So, desire is really a longing to be whole again. The gods punished humans for their arrogance by separating them into individuals. He explains that all humans were once two people combined in one. One of the most memorable segments from this dialogue is when the speaker Aristophanes humorously describes the origins of Eros. Plato’s Symposium, a dialogue on the nature of Eros, provides a survey of different ideas of desire at the time – moving from its effects on the body to its nature and ability to reflect who people are. In the ancient world, sex and desire were considered an essential part of life, but dangerous if they become too dominant. For philosophers like Empedocles, Eros and Eris personified attraction and division at an elemental level, the natural powers that cause matter to bring life into existence and then tear it apart again. For the early Greek philosopher Empedocles, Eros was paired with Eris, the goddess of strife and conflict, as the two most influential forces in the universe. Balancing conflict and desireĪnd yet, Eros was not all about the sexual act. At the beginning of Hesiod’s “Theogony” – a poem telling the history of the creation of the universe told through the reproduction of the gods – Eros appears early as a necessary natural force since he “ troubles the limbs and overcomes the mind and counsels of all mortals and gods.” This line was an acknowledgment of the power of the sexual desire even over gods. The god Apollo, for example, could heal people of disease or cause a plague to ruin a city.Įarlier Greek myths also made it clear that Eros was not merely a force for distraction. Such depiction of Greek and Roman deities holding the power to do both good and bad was common. The Roman poet Ovid writes about two types of Cupid’s arrows: one that metes out uncontrollable desire and another that fills its target with revulsion. also shows him as a child.īy the time of the Roman Empire, however, the image of chubby little Cupid became more common. A famous sleeping bronze of Eros from the Hellenistic period of second century B.C. show Eros as a childpulling a cart on a red figure vase. Art depictions from the fifth century B.C. There were younger, more playful versions of Eros, however. These ancient figures were often pictured as older adolescents – winged bodies sometimes personified as a trio: eros (lust), himeros (desire) and pothos (passion). The Greek Eros often appears in early Greek iconography along with other Erotes, a group of winged gods associated with love and sexual intercourse. The Romans’ Cupid was the equivalent of the Greek god Eros, the origin of the word “erotic.” In ancient Greece, Eros is often seen as the son of Ares, the god of war, and Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty, as well as sex and desire. The winged cupid was a favorite of artists and authors in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, but he was more than just a symbol of love to them. As Candida Moss, a scholar of theology and late antiquity, explains, the courtly romance of holiday advertisements may have more to do with the Middle Ages than with ancient Rome. The Feast of Saint Valentine started out as a celebration of St. This history isn’t often reflected in the modern-day Valentine celebrations. But in the odd combination of a baby’s body with lethal weapons, along with parents associated with both love and war, Cupid is a figure of contradictions – a symbol of conflict and desire. But for ancient audiences, as myths and texts show, she was really the patron deity of “sexual intercourse” and “procreation.” The name Cupid, which comes from the Latin verb cupere, means desire, love or lust. In Roman culture, Cupid was the child of the goddess Venus, popularly known today as the goddess of love, and Mars, the god of war. This article originally appeared in The Conversation.Įach Valentine’s Day, when I see images of the chubby winged god Cupid taking aim with his bow and arrow at his unsuspecting victims, I take refuge in my training as a scholar of early Greek poetry and myth to muse on the strangeness of this image and the nature of love. Joel Christensen is Professor and Chair in the Department of Classical Studies at Brandeis University.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |