois’ shows how the relationship with ...
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This chapter explores Derrida's queer deconstruction of the father/son ‘couple’ Socrates and plato in the ‘Envois’ section of The Post Card. It argues that ‘Envois’ shows how the relationship with antiquity is usually figured via the metaphor of filiation, as the disciplined transmission of legitimized knowledge across masculine generations. Placing Derrida's work in communication with that of Luce Irigaray on Eros in Plato's Symposium, Jacob Hale on leatherdyke daddy/boy practices, and Lee Edelman on ‘heteroreproductive futurity’, the chapter draws out the queer eroticism and anachronistic force of Socrates' and Plato's intergenerational coupling. Showing that Socrates and plato can be read as daddy/boy, rather than father/son, it argues for a relation to antiquity which takes pleasure in the anachronistic apparatus of mediation which, for Irigaray, is Eros itself.Less
This chapter explores Derrida's queer deconstruction of the father/son ‘couple’ Socrates and plato in the ‘Envois’ section of The Post Card. It argues that ‘Envois’ shows how the relationship with antiquity is usually figured via the metaphor of filiation, as the disciplined transmission of legitimized knowledge across masculine generations. Placing Derrida's work in communication with that of Luce Irigaray on Eros in Plato's Symposium, Jacob Hale on leatherdyke daddy/boy practices, and Lee Edelman on ‘heteroreproductive futurity’, the chapter draws out the queer eroticism and anachronistic force of Socrates' and Plato's intergenerational coupling. Showing that Socrates and plato can be read as daddy/boy, rather than father/son, it argues for a relation to antiquity which takes pleasure in the anachronistic apparatus of mediation which, for Irigaray, is Eros itself.
Tilo Schabert
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780226038056
- eISBN:
- 9780226185156
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226185156.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
Whereas human beings have their first birth in the beginning of their bodily existence, only their second birth, in which their political existence and their relation to a government begin, makes ...
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Whereas human beings have their first birth in the beginning of their bodily existence, only their second birth, in which their political existence and their relation to a government begin, makes them truly or eminently human. But while the origin of political existence is usually equated with the formation of communities, the present book utilizes the mythical, philosophical, religious and political thought cultivated in the European, American, Arab, and Chinese civilizations to identify the political dimension of human beings in Gestalten of power that render them political beings prior to their life in communities. These Gestalten include number, time, thought, Eros, the cosmological manifestation of the political that has its start in the body, the political effort to make all power a civilizing power, and the self-perception of human beings as “subjects to government” who, without altering the political mode of their existence, can set up a government over themselves as individuals in the mode of self-rule or self-control. Thus, human beings erect the work of the political world, which is their own creation, in a world that they have not themselves created.Less
Whereas human beings have their first birth in the beginning of their bodily existence, only their second birth, in which their political existence and their relation to a government begin, makes them truly or eminently human. But while the origin of political existence is usually equated with the formation of communities, the present book utilizes the mythical, philosophical, religious and political thought cultivated in the European, American, Arab, and Chinese civilizations to identify the political dimension of human beings in Gestalten of power that render them political beings prior to their life in communities. These Gestalten include number, time, thought, Eros, the cosmological manifestation of the political that has its start in the body, the political effort to make all power a civilizing power, and the self-perception of human beings as “subjects to government” who, without altering the political mode of their existence, can set up a government over themselves as individuals in the mode of self-rule or self-control. Thus, human beings erect the work of the political world, which is their own creation, in a world that they have not themselves created.
Dominic Scott
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199289974
- eISBN:
- 9780191711008
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199289974.003.0007
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Ancient Philosophy
The philosopher and the tyrant of the Republic seem worlds apart from one another — the one just, ordered, and harmonious; the other lawless, bestial, and wild. And yet they have one thing in common: ...
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The philosopher and the tyrant of the Republic seem worlds apart from one another — the one just, ordered, and harmonious; the other lawless, bestial, and wild. And yet they have one thing in common: both are gripped by an obsessive erōs. At various points in book VI, philosophers are described as lovers, whether of learning, truth, or philosophy itself (485b1, 490b1-7, 499c1-2, and 501d2). According to the channel analogy of 485a-487a, their philosophical erōs is like a flow of water directed into a single stream, drying up their other desires for more worldly goods. But the channel argument also applies very well to the tyrant, described not just as lawless, but also as having an erōs that he pursues with complete single-mindedness, an erōs that informs all aspects of his character, dominating his beliefs, desires, and actions. This chapter begins with a description of the tyrant in book IX, focusing on the exact reason why Plato characterizes him in terms of erōs. It then turns to the philosopher and examines passages from the central books of the Republic that help to reveal the strand linking philosophical and tyrannical erōs.Less
The philosopher and the tyrant of the Republic seem worlds apart from one another — the one just, ordered, and harmonious; the other lawless, bestial, and wild. And yet they have one thing in common: both are gripped by an obsessive erōs. At various points in book VI, philosophers are described as lovers, whether of learning, truth, or philosophy itself (485b1, 490b1-7, 499c1-2, and 501d2). According to the channel analogy of 485a-487a, their philosophical erōs is like a flow of water directed into a single stream, drying up their other desires for more worldly goods. But the channel argument also applies very well to the tyrant, described not just as lawless, but also as having an erōs that he pursues with complete single-mindedness, an erōs that informs all aspects of his character, dominating his beliefs, desires, and actions. This chapter begins with a description of the tyrant in book IX, focusing on the exact reason why Plato characterizes him in terms of erōs. It then turns to the philosopher and examines passages from the central books of the Republic that help to reveal the strand linking philosophical and tyrannical erōs.
Virginia Burrus and Catherine Keller (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823226351
- eISBN:
- 9780823236718
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823226351.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
What does theology have to say about the place of eroticism in the salvific transformation of men and women, even of the cosmos itself? How, in turn, does eros infuse theological ...
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What does theology have to say about the place of eroticism in the salvific transformation of men and women, even of the cosmos itself? How, in turn, does eros infuse theological practice and transfigure doctrinal tropes? Avoiding the well-worn path of sexual moralizing while also departing decisively from Anders Nygren's influential insistence that Christian agape must have nothing to do with worldly eros, this book explores what is still largely uncharted territory in the realm of theological erotics. The ascetic, the mystical, the seductive, and the ecstatic—these are the places where the divine and the erotic may be seen to converge and love and desire to commingle. The book seeks new openings for the emergence of desire, love, and pleasure, while challenging common understandings of these terms. It engages risk at the point where the hope for salvation paradoxically endangers the safety of subjects—in particular, of theological subjects—by opening them to those transgressions of eros in which boundaries, once exceeded, become places of emerging possibility. The eighteen chapters, arranged in thematic clusters, move fluidly among and between premodern and postmodern textual traditions—from Plato to Emerson, Augustine to Kristeva, Mechthild to Mattoso, the Shulammite to Molly Bloom, the Zohar to the Da Vinci Code. In so doing, they link the sublime reaches of theory with the gritty realities of politics, the boundless transcendence of God with the poignant transience of materiality.Less
What does theology have to say about the place of eroticism in the salvific transformation of men and women, even of the cosmos itself? How, in turn, does eros infuse theological practice and transfigure doctrinal tropes? Avoiding the well-worn path of sexual moralizing while also departing decisively from Anders Nygren's influential insistence that Christian agape must have nothing to do with worldly eros, this book explores what is still largely uncharted territory in the realm of theological erotics. The ascetic, the mystical, the seductive, and the ecstatic—these are the places where the divine and the erotic may be seen to converge and love and desire to commingle. The book seeks new openings for the emergence of desire, love, and pleasure, while challenging common understandings of these terms. It engages risk at the point where the hope for salvation paradoxically endangers the safety of subjects—in particular, of theological subjects—by opening them to those transgressions of eros in which boundaries, once exceeded, become places of emerging possibility. The eighteen chapters, arranged in thematic clusters, move fluidly among and between premodern and postmodern textual traditions—from Plato to Emerson, Augustine to Kristeva, Mechthild to Mattoso, the Shulammite to Molly Bloom, the Zohar to the Da Vinci Code. In so doing, they link the sublime reaches of theory with the gritty realities of politics, the boundless transcendence of God with the poignant transience of materiality.
Steven Paul Hopkins
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195127355
- eISBN:
- 9780199834327
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195127358.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Hinduism
This chapter focuses on a few stanzas of two long Tamil prabandhams — the Mummaïikkêvai and the Navamaïimålai — that use elements of classical Tamil akam love poetry as they have been appropriated by ...
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This chapter focuses on a few stanzas of two long Tamil prabandhams — the Mummaïikkêvai and the Navamaïimålai — that use elements of classical Tamil akam love poetry as they have been appropriated by the Çôvårs — especially by Nammåôvår — to evoke Deóika's experience of Devanåyaka Svåmi, the form of Vishnu at a sacred place where he is said to have spent 30 years of his life, Tiruvahândrapuram. Whereas Vedåntadeóika's praises of Varadaråja at Kåñcâ stress Vishnu's overall puõuam nature as awesome majestic king with his queens, at Tiruvahândrapuram, Devanåyaka (The “Lord of Gods”), no less “awesome,” is the intimate, “interior,” love mode of akam dominates. The devotional attitude in these Tamil verses is mirrored in Deóika's Sanskrit and Pråkrit poems to this same form of Vishnu. And while the Sanskrit and Prakrit hymns to Devanåyaka consciously make use of their own conventions of erotic love to convey his love of this form of God, his Tamil verses suitably mine what had become with the work of the Çôvårs, a ‘Tamil’ poetics of passionate, intimate religious love. The thematic close reading of stanzas from these two Tamil poems includes discussions of various female personae from the Tamil akam poetry, love and separation, divine absence and presence, Vishnu's beautiful body and the temple icon, the “eros of place,” love and bathing imagery (niråìal) in Vedåntadeóika and the female Çôvår Çïìåö and, most significantly, the theology of beauty (“beauty that saves”) that emerges from these poems.Less
This chapter focuses on a few stanzas of two long Tamil prabandhams — the Mummaïikkêvai and the Navamaïimålai — that use elements of classical Tamil akam love poetry as they have been appropriated by the Çôvårs — especially by Nammåôvår — to evoke Deóika's experience of Devanåyaka Svåmi, the form of Vishnu at a sacred place where he is said to have spent 30 years of his life, Tiruvahândrapuram. Whereas Vedåntadeóika's praises of Varadaråja at Kåñcâ stress Vishnu's overall puõuam nature as awesome majestic king with his queens, at Tiruvahândrapuram, Devanåyaka (The “Lord of Gods”), no less “awesome,” is the intimate, “interior,” love mode of akam dominates. The devotional attitude in these Tamil verses is mirrored in Deóika's Sanskrit and Pråkrit poems to this same form of Vishnu. And while the Sanskrit and Prakrit hymns to Devanåyaka consciously make use of their own conventions of erotic love to convey his love of this form of God, his Tamil verses suitably mine what had become with the work of the Çôvårs, a ‘Tamil’ poetics of passionate, intimate religious love. The thematic close reading of stanzas from these two Tamil poems includes discussions of various female personae from the Tamil akam poetry, love and separation, divine absence and presence, Vishnu's beautiful body and the temple icon, the “eros of place,” love and bathing imagery (niråìal) in Vedåntadeóika and the female Çôvår Çïìåö and, most significantly, the theology of beauty (“beauty that saves”) that emerges from these poems.
Vered Lev Kenaan
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199236343
- eISBN:
- 9780191717130
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199236343.003.0009
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter argues that, in the Symposium, Plato not only recalls Hesiodic passages and motifs at important moments in the dialogue, but founds his portrayal of Socrates on Hesiod's Pandora. The ...
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This chapter argues that, in the Symposium, Plato not only recalls Hesiodic passages and motifs at important moments in the dialogue, but founds his portrayal of Socrates on Hesiod's Pandora. The claim is striking, even paradoxical if one thinks of Pandora as the bringer of evils. But defined, like Socrates, by the rift between interior and exterior, essence and appearance, Pandora is, like Socrates, a marvel to behold — and (also like him) a challenge to the intellect, the obvious prompt to philosophical inquiry.Less
This chapter argues that, in the Symposium, Plato not only recalls Hesiodic passages and motifs at important moments in the dialogue, but founds his portrayal of Socrates on Hesiod's Pandora. The claim is striking, even paradoxical if one thinks of Pandora as the bringer of evils. But defined, like Socrates, by the rift between interior and exterior, essence and appearance, Pandora is, like Socrates, a marvel to behold — and (also like him) a challenge to the intellect, the obvious prompt to philosophical inquiry.
Jessica Moss
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199666164
- eISBN:
- 9780191751936
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199666164.003.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Ancient Philosophy
The Phaedrus claims that good logoi must be “put together like a living creature”, with parts that suit one another and the whole; but the dialogue itself seems to be a misshapen jumble. It begins as ...
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The Phaedrus claims that good logoi must be “put together like a living creature”, with parts that suit one another and the whole; but the dialogue itself seems to be a misshapen jumble. It begins as a series of elegant rhetorical speeches about love, and ends as a dry philosophical discussion of rhetoric. What makes it hang together? This essay argues for a new reading: the Phaedrus is a treatise on the kind of persuasion that Plato calls soul-leading (psuchagōgia). Here as in other dialogues Plato is concerned with how a philosopher can lead people’s souls (that is, their attention and concern) away from worldly things and toward the goods of philosophy – a task at which Socrates’ typical methods often fail. The two parts of the Phaedrus consider two methods of such soul-leading, love and rhetoric, and the dialogue as a whole asks how either or both can be successful. The events of the dialogue dramatize the endeavour, and unify the two proposed methods: we see Socrates engaged in an attempt at soul-leading, using as his tool Phaedrus’s love, not of another person, but of rhetoric.Less
The Phaedrus claims that good logoi must be “put together like a living creature”, with parts that suit one another and the whole; but the dialogue itself seems to be a misshapen jumble. It begins as a series of elegant rhetorical speeches about love, and ends as a dry philosophical discussion of rhetoric. What makes it hang together? This essay argues for a new reading: the Phaedrus is a treatise on the kind of persuasion that Plato calls soul-leading (psuchagōgia). Here as in other dialogues Plato is concerned with how a philosopher can lead people’s souls (that is, their attention and concern) away from worldly things and toward the goods of philosophy – a task at which Socrates’ typical methods often fail. The two parts of the Phaedrus consider two methods of such soul-leading, love and rhetoric, and the dialogue as a whole asks how either or both can be successful. The events of the dialogue dramatize the endeavour, and unify the two proposed methods: we see Socrates engaged in an attempt at soul-leading, using as his tool Phaedrus’s love, not of another person, but of rhetoric.
Vincent Azoulay
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691154596
- eISBN:
- 9781400851171
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691154596.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, Ancient History / Archaeology
This chapter examines two contradictory aspects of eros in Pericles' life. In the Greek world, eros did not correspond to any romantic sentiment, nor did it bear any similarity to the wishy-washy ...
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This chapter examines two contradictory aspects of eros in Pericles' life. In the Greek world, eros did not correspond to any romantic sentiment, nor did it bear any similarity to the wishy-washy notion nowadays conjured up by “love.” Whether homosexual or heterosexual, eros was first and foremost a connective force or, at times, a disconnective one. As a connective force, eros linked individuals together. As a force for disconnection, it was capable of turning the normal functioning of social life upside down. The chapter explains how Pericles' life combined eros's power of connection and disconnection. It shows that Pericles was an ardent defender of a veritable civic eroticism and that his story testifies to the subversive power of eros. It also considers the erotic dimension of Pericles' authority, his behavior in matters of sexual love, and his relationship with Aspasia.Less
This chapter examines two contradictory aspects of eros in Pericles' life. In the Greek world, eros did not correspond to any romantic sentiment, nor did it bear any similarity to the wishy-washy notion nowadays conjured up by “love.” Whether homosexual or heterosexual, eros was first and foremost a connective force or, at times, a disconnective one. As a connective force, eros linked individuals together. As a force for disconnection, it was capable of turning the normal functioning of social life upside down. The chapter explains how Pericles' life combined eros's power of connection and disconnection. It shows that Pericles was an ardent defender of a veritable civic eroticism and that his story testifies to the subversive power of eros. It also considers the erotic dimension of Pericles' authority, his behavior in matters of sexual love, and his relationship with Aspasia.
Joseph M. Hassett
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199582907
- eISBN:
- 9780191723216
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199582907.003.0010
- Subject:
- Literature, Poetry, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
Yeats extended his last, yearning grasp for the Muse toward Edith Shackleton Heald, whose Siren's evocation of the twin impulses of Eros and Thanatos propelled him to pursue sexual desire for the ...
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Yeats extended his last, yearning grasp for the Muse toward Edith Shackleton Heald, whose Siren's evocation of the twin impulses of Eros and Thanatos propelled him to pursue sexual desire for the sake of desire, even as he learned to relinquish longing for life or death. The stasis of Yeats's relationship with the Muse is apparent in ‘News for the Delphic Oracle’, where eroticism leaves the ‘golden codgers’ depleted rather than energized. Chapter 9 traces these remarkable developments to their culmination in Yeats's recognition that ‘lust and rage’ were unreliable sources of inspiration. Their sterility is apparent in ‘The Circus Animals' Desertion,’ which describes the poet's vain search for a theme. Yeats's next poem, ‘Politics’ the one he intended to complete his last volume, eschews the Furies and — as he enjoined himself in ‘Those Images’ — calls the Muses home. The poet focuses on ‘That girl standing there,’ and his longing — that of a true Muse poet — ‘that I were young again/And held her in my arms.’ The wheel had come full circle with Yeats's decision to end his body of work with quite a different song from ‘Words,’ where his Muse's unattainability was essential to generating his poetry. The poet of ‘Politics’ is a devotee of a Muse who, speaking in ‘The Three Bushes,’ insists on being captured because ‘None can rely upon/A love that lacks its proper food.’Less
Yeats extended his last, yearning grasp for the Muse toward Edith Shackleton Heald, whose Siren's evocation of the twin impulses of Eros and Thanatos propelled him to pursue sexual desire for the sake of desire, even as he learned to relinquish longing for life or death. The stasis of Yeats's relationship with the Muse is apparent in ‘News for the Delphic Oracle’, where eroticism leaves the ‘golden codgers’ depleted rather than energized. Chapter 9 traces these remarkable developments to their culmination in Yeats's recognition that ‘lust and rage’ were unreliable sources of inspiration. Their sterility is apparent in ‘The Circus Animals' Desertion,’ which describes the poet's vain search for a theme. Yeats's next poem, ‘Politics’ the one he intended to complete his last volume, eschews the Furies and — as he enjoined himself in ‘Those Images’ — calls the Muses home. The poet focuses on ‘That girl standing there,’ and his longing — that of a true Muse poet — ‘that I were young again/And held her in my arms.’ The wheel had come full circle with Yeats's decision to end his body of work with quite a different song from ‘Words,’ where his Muse's unattainability was essential to generating his poetry. The poet of ‘Politics’ is a devotee of a Muse who, speaking in ‘The Three Bushes,’ insists on being captured because ‘None can rely upon/A love that lacks its proper food.’
Kim Haines-Eitzen
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195171297
- eISBN:
- 9780199918140
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195171297.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Early Christian Studies
The Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles use a particularly charged erotic language in the service of an ascetic message. Scholars have long found commonalities between these early Christian “novels” and ...
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The Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles use a particularly charged erotic language in the service of an ascetic message. Scholars have long found commonalities between these early Christian “novels” and their Greco-Roman counterparts, but central to all the early Christian “romances” is asceticism and celibacy. What is striking—and the subject of this chapter—is that at the very moment when erotic language comes to the fore of the Apocryphal Acts, scribes appear to have modified these texts to remove or modify the erotic language. One important motif is that of “women becoming men”; this chapter suggests that this motif likewise came to be contested in the process of copying.Less
The Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles use a particularly charged erotic language in the service of an ascetic message. Scholars have long found commonalities between these early Christian “novels” and their Greco-Roman counterparts, but central to all the early Christian “romances” is asceticism and celibacy. What is striking—and the subject of this chapter—is that at the very moment when erotic language comes to the fore of the Apocryphal Acts, scribes appear to have modified these texts to remove or modify the erotic language. One important motif is that of “women becoming men”; this chapter suggests that this motif likewise came to be contested in the process of copying.
Todd W. Reeser
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780226307008
- eISBN:
- 9780226307145
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226307145.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature
As fifteenth-and sixteenth-century European Humanists read, digested, and translated Plato, they found themselves faced with a fundamental problem. On the one hand, the rebirth of the Ancients in the ...
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As fifteenth-and sixteenth-century European Humanists read, digested, and translated Plato, they found themselves faced with a fundamental problem. On the one hand, the rebirth of the Ancients in the Renaissance implied a “fidelity” to the words and the sense of Greek texts. On the other hand, many Humanists refused to translate faithfully, and thus to propagate, the institution of pederasty or the other homoerotic elements in the Platonic corpus. Because Plato and Neoplatonism were difficult to ignore in the period, the question of same-sex sexuality could not be ignored either. As a result, the basic questions asked in this book are: with the widespread and diffuse nature of Plato in the Renaissance, what happened to the same-sex elements represented in the Platonic corpus? How were they read or reread? What hermeneutic lenses were employed? Although it is often thought or assumed that Humanists simply transposed Plato and Platonic eros into a strictly heterosexual context and transformed male-male love into male-female love or into male-male friendship, this book argues that recurring traces of same-sex sexuality imply a complicated and recurring process of “setting Plato straight.” This book undertakes the first sustained and comprehensive study of Renaissance textual responses to Platonic same-sex sexuality through readings of translations, commentaries, and literary sources from Italy, France, and Germany. Comparative in scope, Setting Plato Straight begins with the first Latin translations of Plato’s erotic dialogues in early fifteenth-century Italy and concludes with Michel de Montaigne’s critique of translators of Plato in late sixteenth-century France.Less
As fifteenth-and sixteenth-century European Humanists read, digested, and translated Plato, they found themselves faced with a fundamental problem. On the one hand, the rebirth of the Ancients in the Renaissance implied a “fidelity” to the words and the sense of Greek texts. On the other hand, many Humanists refused to translate faithfully, and thus to propagate, the institution of pederasty or the other homoerotic elements in the Platonic corpus. Because Plato and Neoplatonism were difficult to ignore in the period, the question of same-sex sexuality could not be ignored either. As a result, the basic questions asked in this book are: with the widespread and diffuse nature of Plato in the Renaissance, what happened to the same-sex elements represented in the Platonic corpus? How were they read or reread? What hermeneutic lenses were employed? Although it is often thought or assumed that Humanists simply transposed Plato and Platonic eros into a strictly heterosexual context and transformed male-male love into male-female love or into male-male friendship, this book argues that recurring traces of same-sex sexuality imply a complicated and recurring process of “setting Plato straight.” This book undertakes the first sustained and comprehensive study of Renaissance textual responses to Platonic same-sex sexuality through readings of translations, commentaries, and literary sources from Italy, France, and Germany. Comparative in scope, Setting Plato Straight begins with the first Latin translations of Plato’s erotic dialogues in early fifteenth-century Italy and concludes with Michel de Montaigne’s critique of translators of Plato in late sixteenth-century France.
Pietro Pucci
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781501700613
- eISBN:
- 9781501704055
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501700613.003.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Plays and Playwrights: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This book explores the two overarching and interconnected objectives of Euripides's poetic game and law of composition: first, to elucidate a consistent criticism of the anthropomorphic nature of the ...
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This book explores the two overarching and interconnected objectives of Euripides's poetic game and law of composition: first, to elucidate a consistent criticism of the anthropomorphic nature of the Greek gods and second, to provide audiences and readers with the wisdom and the strength to endure the distress of life. Both objectives are at the heart of the Euripidean revolution. The criticism of anthropomorphism undercuts the interventions that are enacted by the gods among the mortals. This book examines Euripides's “under cover strategy” and his main aims in plays and scenes that focus on three of the most debated issues of his time: language, eros, and politics.Less
This book explores the two overarching and interconnected objectives of Euripides's poetic game and law of composition: first, to elucidate a consistent criticism of the anthropomorphic nature of the Greek gods and second, to provide audiences and readers with the wisdom and the strength to endure the distress of life. Both objectives are at the heart of the Euripidean revolution. The criticism of anthropomorphism undercuts the interventions that are enacted by the gods among the mortals. This book examines Euripides's “under cover strategy” and his main aims in plays and scenes that focus on three of the most debated issues of his time: language, eros, and politics.
Pietro Pucci
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781501700613
- eISBN:
- 9781501704055
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501700613.003.0009
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Plays and Playwrights: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter examines how sophia depersonalizes Aphrodite and divinizes sexual power in Euripides's poetics. It considers the intellectual predicament in which Euripides must have found himself, as a ...
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This chapter examines how sophia depersonalizes Aphrodite and divinizes sexual power in Euripides's poetics. It considers the intellectual predicament in which Euripides must have found himself, as a thinker and a dramatist, in interpreting the irrational and perverse nature of human sexual drive. It explains how Aphrodite's presence could account for the irrational behavior of Helen, and her return to make love with Paris after having strongly rejected that intercourse. It suggests that the mysterious, mad, and commanding force of erotic passion can be attributed to Aphrodite's instigation and imperious will. It also reflects on the debate between Helen and Hecuba in relation to the nature and effects of eros.Less
This chapter examines how sophia depersonalizes Aphrodite and divinizes sexual power in Euripides's poetics. It considers the intellectual predicament in which Euripides must have found himself, as a thinker and a dramatist, in interpreting the irrational and perverse nature of human sexual drive. It explains how Aphrodite's presence could account for the irrational behavior of Helen, and her return to make love with Paris after having strongly rejected that intercourse. It suggests that the mysterious, mad, and commanding force of erotic passion can be attributed to Aphrodite's instigation and imperious will. It also reflects on the debate between Helen and Hecuba in relation to the nature and effects of eros.
Diane Enns
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780231178969
- eISBN:
- 9780231542098
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231178969.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
Intimate love opens us up to suffering, sacrifice, and loss. Is it always worth the risk? Consulting philosophers, writers, and poets who draw insights from material life, Diane Enns shines a light ...
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Intimate love opens us up to suffering, sacrifice, and loss. Is it always worth the risk? Consulting philosophers, writers, and poets who draw insights from material life, Diane Enns shines a light on the limits of erotic love, exploring its paradoxes through personal and philosophical reflections. Situating experience at the center of her inquiry, Enns conducts philosophy “by another name,” elaborating the ambiguities and risks of love with visceral clarity. Love in the Dark claims that intimacy must accept risk as long as love does not destroy the self. Erotic love inspires an inexplicable affirmation of another but can erode autonomy and vulnerability. There is a limit to love, and appreciating it requires a rethinking of love’s liberal paradigms, which Enns traces back to the hostility toward the body and eros in Christianity and the Western philosophical tradition. Against a legacy of an abstract and sanitized love, Enns recasts erotic attachment as an event linked to conditional circumstances. The value of love lies in its intensity and depth, and its end does not negate love’s truth or significance. Writing in a lyrical, genre-defying style, Enns delineates the paradoxes of love in its relations to lust, abuse, suffering, and grief to reach an account faithful to human experience.Less
Intimate love opens us up to suffering, sacrifice, and loss. Is it always worth the risk? Consulting philosophers, writers, and poets who draw insights from material life, Diane Enns shines a light on the limits of erotic love, exploring its paradoxes through personal and philosophical reflections. Situating experience at the center of her inquiry, Enns conducts philosophy “by another name,” elaborating the ambiguities and risks of love with visceral clarity. Love in the Dark claims that intimacy must accept risk as long as love does not destroy the self. Erotic love inspires an inexplicable affirmation of another but can erode autonomy and vulnerability. There is a limit to love, and appreciating it requires a rethinking of love’s liberal paradigms, which Enns traces back to the hostility toward the body and eros in Christianity and the Western philosophical tradition. Against a legacy of an abstract and sanitized love, Enns recasts erotic attachment as an event linked to conditional circumstances. The value of love lies in its intensity and depth, and its end does not negate love’s truth or significance. Writing in a lyrical, genre-defying style, Enns delineates the paradoxes of love in its relations to lust, abuse, suffering, and grief to reach an account faithful to human experience.
