Eros and Polis: Desire and Community in Greek Political TheoryEros and Polis examines how and why Greek theorists treated political passions as erotic. Because of the tiny size of ancient Greek cities, contemporary theory and ideology could conceive of entire communities based on desire. A recurrent aspiration was to transform the polity into one great household that would bind the citizens together through ties of mutual affection. In this study, Paul Ludwig evaluates sexuality, love and civic friendship as sources of political attachment and as bonds of political association. Studying the ancient view of eros recovers a way of looking at political phenomena that provides a bridge, missing in modern thought, between the private and public spheres, between erotic love and civic commitment. Ludwig's study thus has important implications for the theoretical foundations of community. |
Contents
1 | |
AN ACCOUNT FROM THE SYMPOSIUM | 25 |
PART TWO THE DISCOURSE OF POLITICAL EROS | 119 |
PART THREE THE POLIS AS A SCHOOL FOR EROS | 259 |
Other editions - View all
Eros and Polis: Desire and Community in Greek Political Theory Paul Walter Ludwig No preview available - 2002 |
Eros and Polis: Desire and Community in Greek Political Theory Paul W. Ludwig No preview available - 2006 |
Common terms and phrases
Acharnians Aeschines Alcibiades ancient argued Aristogeiton Aristophanes Aristotle Athenian Athens athletics barbarians Bdelycleon beauty become beloved Better Argument Birds body boys Chapter circle-people citizens civic nudity classical Cleon clothes cognates Comedy Compare context contrast convention demos Dicaeopolis Diotima discourse discussion in Section Dover elite erastes eromenos erotic Eryximachus Euripides evidence example feel Freud gods Greek Harmodius and Aristogeiton heterosexual Hippothales Homer homoeroticism homosexuality household hubris human ideal imperialism implies incest love of one's lover Lysis male manliness means modern moral motive myth naked nature nomos object one’s passion patriotism Pausanias pederasty Peisetaerus Pericles Phaedrus philia Philocleon philotimia Plato Plato’s Aristophanes plays pleasure polis political eros possess rape Republic rhetoric seems sense sexual desire shame Sicilian expedition society Socrates sophistic Spartan specific sublimation Symposium speech theory thought Thucydides thumos Timarchus tyranny tyrant Wasps wish women word young Zeus