Status
Available
Call number
Call number
PL
Publication
Normal, IL : Dalkey Archive Press, 1998.
Original publication date
1986
Physical description
xii, 189 p.; 22 cm
Local notes
The insights presented in the volume are many and wide-ranging, recognizably in tune with the subtlest modern discussions of desire (such as triangulation. or loving what others love), yet offering new solutions to old problems, like the proper interpretation of Plato's Phaedrus. On the frequently discussed effect of literacy on Greek civilization, the book offers a fresh view: it was no accident that the poets who invented Eros were also the first readers and writers of the Western literate tradition.
Subjects
User reviews
LibraryThing member rdaneel
One of the best non-fiction books I have read in a long time. It is a series of interlinked essays that talk about the concept of Eros in classical Greek poetry and prose, especially Sappho's, and connect this with the onset of literacy which led to the shift from the oral to the written tradition.