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1882
Volume 149, Issue 2
  • ISSN: 0035-6220
  • E-ISSN: 2785-0773

Abstract

Abstract

The antistrophe of the song of Sophocles’ that begins with Ἔρως ἀνίκατε μάχαν does not describe the effects of sexual desire, but those of desire for autocratic power, and refers to Creon’s μεγάλοι θεσμοί (which I interpret as ‘horrible decrees’). That desire comes from Aphrodite, as sexual desire does. The goddess is designated here by the kenning εὔλεκτρος Νύμφα, ‘the Girl who gives the pleasure of bed’. The play as a whole shows Creon as a tyrant, but it transforms the traditional idea of a tyrant. This is a tyrant who uses new intellectual tools, those of rhetoric and philosophy, for evil purposes. The poet perceives the dangers that can come from a new kind of politician.

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2021-07-01
2025-12-09

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