Archivi delle emozioni

Editorial

Thomas Kuhn-Treichel — 2025-07-25

Sebbene sia ampiamente accettato che le emozioni siano collegate al corpo, la natura precisa di questa connessione rimane difficile da definire. Recenti teorie provenienti da diversi campi suggeriscono un’interazione piuttosto flessibile tra stati corporei e categorie di emozioni, in cui i contesti sociali o culturali giocano un ruolo importante. Queste teorie generalizzanti sono utili per comprendere la natura delle emozioni, ma è importante integrarle con casi di studio provenienti da altri campi, tra cui la letteratura. I contributi di questo volume esemplificano diverse forme e aspetti dell’interazione tra emozioni e corpo, ad esempio le reazioni corporee involontarie in confronto alle espressioni di emozione controllate consapevolmente, o le esperienze soggettive in confronto a quelle intersoggettive – ma anche la difficoltà o l’impossibilità di classificare le emozioni incarnate in categorie ordinate.

Melting as a Metaphor of Embodied Emotions in Homer and Euripides

Thomas Kuhn-Treichel — 2025-07-25

Metaphors of melting (τήκειν) applied to human beings or parts of their bodies have a long and complex history in ancient Greek literature. This paper focuses on Homer and Euripides and examines how metaphors of melting are or can be used to describe embodied emotions, thus forming ‘primary’ or ‘correlational’ metaphors in the sense of Conceptual Metaphor Theory. In Homer, the most common target of melting metaphors is weeping, but we also find cases where the association with bodily experience remains more open. Euripides sometimes constructs more daring melting metaphors, especially cases referring to abstracta or the relatively new concept of the soul. Even in these cases, however, the context mostly suggests an association with embodied emotions; when the tragedies were performed, this bodily dimension of the emotions was probably even visible on stage. Overall, while Homer’s and Euripides’ melting metaphors differ due to literary factors and evolving anthropological concepts, they share a strong interest in emotion as bodily experience.

Andromache’s Swoon: the Fainting Female in Homer and Plutarch

Lien Van Geel — 2025-07-25

Graeco-Roman fainting is a generally understudied subject. Homeric syncopes appear in an overview by Alfons Nehring 1947, who notes that the percentage of male fainting incidents is considerable, whereas female episodes are less common. Although Homeric fainting is not strictly gendered, it typically functions as a commentary on a character’s weakened vulnerability when the character in question is either elderly or female. This article examines one crucial episode of female fainting through the character of Andromache in Iliad 22 and explores her subsequent influence in Plutarch’s Parallel Lives. Plutarch develops this paradigm in the Lives of Pompey and Brutus, as the works feature lively moments of feminine lament, fear, and collapse. Plutarch’s anecdotes of the swoons from the Late Republican Julia, Cornelia, and Porcia are prime instances of embodied emotion that can be traced back to Andromache’s swoon. Ultimately, the transformation of the Andromache paradigm perceived in Plutarch illustrates how this literary tradition of the gendered swoon has evolved gradually.

Le corps comme point de départ de la psychologie : la description de la folie amoureuse dans le Phèdre de Platon (250e1-252a1)

Camille Guigon — 2025-07-25

In a very famous passage, Plato gives a poetic description of the feeling of love, which is compared to the growth of wings and feathers in the whole soul. In this article, I would like to show that this description can be read in a psychological way, in the sense that it actually describes the behaviour of the three faculties: the θυμός, the ἐπιθυμία and the λόγος. The occurrences of each important word in the description of wing growth show that they all have a psychological meaning in Phaedrus or in other dialogues. This interpretation proves that the Phaedrus 250e1-252a1 is not only a poetic description of love, but also a reflection on the soul and its interactions with its body. The madness described by Plato concerns only the λόγος, while the θυμός tries to control the ἐπιθυμία, which is reinforced by the sight of the beautiful young man. This proves that the θυμός is much more active than the description of the white horse shows, which is consistent with the psychology of the Timaeus.

Speaking Volumes with a Gaze: Emotions through the Eyes in Apollonius Rhodius’ Argonautica.

Maria Ortori — 2025-07-25

Elemento peculiare della narrativa delle Argonautiche è la rappresentazione vivida di emozioni e sentimenti: con gusto tutto alessandrino, Apollonio Rodio riferisce i processi psicologici con grande oggettività, raccontandone precisamente l’incarnazione fisica. Nel presente contributo si indaga il valore che Apollonio conferisce a una specifica risonanza corporea dell’emozione, che si manifesta attraverso lo sguardo, con particolare attenzione all’atto di guardare verso il basso e dal basso. A tale fine si delinea un quadro complessivo delle attestazioni relative allo sguardo nel poema, cui segue l’analisi di due creazioni verbali (κατηφιάω e ὑποφράζομαι), che consentono di approfondire la valenza semantica e letteraria dell’atto di volgere lo sguardo verso il basso e di guardare dal basso.

Love and Love-making in Lucretius’ De rerum natura

Pamela Zinn — 2025-07-25

Lucretius famously concludes the fourth book of De rerum natura with an account of love; reading that finale as the analysis of an emotion, rather than a diatribe against it, shows that what Lucretius offers is not a cure for love, but a path to experiencing amor in a way that is both Roman and Epicurean. To that end, challenging the traditional interpretation of DRN 4, 1263-77 – namely, that wives have no need to please their husbands sexually and take little or no pleasure in sex themselves, this study argues that according to Lucretius there can and should be mutuality and reciprocity in love and its pleasures. Male or female, human or (other) animal, the position adopted by a mating pair during sexual intercourse reflects and embodies their emotions, and thus illuminates the complex neurophysiological processes and ethical choices behind them. Love, sex and marriage can coexist; when that happens, love and the pleasures of love-making are mutual, natural and necessary and ‘doggie style’ is the natural choice for coupling – or so Lucretius teaches.

When Poetry becomes Emotion: Embodying Compunction in selected Katanyktic Poems from the Middle and Late Byzantine Period

Cristina Cocola — 2025-07-25

This article presents an analysis of the somatic effects of κατάνυξις (“compunction”), a prominent emotion within the Byzantine penitential tradition, as depicted in Middle and Late Byzantine katanyktic poetry. These texts provide a unique lens through which to examine Byzantine conceptions of interiority. Following an initial overview of katanyktic poetry and its defining characteristics, this study elucidates the concept of compunction and its significance within the Byzantine cultural and religious context. Subsequently, the corpus of texts selected for analysis is delineated. Finally, the article explores the corporeal manifestations of κατάνυξις in penitents, with specific consideration given to the physical mortifications employed as expressions of inner repentance. The analysis reveals that the Holy Scriptures served as a primary source of models for penitential behavior and provided vivid imagery for the representation of compunction.