The poetics of eros in Ancient Greece / Claude Calame ; translated by Janet Lloyd.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Calame, Claude.

Contributor:

Lloyd, Janet.

Standardized Title:

Greci e l'eros. English

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Erotic poetry, Greek--History and criticism.

Erotic poetry, Greek.

Literature and society--Greece.

Literature and society.

Poetics--History--To 1500.

Poetics.

Sex in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (240 p.)

Edition:

Core Textbook

Place of Publication:

Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, c1999.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The Poetics of Eros in Ancient Greece offers 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.

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

ILLUSTRATIONS

FOREWORD / Zeitlin, Froma I.

PREFACE

NOTE ON TRANSLATIONS

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

Tragic Prelude

PART ONE. THE TOPICS OF EROS

Chapter I: THE EROS OF THE MELIC POETS

Chapter II: THE EROS OF EPIC POETRY

PART TWO. THE SYMBOLIC PRACTICES OF EROS

Chapter III: THE PRAGMATIC EFFECTS OF LOVE POETRY

Chapter IV: THE PRAGMATICS OF EROTIC ICONOGRAPHY

PART THREE. EROS IN SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS

Chapter V: EROS IN THE MASCULINE: THE POLIS

Chapter VI: EROS IN THE FEMININE: THE OIKOS

Chapter VII: DIONYSIAC CHALLENGES TO LOVE

PART FOUR. THE SPACES OF EROS

Chapter VIII: THE MEADOWS AND GARDENS OF LEGEND

Chapter IX: THE MEADOWS AND GARDENS OF THE POETS

PART FIVE. THE METAPHYSICS OF EROS

Chapter X: EROS AS DEMIURGE AND PHILOSOPHER

Chapter XI: MYSTIC EROS

Elegiac Coda

BIBLIOGRAPHY

NAME INDEX

SUBJECT INDEX

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [201]-205) and indexes.

ISBN:

9780691043418

0691043418

9781400849154

1400849152

OCLC:

855895846