Love In Epic And Lyric Greek Traditions
Love In Epic And Lyric Greek Traditions
As Aristotle once said: “…but only does so (love) when he longs for him when absent and craves for his presence.” When we look at this definition it seems to be timeless and holds true even today, Love is that longing for someone in his or her absence. This theme of love can be seen in both the lyrical and epic poetry of the Greek. Though at first look the epic work the Odyssey by Homer and the Lyrical works of Sappho are strikingly different in not only length but also in theme, homer accounts for the story of a brave Odysseus where as Sappho relates her ideas and thoughts on life and the meaning held with in it. However, as you will see though different in time and theme there is one idea that has remained the same throughout, the idea of love.
The entire story of the Odyssey is a profound take on this definition of love. Longing for one in their absence comprises the entirety of the story, the travels of Odysseus made simply so he can be reunited with his family astringed of twenty years. Similarly his son Telemachus leaves Ithaca in search of the answers to his father’s fait. “He’s vanished, gone, and left me pain and sorrow.” (Homer 1.260-261) said Telemachus to Athena, left me pain and sorrow. In his absence Telemachus deals with that daily pain of not knowing the fait of his father, he is gone and that pain is the longing that he has to of know his father. As Telemachus longs for his father his mother Penelope also longs for her husband, “Hear me, my friends, for the god on Olympus has given me pain beyond all other women of my generation. I have lost a fine husband…” (Homer 4.774-777) Like her son Penelope relates the pain that is so real with her lost husband, to her he is dead but the longing is still the same.
It is not however just Telemachus and Penelope that have this longing that is love according to Aristotle. Odysseus him self longs to return home as is seen in Homer 19.238-242 “Lady, it is difficult for me to speak after we’ve been apart for so long. It has been twenty years since he left my country. But I have an image of him in my mind.” Here we...