Založba Univerze v Ljubljani / University of Ljubljana Press
Doi
Abstract
Eros is one of the ‘basic phenomena of human existence’ (E. Fink), it exceeds the domain of literature and therefore its literary phenomenology is unmanageably broad. The first part of the essay draws on the relation between the pre-reflexive reality (Merleau-Ponty) of the manifestations of eros and on their conceptual and poetic expressions in the literature of the archaic and classical periods. These expressions are particularly related to the dynamism and form of erotic experiences, to their religious and cultural interpretations (this is true of the duality or unicity of Eros and Aphrodite and their cults), as well as to the literary conventions of the genre. Further in its development the essay addresses three extremely complex and heterogeneous ethical thematisations of the phenomenon of eros/Eros. The role played by Eros in the Theogony is not quite clear: obviously it is not limited to what is today called the biological world. Its cosmogonical power spreads also into the inorganic or geological reality on the one hand and into the domain of culture on the other. In the Antigone of Sophocles, eros is, as usually in the Greek tragedy, fatal; but in contrast to the conventional mentality which is expressed by the chorus, eros is not the source of wrongful behaviour but, at the beginning at least, surprisingly operates in a particular consonance with the great laws. Also the role of Aphrodite in Sappho’s fragment 16 Voigt has been the subject of extremely different interpretations, which evaluate it very positively: some of them may be found within the claim that erotic desire is the foundation of a new (female) moral subjectivity. Well-grounded and defensible or not, this claim testifies to the great dynamism and complexity of the erotic phenomenon, not just in the poetry of the archaic period but also in our contemporary literary and culturological criticism.Eros sodi med »osnovne fenomene človeškega obstoja« (E. Fink) in presega območje literature, tudi njegova literarna fenomenologija pa je neobvladljivo široka. Članek v prvem delu skicira razmerje med predrefleksivno resničnostjo (Merleau-Ponty) erotičnih pojavov in njihovimi konceptualnimi in poetičnimi izrazi v literaturi arahajske in klasične dobe. Ti izrazi so močno odvisni od dinamike in oblike erotičnih izkušenj, od njihove religiozne in kulturne interpretacije (sem spada tudi vprašanje dvojnosti oziroma enotnosti Erosa in Afrodite in njunih kultov), pa tudi od žanrskih konvencij. V nadaljevanju so obravnavani trije primeri zelo različne in kompleksne etične tematizacije erosa/Erosa. Vloga Erosa v Teogoniji ni jasna: očitno pa je, da ni omejena na to, kar danes opredeljujemo kot biološki svet, temveč njegova kozmogonična moč sega tudi v anorgansko oziroma geološko realnost na eni in v kulturo na drugi strani. Eros v Sofoklovi Antigoni je poguben, kot je v tragediji običajno; v nasprotju s konvencionalnim prepričanjem, ki ga izrazi zbor, pa ni izvor krivičnega ravnanja, ampak vsaj v začetku presenetljivo deluje v svojskem soglasju z velikimi zakoni. Tudi vloga Afrodite v Sapfinem fragmentu 16 (Voigt) je bila deležna izredno različnih interpretacij: med sodobnimi, ki jo večinoma vrednotijo izrazito pozitivno, je najti tudi takšno, po kateri je erotično poželenje temelj nove (ženske) moralne subjektivitete; ne glede na utemeljenost in obranljivost takšna teza dokazuje izredno dinamičnost in kompleksnost erotičnega fenomena ne le v arhajski poeziji sami, temveč tudi in še bolj v njeni sodobni literarni in kulturološki kritiki
