LOVE
Eros
Love, friendship, desire, longing, the four points of the compass
defining the closest, the most exposed relationships between human
beings. Complete happiness and bitter pain. An emotion that transports,
that raises a storm in hearts, that sweeps away predetermined
frameworks, conquering reason, destabilising behaviour and transforming
the individual's attitude to the world. The motive force behind a
continuous revolution, cause and effect of the overturning and
restoration of things, love nurtures hope, but also gives rise to fear.
As uninvited and as all-consuming as death, with whom it shares the
sword of destiny, love attacks unstoppably, shaking the foundations of
social order and balance.
If restrained love is harmony, passionate love, disproportionate love is
destruction, and is manifested as imprudence, foolishness, as the
vengeance of the gods.
'But of man's spirit overbold who can tell and of the reckless passion
of women hardened of soul, so innate with the woes of mortals?
Inordinate passion, overmastering the female, gains fatal victory over
the wedded unions of brutes and men alike.'
Aeschylus, Choephoroi 594-601 (Loeb edition)
Epic poetry, in which there is relatively little psychological analysis,
deals calmly with the subject. In epic poetry, the worth of a woman is
measured in terms of her beauty, her noble descent, and her good
manners. The heroines who possess these basic qualities - the moral
character and reliability of noble-born women - are encompassed by a
radiance that erotic transgressions cannot dispel.
Other poetry, however, especially lyric poetry, is coloured by a sensual
eroticism which is not satisfied simpiy with the erotic subjection of
the woman, but leaves the field open to women to contest the leading
role. One spark of erotic passion is enough to awaken the woman from her
social lethargy, to induce her to dispute her preordained position, to
set in action her combative, competitive nature. Most often, it is the
pangs of tender love (agape) that are exalted in verse, but there are
complete tragedies that revolve about the axis of passionate love
(eros), their only substantial content being female passion.
As mythical characters become humanised, so drama gives prominence to
wild, emotional scenes, with gripping descriptions of storm-tossed
passions and violent desire. The women depicted in love in the theatre
are in one sense anti-heroines, for they are praised for their greatness
of spirit and heroism, which stems from a series of negatively charged
feelings and deeds, such as envy, or unbridled passion, even adultery.
In most cases, the vehicle of the dramatic erotic passion is a married
woman who suffers betrayal by her husband. Humiliated by her
abandonment, wounded in love, she watches terrified as her personality
is destroyed, since even the role assigned to her is rejected. The
change of attitude on the part of her spouse brings with it a gradual
change in her very being. Deprived of anything to defend, the woman is
transformed into a monster. Her love turns into hate. The revolution is
a violent one because, having lost her position in the home, she has
nothing more to lose. Love that conquers all, now transformed into Eros
the avenger, arms her hand.
