Medea's Lovesickness
2 Medea’s Lovesickness Eros and Melancholia I come at last to that heroical love, which is proper to men and women, is a frequent cause of melancholy, and deserves much rather to be called burn- ing lust, than by such an honourable title. —robert burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy “Here comes the downpour, here the lightning and the cursed hail, the roar of thunder and the croaking of frogs.” Thus speaking with each rapid breath, the slender maid, already close to death, enflames the fire which love has spread throughout her limbs. —srì harsa-deva (trans. Ingalls [1965, 232]) Erotic infatuation is violent. Love comes unexpectedly and overwhelms its victim. Its attack brings speechlessness, swooning, silence, blushing, insom- nia, the sweats, and weeping.1 It vanquishes the strongest of wills. When eros remains unconsummated (whether intentionally or merely through circum- stance), there is persuasion,2 then, if that is unsuccessful, rape.3 Sometimes neither persuasion nor rape are useful. The very old must endure their lack of consummation, as must lovers permanently separated, through death, dis- tance, conclusive rejection, physical infirmity, or gender.4 This enforced en- durance may lead to acts of violence, anger, and crime, especially crime if it is a woman who is subject to the frustration.5 Or it may lead to a melancholic lovesickness—anorexia and eventual death.6 Violence remains the most common reaction to erotic frustration.7 Valerius Flaccus’s description of Medea’s lovesickness, completed by 92 or 93 C.E., is typ- ical of this tradition. Medea was a young, barbarian princess from Colchis in what is now Georgia.
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