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Odysseus and Penelope by Francesco Primaticcio (c. 1563)/caption
Dilige et quod vis facLove and do what you will."
~ Augustine
According to the theologian love is not restricted to realm of the divine and human nor to those beings inferior to man who possess conscious desires. Natural love Aquinas writes is not only in all the souls powers but also in all the parts of the body and universally in all things: because as Dionysius says Beauty and goodness are beloved by all things."
The diversity of love appears to be both the general fact and the general problem for the psychologist the ethicist the theologian. The ancients had three separate words for the primary forms of love: Eros philia agape in Greek; amor amicitia (or dilectio) and caritas in Latin. Because English has only word for love it appears essential to apply such expressions as sexual love" love of friendship" and love of charity" with the purpose of plainly indicating that love is mutual to all three and to differentiate the three connotations. Nevertheless we are compelled to embrace Augustines view of law who argues that the Bible make no distinctions between amor dilectio and caritas" and the Scriptures in the amor is used in a good connection."
The ide fixe of many of the countless analyses of love in literature poetry and history appear under different nameslove of desire vs. friendship; concupiscent love and fraternal love; the friendship centered on pleasure or craving and the friendship centered on virtue; animal and human love; sexuality and tenderness; physical vs. emotional love. Romantic love is typically regarded as comprising both selfish and altruistic motivations the latter exaggerated by what its detractors understand as an excessive idealization of the adored. The theological benefit of charity instead is basically a love of friendship in purity made faultless through its mystical foundation. One issue of ultimate concern here is whether the romantic is in agreement with the Christian view of love whether the admiration given a beloved human is tantamount to deificationas much a desecration of the principles of charity as the pride of unbounded self-love which caused Lucifer to be cast out of heaven as the fallen archangel Satan. This eternal battle of worldviews compares the origin of marital love and the relation of love in courtship to love in marriage. In a future essay on family I will connect the forms of love as a major foundation of all societal institutions.
Regarding the objects of law: the good the true the beautiful; God man and things we now come to Homers Iliad. In Book III the two sages Ucalegon and Antenor remark to one another when they saw the legendary beauty Helen walking towards the tower Small wonder that Trojans and Achaeans should endure so much and so long for the sake of a woman so marvelously and divinely lovely. Still fair though she be let them take her and go or she will breed sorrow for us and for our children after us." Remember that it was the love/lust of Paris King Priams son for Helen (sister-in-law of King Agamemnon) that compelled Paris to kidnap her back to Troy thus precipitating the Trojan Wars (c. 1260-1240)the ancient version of World War II.
Regarding the intensity and power of love: its increase or decrease; its constructive or destructive force in Homers Iliad Book XVIII the hero Achilles responds to a question by his mother My son why are you thus weeping? What sorrow has now befallen you?" Achilles groaned and answered …seeing that my dear comrade Patroclus has fallenhe whom I valued more than all others and loved as dearly as my own life? … Hector when he had killed him stripped him of the wondrous armor so glorious to behold… I will not live nor go about among mankind unless Hector fall by my spear and thus pay me for having slain Patroclus son of Menoetius." The 2004 movie Troy featuring Brad Pitt as Achilles Homers Iliad is excellently dramatized in the pivotal battle scene outside the impregnable walls of TroyAchilles against Hector to avenge the death of his cousin Patroclus whom Hector had killed in an earlier battle thinking it was Achilles since he was wearing his armor. Here again we find the irony of love causing death.
Regarding patterns of love and friendship in the family Homers Odyssey Book XVI after 20 years of privation suffered in the Trojan War countless ordeals with monsters tsunamis witches and worst of all the unpredictable wrath of the gods our hero Ulysses grey and haggard comes how disguised as a beggar. Yet Minerva (Athena) goddess of wisdom and magic touched him with her golden wand" changed his clothes and gave him the appearance of a strong vigorous young man to such a degree that Ulysses son Telemachus for a time insisted that he was a god and refused to look directly at him for fear of offending the gods. Finally Ulysses said I am no god… I am your father on whose account you grieve and suffer so much at the hands of lawless men. As he spoke he kissed his son and a tear fell from his cheek on to the ground for he had restrained all tears till now."
Regarding marital love: its sexual fraternal and romantic components recall that the sorceress Circe made Ulysses her love slave for a year in order for the curse to be removed of turning Ulysses men into pigs (which I believe the aphorism originated Men are pigs). If this sexual slavery wasnt bad enough Ulysses later had to spend seven years in captivity on Calypsos island Ogygia because Calypso falls deeply in love with Ulysses and refused to let him leave her. He only escaped after utilizing his carpentry skills to build his own boat to escape the island bordello of Ogygia from which no doubt we get the word orgy." Ironically most men especially young men would fantasize that to be a prisoner on Orgyiathe island of endless sexual pleasure would be the ultimate fantasy but Ulysses understands that one can even get tired or bored or even traumatized by too much pleasure; that there are higher virtues men of character must aspire to discipline duty honor chastity altruism and marital love.
After a short boat ride home Ulysses performed the feat of strength in stringing his own bow Penelope had required of the suitors (in a cunning effort on her part to delay having to marry one of these vile rogues) our hero then was required to skillfully shot an arrow through 12 axe blades. Having fulfilled Penelopes feats of strength and marksmanship caused the evil suitors to immediately arise in unison attacking Ulysses in jealous rage which in defending himself and his honor Ulysses then quickly slaughtered them all.
Now at long last the hero and his wife have a quiet intimate dinner in their home in peace but there is one more test Ulysses must pass. He says to his wife Penelope:
My dear heaven has endowed you with a heart more unyielding than woman ever yet had. No other woman could bear to keep away from her husband when he had come back to her after twenty years absence and after having gone through so much…" My dear" answered Penelope I have no wish to set myself up nor to depreciate you; but I am not struck by your appearance for I very well remember what kind of a man you were when you set sail from Ithaca. Nevertheless Euryclea take his bed outside the bed chamber that he himself built. Bring the bed outside this room and put bedding upon it with fleeces good coverlets and blankets."
Penelopes request about their bed made Ulysses incensed and caused him to rage Wife I am much displeased at what you have just been saying. Who has been taking my bed from the place in which I left it? ... I built my room round this olive tree with strong walls of stone…" Homer continued When she heard the sure proofs Ulysses now gave her she fairly broke down. She flew weeping to his side… Do not be angry with me Ulysses" she cried You who are the wisest of mankind… I have been shuddering all the time through fear that someone might come here and deceive me with a lying story; for there are many very wicked people going about…" Thus Ulysses passed Penelopes final test for only the man who built their bed anchoring it to a giant olive tree would realize that their bed could never be moved. A fitting closing metaphor to the unshakeable transcendent love the pair had for each which endured over these many years.
For all of his 20 years of passion war death starvation cunning imprisonment fear privation pressure pain and loss or what the literary Romantic writers called Strum und Drang (storm and stress) Homers Iliad and the Odyssey in particular is a love story of Ulyssesa singular man a father a husband… the King of Ithaca just trying to come home after doing his duty as a soldier fulfilling his mission as a general of the Greek legions fighting heroically in the Trojan War yet the gods were against him every step of his long odyssey back home to embrace and comfort his loving long-suffering wife Penelope. Ulysses could have remained on the island of Aeaea with the sorceress Circe and succumb to hedonism but he didnt. Ulysses could have stayed on the island of Ogygia as Calypsos love slave where she promised to make him a demigod but he refused. Why? His heart didnt belong to either of those strange women; his heart belonged to his wife Penelope and he would not rest until he embraced his beloved or died trying.
In my mind the story of Ulysses is the sublime love story for the Ages; a pure eternal love which reminds me of the scriptureJohn 15:13 There is no greater love than to lay down ones life for ones friends.
*N.B.: This article is based in part on excerpts from Great Books of the Western World Vol. 3 Chp. 50Love and Vol. 4 Homer: The Iliad The Odyssey
Odysseus and Penelope by Francesco Primaticcio (c. 1563)/caption
Dilige et quod vis facLove and do what you will."
~ Augustine
According to the theologian love is not restricted to realm of the divine and human nor to those beings inferior to man who possess conscious desires. Natural love Aquinas writes is not only in all the souls powers but also in all the parts of the body and universally in all things: because as Dionysius says Beauty and goodness are beloved by all things."
The diversity of love appears to be both the general fact and the general problem for the psychologist the ethicist the theologian. The ancients had three separate words for the primary forms of love: Eros philia agape in Greek; amor amicitia (or dilectio) and caritas in Latin. Because English has only word for love it appears essential to apply such expressions as sexual love" love of friendship" and love of charity" with the purpose of plainly indicating that love is mutual to all three and to differentiate the three connotations. Nevertheless we are compelled to embrace Augustines view of law who argues that the Bible make no distinctions between amor dilectio and caritas" and the Scriptures in the amor is used in a good connection."
The ide fixe of many of the countless analyses of love in literature poetry and history appear under different nameslove of desire vs. friendship; concupiscent love and fraternal love; the friendship centered on pleasure or craving and the friendship centered on virtue; animal and human love; sexuality and tenderness; physical vs. emotional love. Romantic love is typically regarded as comprising both selfish and altruistic motivations the latter exaggerated by what its detractors understand as an excessive idealization of the adored. The theological benefit of charity instead is basically a love of friendship in purity made faultless through its mystical foundation. One issue of ultimate concern here is whether the romantic is in agreement with the Christian view of love whether the admiration given a beloved human is tantamount to deificationas much a desecration of the principles of charity as the pride of unbounded self-love which caused Lucifer to be cast out of heaven as the fallen archangel Satan. This eternal battle of worldviews compares the origin of marital love and the relation of love in courtship to love in marriage. In a future essay on family I will connect the forms of love as a major foundation of all societal institutions.
Regarding the objects of law: the good the true the beautiful; God man and things we now come to Homers Iliad. In Book III the two sages Ucalegon and Antenor remark to one another when they saw the legendary beauty Helen walking towards the tower Small wonder that Trojans and Achaeans should endure so much and so long for the sake of a woman so marvelously and divinely lovely. Still fair though she be let them take her and go or she will breed sorrow for us and for our children after us." Remember that it was the love/lust of Paris King Priams son for Helen (sister-in-law of King Agamemnon) that compelled Paris to kidnap her back to Troy thus precipitating the Trojan Wars (c. 1260-1240)the ancient version of World War II.
Regarding the intensity and power of love: its increase or decrease; its constructive or destructive force in Homers Iliad Book XVIII the hero Achilles responds to a question by his mother My son why are you thus weeping? What sorrow has now befallen you?" Achilles groaned and answered …seeing that my dear comrade Patroclus has fallenhe whom I valued more than all others and loved as dearly as my own life? … Hector when he had killed him stripped him of the wondrous armor so glorious to behold… I will not live nor go about among mankind unless Hector fall by my spear and thus pay me for having slain Patroclus son of Menoetius." The 2004 movie Troy featuring Brad Pitt as Achilles Homers Iliad is excellently dramatized in the pivotal battle scene outside the impregnable walls of TroyAchilles against Hector to avenge the death of his cousin Patroclus whom Hector had killed in an earlier battle thinking it was Achilles since he was wearing his armor. Here again we find the irony of love causing death.
Regarding patterns of love and friendship in the family Homers Odyssey Book XVI after 20 years of privation suffered in the Trojan War countless ordeals with monsters tsunamis witches and worst of all the unpredictable wrath of the gods our hero Ulysses grey and haggard comes how disguised as a beggar. Yet Minerva (Athena) goddess of wisdom and magic touched him with her golden wand" changed his clothes and gave him the appearance of a strong vigorous young man to such a degree that Ulysses son Telemachus for a time insisted that he was a god and refused to look directly at him for fear of offending the gods. Finally Ulysses said I am no god… I am your father on whose account you grieve and suffer so much at the hands of lawless men. As he spoke he kissed his son and a tear fell from his cheek on to the ground for he had restrained all tears till now."
Regarding marital love: its sexual fraternal and romantic components recall that the sorceress Circe made Ulysses her love slave for a year in order for the curse to be removed of turning Ulysses men into pigs (which I believe the aphorism originated Men are pigs). If this sexual slavery wasnt bad enough Ulysses later had to spend seven years in captivity on Calypsos island Ogygia because Calypso falls deeply in love with Ulysses and refused to let him leave her. He only escaped after utilizing his carpentry skills to build his own boat to escape the island bordello of Ogygia from which no doubt we get the word orgy." Ironically most men especially young men would fantasize that to be a prisoner on Orgyiathe island of endless sexual pleasure would be the ultimate fantasy but Ulysses understands that one can even get tired or bored or even traumatized by too much pleasure; that there are higher virtues men of character must aspire to discipline duty honor chastity altruism and marital love.
After a short boat ride home Ulysses performed the feat of strength in stringing his own bow Penelope had required of the suitors (in a cunning effort on her part to delay having to marry one of these vile rogues) our hero then was required to skillfully shot an arrow through 12 axe blades. Having fulfilled Penelopes feats of strength and marksmanship caused the evil suitors to immediately arise in unison attacking Ulysses in jealous rage which in defending himself and his honor Ulysses then quickly slaughtered them all.
Now at long last the hero and his wife have a quiet intimate dinner in their home in peace but there is one more test Ulysses must pass. He says to his wife Penelope:
My dear heaven has endowed you with a heart more unyielding than woman ever yet had. No other woman could bear to keep away from her husband when he had come back to her after twenty years absence and after having gone through so much…" My dear" answered Penelope I have no wish to set myself up nor to depreciate you; but I am not struck by your appearance for I very well remember what kind of a man you were when you set sail from Ithaca. Nevertheless Euryclea take his bed outside the bed chamber that he himself built. Bring the bed outside this room and put bedding upon it with fleeces good coverlets and blankets."
Penelopes request about their bed made Ulysses incensed and caused him to rage Wife I am much displeased at what you have just been saying. Who has been taking my bed from the place in which I left it? ... I built my room round this olive tree with strong walls of stone…" Homer continued When she heard the sure proofs Ulysses now gave her she fairly broke down. She flew weeping to his side… Do not be angry with me Ulysses" she cried You who are the wisest of mankind… I have been shuddering all the time through fear that someone might come here and deceive me with a lying story; for there are many very wicked people going about…" Thus Ulysses passed Penelopes final test for only the man who built their bed anchoring it to a giant olive tree would realize that their bed could never be moved. A fitting closing metaphor to the unshakeable transcendent love the pair had for each which endured over these many years.
For all of his 20 years of passion war death starvation cunning imprisonment fear privation pressure pain and loss or what the literary Romantic writers called Strum und Drang (storm and stress) Homers Iliad and the Odyssey in particular is a love story of Ulyssesa singular man a father a husband… the King of Ithaca just trying to come home after doing his duty as a soldier fulfilling his mission as a general of the Greek legions fighting heroically in the Trojan War yet the gods were against him every step of his long odyssey back home to embrace and comfort his loving long-suffering wife Penelope. Ulysses could have remained on the island of Aeaea with the sorceress Circe and succumb to hedonism but he didnt. Ulysses could have stayed on the island of Ogygia as Calypsos love slave where she promised to make him a demigod but he refused. Why? His heart didnt belong to either of those strange women; his heart belonged to his wife Penelope and he would not rest until he embraced his beloved or died trying.
In my mind the story of Ulysses is the sublime love story for the Ages; a pure eternal love which reminds me of the scriptureJohn 15:13 There is no greater love than to lay down ones life for ones friends.
*N.B.: This article is based in part on excerpts from Great Books of the Western World Vol. 3 Chp. 50Love and Vol. 4 Homer: The Iliad The Odyssey