Eros in azione. Considerazioni pragmatiche sulla poesia erotica simposiale

In the lyric poems performed in the archaic symposium very different ideas about love experience were expressed, even by the same author. Many poems describe Eros as a terrible god and the erotic experience as a source of pain and sorrow. On the opposite side, other poems affirm that Aphrodite and Eros are the main source of joy for men. It is hard to take in the literal sense the many poems which describe Eros as a frightful god. A close reading of Nestor's cup and other inscriptions of the same period suggest the idea, supported by other sympotic poems (Anacr. frr. 14, 38 Gent. = 357, 396 PMG; Bacchyl. fr. 20B. 6-9 Sn.-M.), that sexual intercourse was one of the main goals of the symposium and that whoever drinks wine intentionally provokes the appearance of Eros/Aphrodite. Furthermore, ancient authors clearly state that Eros has an ambiguous nature: sweet and mild when the natural desire can be satisfied, terrible and painful when it is impossible to share the erotic experience with one of the boys or one of the etairai present in the sympotic room (Theogn. 1353-1356). According to the author of this article, if we put each poem in context it is possible to conciliate the opposite ideas about Eros/Aphrodite and to get a coerent vision of erotic experience. The different kinds of poem belong to different phases of the sympotic rite which correspond to different phases of the erotic experience. In the first phase symposiasts realize that wine has displayed his effects and that erotic desire is generated by the gift of Dionysus. It is exactly in this phase that symposiasts express, even in dramatic form, the intensity of their desire and their painful emotions. After, symposiasts try to seduce a boy or a girl present in the room in order to give natural satisfaction to sexual desire. Eventually, if the seduction has been successful it is possible to describe Eros as a source of joy and to celebrate Aphrodite as a generous goddess. On the opposite, if the seduction did not reach his goal symposiasts express the duration of pain and sorrow. This reading of sympotic poetry allows to explain concretely a particular feature of a good number of poems, which display in the first line the adverb δηὖτε ("once again") connected with Eros. This adverb can be explained as the linguistic mark of the recurrence of erotic desire during the same sympotic rite.