Das süßbittre Tier
Liebe in Dichtung und Philosophie der Antike
Ernst A Schmidt
What love actually is, why and how it is experienced, has moved the ancient world as well: poets and philosophers have asked these questions in great intensity. This book by the renowned Tübingen philologist presents the most beautiful testimonies from Homer to Apuleius in translations or lectures. In the course of a multitude of subtle interpretations, the author elaborates on the various texts and their insights into the essence of love, its causes and varieties of experience. Dominant topics are: Overpowered by a Godhead, the quest for happiness, unity and perfection; love and beauty; love as illness, wound and suffering; betrayal, adultery, murder and death; love as the origin of the world and its movement. As for non-erotic love: the nature of friendship, the cause of parental love, the sense of self-love, and the presupposition and consequence of the love of God for a human being. The comparison with post-antique literature or recent love discourses and the relationship with our own conception of love accompany the interpretations.
