Dan Brewer

Lewis Kyte

Harrison Greene

Erica Redden

Chloe Flynn

Desire and Eros, two notions that are as multifaceted and multiplicitous as the writers and philosophers that have written on them over the ages. In this journal, Desire: Eros and Aphrodite in Sexual Relations, these notions are explored as they relate to Early and Athenian Greece. Out of the five articles that compose this journal the ideal of Eros (as well as Aphrodite) vary greatly: the first two articles focus on Eros saying that it is in its best form when experienced between two men; four say that Eros and Aphrodite are good, beautiful, and benevolent; finally one says that Eros is an ugly, homeless, bastard who is barely worthy of being called a God.

The first and second papers presented examine homoeroticism in the Symposium and the manner in which love is shown in Grecian writing. Both utilize a quote from Plato’s Symposium as made by Phaedrus, "The greatest benefit, to my mind, that a young man can come by in his youth is a virtuous lover, and a virtuous boyfriend is just as good for a lover too" (Symposium 178c). The third paper, which is about contradictions as they appear in Symposium as well as Phaedrus, allows the reader to look at this quote in a very different light. The third paper asserts that Eros, in the Symposium, is fairly undesirable as it is ugly and bad (Symposium 201c). This view of Eros, as good and fair, is further complicated when one reads the fifth paper, which references Sophocles’ Women of Trachis, a story in which love (Eros) causes a wife to murder her husband. In contrast, the fourth paper deals with the universal and feminine nature of Aphrodite. Further contradictions can be found between the second and fourth papers which contain different definitions of the nature of Aphrodite. "‘On the other hand, the Love which accompanies Celestial Aphrodite is wholly male, with no trace of femininity’" (Symposium 181b). Whereas in the fifth, "‘Sappho fragment 2 creates a private 'female' space in the description of the sanctuary to which Aphrodite is invited, so this song constructs a private world of intimate physical sensuality’" (Redden Paragraph 3).

One of the larger differences in the papers contained within is an argument of the nature of female desire. This argument is a testament to the study of Classics. This discussion still rages on today in popular media. On the one hand we have the passive, reserved, and chaste woman, and on the other, a woman who knows what she wants and is firmly aware and accepting of her desires. This same discussion was raging during the Grecian Era. The fifth paper argues that female passion was seen as, "Passive, oriented towards being the object of desire, and not the sole reason for action" (Flynn Final Paragraph). The fourth paper presents a huge exception to the rule, Sappho. Sappho is equivalent to Sarah McLachlan in that she refused to fit her works into a box for consumption of the masses. Sappho was not afraid to say things like: "Your tempting laugh, which sets/ my heart a-flutter in my breast./ For when I see you even a moment, I can't/ speak any longer, but my tongue goes mute..., a sudden, slender/ flame invades my flesh, my eyes go dark, my ears/ are roaring/ cold sweat covers all my body, paler than grass/ am I, and little short of dead/ I seem to myself..." (Sappho, Fragment 31). Such statements, laden with sexual imagery and provocative word choice, still give rise to scholarly debate.

In the end, it might be helpful to think of the issues of desire in Grecian culture and contemporary society as two diamonds. Each paper contained within this journal is a lens through which to view the Grecian diamond. As you move through these lenses keep in mind that Greece is often considered to be the foundation of Western Civilization, as we know it. Thus, the lens through which you view contemporary concepts of desire might be slightly altered or changed altogether. That is what this journal is intended to do.