Eros and Charisma: On Seduction and Life-force (original) (raw)
Related papers
forthcoming in Philologus
This article offers a new interpretation of Archilochus’ First Cologne Epode (fr. 196a W) by reading it as a sustained travesty of an epic seduction scene. The article begins by setting out the flexibility of the epic type-scene, with an analysis of the Dios Apate in Iliad 14, Aphrodite’s seduction of Anchises in the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite, and Odysseus’ encounter with Nausicaa in Odyssey 6. The second part of the article demonstrates that the Cologne Epode is structured around the same core elements, but at every stage Archilochus subverts expectations by offering something which parodies epic convention. Reading the Epode as a vulgar iambic reworking of an epic tradition not only gives us insight into its sophistication but also helps resolve some of the interpretative difficulties which have long plagued scholars working on the poem, and in particular helps us see what is achieved by the poem’s surprising ending.
2022
This is my contribution to an exciting conference in Basel on "Women and Objects", under the direction of Henriette Harich-Schwarzbauer, and in the company of many wonderful scholars from the EUGESTA (European Gender Studies in Antiquity) network (Basel, October, 9 -11, 2017). The argumentative strategy is a criticism of the language of "objectification", on account of what ancient poets and philosophers actually cared about, in their conception of the dialectic of desire. The predominant focus of such a criticism is the importance of the male body, as object OF desire, therefore as INTENTIONAL object of the female gaze. But the overall line of thought is that, contrary to the crude, binary logic of so-called "objectification", we should read carefully the texts and understand how desire aims at the other person's desire, not at the possession of a reified body. I particularly insist on embodiment, as opposed to "the body", and I emphasize the significance of corporeal details, gestures and mannerisms as causes of desire, insofar as they "accentuate" the beloved, and make him/her a singular individual, who stands apart from anyone else -- and whose corporeal presence is lived and lively. This is what psychoanalysis, existential experience, and ancient texts -- when properly read -- have to say.
Love and Persuasion: Strategies Essential to Philosophy as a Way of Life
In this paper, I intend to argue that a conception of philosophy as a way of life needs two elements: persuasion and love. Faced a false conception of philosophy very specialized, professional, and modern that has condemned to oblivion philosophy itself, we propose a therapeutic conception (of philosophy) as a way of life, a philosophy that is not reduced to a conceptual content, but that is related to the way of life of the philosopher. The pairing of the word " persuasion " with the concept " love " may at first appear arbitrary or, worse still, wholly inept. Persuasion or seduction through words is associated with an infinite range of wiles and stratagems of a highly practical nature; to be valid, it must be directed at the other. Love, by contrast, betokens boundless purity, for its ideation requires a single individual; its theoretical task accomplished, its practical application has to be constructed. This paper argues that the concept of philosophy as a way of life requires both elements: persuasion and love. Eschewing the nakedly parasitic seduction of a specialised or modern view of philosophy which has consigned the discipline to oblivion, it sets out a therapeutic view of philosophy as a model for living, a philosophy not reduced to conceptual content, but bearing inextricably on the philosopher's way of life.