Tragic Eros and Philosophy

Abstract

What kind of Eros is at work in Greek tragedy? It seems very different from that of contemporary philosophy. It does not look like the daimon that “rules everything” in Parmenides’ poem (in its second part), nor like Kypris basileia, whom Empedocles simply calls ho theos. Eros in Greek tragedy functions more like a deinotatos theos, the insatiable beast invoked and feared by Sappho. Here Eros is portrayed as a tyrannos, and therefore his idea is quite distant from that of philosophical philotes. Nevertheless, the great choral songs of Antigone strongly evoke the idea of Tyche-Ananke, on the one hand, and of the overwhelming human desire to know and discover, on the other. The desire for infinity that drives philosophical research is somehow reflected in the events (Tyche) that arise from the power of Eros. Both must dare everything.