Metaphor and Emotion: Eros in the Greek Novel Michael Cummings PhD The University of Edinburgh 2009 Signed declaration This thesis has been composed by the candidate, the work is the candidate's own and the work has not been submitted for any other degree or professional qualification except as specified. Signed: 2 Contents Abstract Acknowledgments Introduction — Emotion, Prototypical Categorisation, Metaphor, and the Greek Novel 6 Chapter 1 — The Erotic Syndrome 33 Chapter 2 — Fire 49 Chapter 3 — Disease and Madness 60 Chapter 4 — Ἔρως as an Opponent 101 Chapter 5 — Vision and Ἔρως 122 Chapter 6 — The Ψυχή and the Καρδία 156 Chapter 7 — An Ontology of Ἔρως 182 Conclusion — Ἔρως in the Greek Novel 215 Bibliography 234 3 Abstract The study of emotion is an interdisciplinary field. One key aspect of this field is the cultural variation of emotion. This thesis is a contribution to the above area by means of a specific analysis of the ancient Greek conception of the emotion ἔρως. The focus for this study is the Greek Novel, a collection of literary works emerging from the Greek speaking culture of the eastern Mediterranean during the Roman imperial period (1st to 4th cent C.E.). These novels are based upon the universal topics of love and sexual passion, while at the same time reflecting and reworking both the specific social and literary climate of the period and ancient Greek folk and philosophical models of psychology. My thesis argues that the role of conceptual metaphor in the understanding of ἔρως as an emotion has not yet been fully appreciated, and that an understanding of metaphor is essential for gauging which parts of the folk model of the emotion are culturally specific or universal, and how these sections interact. 4 Acknowledgments There are numerous people who deserve my gratitude and without whom this thesis would not have been possible. My father, mother, stepfather, and partner have supported me throughout. Edinburgh University has proved to be a fertile environment for my research: the College of Humanities and Social Sciences must be thanked for the funding they provided. I would also like to thank my fellow Postgraduates in the department for their useful feedback on numerous seminars and papers. I would not have embarked along this path if it was not for a dedicated set of teachers at undergraduate level, Allan Hood, Chris Strachan, Fritz-Gregor Hermann, Keith Rutter, Roger Rees, and Roy Pinkerton, whose teaching persuaded me to continue with my studies in Classics. Part of the research for this thesis was conducted in other institutions. I would like to thank the Classical Association and the Societies for the Promotion of Hellenic and Roman Studies for funding a research period at the Hardt Foundation in Geneva. The European Doctoral Fellowship scheme funded a stay at Ca’ Foscari University in Venice, which provided me both with excellent research facilities and a multidisciplinary environment in which to discuss my work. My work has also benefited enormously from a stimulating discussion at the Kyknos Seminar Series on Ancient Narrative, to which I was kindly invited. Stephanie Winder has provided me with support and thought-provoking discussion during my time as an undergraduate and a researcher. And finally I would like to thank Douglas Cairns for his peerless supervision, insightful criticism and encouragement throughout my MSc and PhD research. 5 Emotion, Prototypical Categorisation, Metaphor, and the Greek Novel The title of this thesis signifies its focus upon the role that metaphor plays in the structuring and understanding of emotions. The proliferation of scholarship on the emotions during the last half century has been echoed by a recent surge in the study of emotions in classical antiquity and their relationship to our own emotions. Classical scholarship is currently engaging with many issues which influence the portrayal of emotions in Greek and Roman culture, including non-verbal factors such as body language or facial expression, and emotional scripts (how emotions are played out in social interaction). Emotions are a rich and multidimensional area of study and a key part of the continuing discourse on the extent of cultural relativism. Emotions are vital for many strands of experience, ranging from the most personal inner reflection to societal models, practices, and morals, and the interaction between the two extremes of personal and social identity. Emotions deserve to be studied as much as any other part of culture. The contribution made by this thesis will be to examine and promote the crucial role which metaphor plays in conceptualising and structuring emotions in ancient Greek. I am using the concept of ἔρως as a case study, an ancient Greek word which is commonly translated as ‘love’ or ‘desire’. Specifically I will be looking at its portrayal in the Greek Novel, a body of prose works in ancient Greek dating from the Roman imperial period. This introduction will be divided into four sections. I will first define what I am referring to as emotion, in terms of ancient and modern theories, and argue not only for the importance of studying the portrayal of emotions in cultures such as ancient Greece, but for the validity of doing so. Second I will look at prototypical categorisation, which modern linguistics and psychology claim is essential for understanding the categories of emotion terms. Third I will look at the contemporary theory of metaphor which underlies my research, and state why this theory is so important for studying the emotions. Finally, I will outline why I have chosen the emotion ἔρως and its presentation in the Greek Novel as my case study. 6 I - Emotion In recent years the category of emotion has been seen as problematic in scientific fields, but its importance as a part of everyday life has not diminished. We discuss emotions, use them and, most importantly, feel them. Scholarship on the emotions has undergone an enormous change in the last century, with the increasing importance of scientific studies on the relationship between psychology and neurology. These two areas of study highlight two questions vital for the study of emotions: how universal are ‘emotions’ and what is their physiological basis? These questions provoke a further one: what ‘fit’ is there between the ancient Greek emotions and our own? Are these ancient emotions exactly like ours, because all emotions are universal, or are they nothing like ours, because emotions are culturally constructed? The answer lies somewhere in between, since humans have a common physiological make-up and are emersed in specific societies, but in order to identify cultural variation we should first have a good idea of what is universal about emotion. The nature of emotions, as postulated psychological kinds, has the potential to confirm or undermine any approach to emotion in antiquity. I will therefore take some time here to discuss several contemporary theories of emotion, and outline their significance for the present study. In the twentieth century Paul Ekman provided groundbreaking evidence for the universal nature of emotions by studying facial expression.1 He found that six emotions, labelled in English as happiness, disgust, surprise, sadness, anger, and fear, each had a specific facial expression across a large number of different cultures, and that people could correctly interpret these expressions on the faces of those from different cultures.2 Ekman used this evidence to argue that these emotions are universal and rooted in physiology, despite the difference in their linguistic expression across cultures.3 This is not to say that emotion expressions are never 1 The main conclusions of his initial research can be seen in Ekman 1973. An account of his emergence from the behaviourist tradition, the opposition between him and cultural relativists such as Margaret Mead and his responses to their criticisms can be read in his afterword to Darwin 1998 (363- 93). 2 The only exception to this was that in pre-literate cultures fear and surprise were not differentiated as to facial expression, whereas they were in literate ones (Darwin 1998, 379). 3 Obviously other cultures do not use the English terms for these emotions. However, this does not invalidate his results, which argue that emotions approximate to the ones expressed by these English terms are universally experienced. See Ekman and Friesen 1971 and Cairns 2008a, 44: ‘It is not just 7 mediated. Different cultures have different display rules which influence the expression of emotions. For example, in one experiment conducted by Ekman American and Japanese participants were shown a video designed to elicit an emotional response. When the subjects were alone they displayed the same facial expressions, but when another person was present the Japanese subjects controlled their facial expressions.4 Ekman also found that this concealing of emotions led to what he calls ‘leakage’, and that feigned facial expressions for emotion and genuine ones are not completely identical.5 The situations which elicit emotions will vary from culture to culture. For example, even if shame is a universal emotion, the conditions which elicit shame are culturally determined.6 Ekman therefore provides evidence for core universal emotions which, nevertheless, can be culturally mediated. The problem with Ekman’s list is that it denotes only six emotions and requires facial expressions to be constitutive of emotions. In the future more may be added, but we are left with the possibility