Home Classical, Ancient Near Eastern & Egyptian Studies Interactions with the Beloved in Greek Literature: Conceptual Blending and Levels of Representation
Article
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Interactions with the Beloved in Greek Literature: Conceptual Blending and Levels of Representation

  • Cristóbal Pagán Cánovas EMAIL logo and Mariano Valverde EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: July 14, 2017
Become an author with De Gruyter Brill

Abstract:

We analyze a group of literary motifs for building fictive interactions, recurring across one of the richest examples of affective communication in Greek literature: the expression of the causes and effects of love in terms of scenes between lover and beloved. In this thematic set, the poetic expression of love is articulated through a direct or indirect interaction between lover and beloved. We expose the main patterns for the integration of concepts that recur across such interactions, showing how entrenched cognitive templates interplay with different cultural contexts and aesthetic goals. Across different periods, authors blend a variety of conceptual elements, producing different levels of fantasy and mediation between the lover’s viewpoint and the beloved’s ‘reality’. Although there is significant variation in how these scenes are built across periods and genres, they all share a core structure and a number of flexible rules that are based on fundamental cognitive operations. Understanding this cognitive core allows us to model how the meaning is built by the different texts. Examining how particular texts use the template for their specific purposes shows us that cognitive structures with arguably a universal nature are not rigid patterns but fluid recipes, providing starting points for creating novel meanings through skillful usage.

Bibliography

Bécares, V. / Pordomingo, F. (1979), “Safo, fr. 31 L-P”, in: C. Codoñer (ed.), El comentario de textos griegos y latinos, Madrid, 27–45.Search in Google Scholar

Bettini, M. (1992), Il ritratto dell’amante, Torino.Search in Google Scholar

Boden, M. (2009), “Computer Models of Creativity”, in: AI Magazine 30 (3), 23–34.10.1017/CBO9780511807916.020Search in Google Scholar

Burnett, A.P. (1983), Three Archaic Poets. Archilochus, Alcaeus, Sappho, Cambridge (Mass.).Search in Google Scholar

Cairns, D. (2011), “Looks of Love and Loathing”, in: Métis 9, 37–50.Search in Google Scholar

Campbell, D.A. (1983), The Golden Lyre. The Themes of the Greek Lyric Poets, London.Search in Google Scholar

Campbell, M. (1994), A Commentary on Apollonius Rhodius Argonautica III 1–471, Leiden.10.1163/9789004329461Search in Google Scholar

Carson, A. (1986), Eros the bittersweet. An essay, Princeton.Search in Google Scholar

Clark, H.H. / Brennan, S.E. (1991), “Grounding in Communication,” in: L.B. Resnick / J.M. Levine / S.D. Teasley (eds.), Perspectives on Socially Shared Cognition, Washington, 127–49.10.1037/10096-006Search in Google Scholar

Coulson, S. / Pascual, E. (2006), “For the Sake of Argument: Mourning the Unborn and Reviving the Dead through Conceptual Blending”, in: Annual Review of Cognitive Linguistics 4 (1), 153–81.Search in Google Scholar

Cyrino, M.S. (1995), In Pandora’s Jar: Lovesickness in Early Greek Poetry, Lanham-New York-London.Search in Google Scholar

Degani, E. / Burzacchini, G. (eds.) (1977), Lirici greci. Antologia, Firenze.Search in Google Scholar

Durup, S. (1997), “L’espressione tragica del desiderio amoroso”, in: C. Calame (ed.), L’amore in Grecia, Roma-Bari, 143–157.Search in Google Scholar

Fauconnier, G. (1997), Mappings in Thought and Language, Cambridge.10.1017/CBO9781139174220Search in Google Scholar

Fauconnier, G. (2005), “Compression and Emergent Structure”, in: Language and Linguistics 6 (4), 523–38.Search in Google Scholar

Fauconnier, G. (2009), “Generalized Integration Networks” in: V. Evans / S. Purcell (eds.), New Directions in Cognitive Linguistics, Amsterdam, 147–60.10.1075/hcp.24.12fauSearch in Google Scholar

Fauconnier, Gilles / Turner, M. (2002), The Way We Think: Conceptual Blending and the Mind’s Hidden Complexities, New York.Search in Google Scholar

Fauconnier, G. / Turner, M. (2008), “The Origin of Language as a Product of the Evolution of Modern Cognition”, in: B. Laks (ed.), Origin and Evolution of Languages: Approaches, Models, Paradigms, Sheffield, 133–156.Search in Google Scholar

Fusillo, M. (1989), Il romanzo greco. Polifonia ed eros, Venezia.Search in Google Scholar

Garrison, D.H. (1978) Mild Frenzy. A Reading of the Hellenistic Love Epigram, Wiesbaden.Search in Google Scholar

Gentili, B. (1990), Poetry and Its Public in Ancient Greece: From Homer to the Fifth Century, Translated by A.T. Cole, Baltimore.Search in Google Scholar

Giangrande, G. (1994), “La concepción del amor en Apolonio Rodio”, in: J.A López Férez (ed.), La épica griega y su influencia en la literatura española, Madrid, 213–233.Search in Google Scholar

Grady, J. / Oakley, T. / Coulson, S. (1999), “Blending and Metaphor”, in: G. Steen / R.W. Gibbs (eds.), Metaphor in Cognitive Linguistics, Philadelphia, 101–124.10.1075/cilt.175.07graSearch in Google Scholar

Hampe, B. (ed.) (2005), From Perception to Meaning: Image Schemas in Cognitive Linguistics, Berlin.10.1515/9783110197532Search in Google Scholar

Hualde Pascual, P. (2016) “Metáforas del amor en la poesía de la Grecia antigüa. I, La épica y la lírica arcaicas”, in: Cuadernos de Filología Clásica: Estudios Griegos e Indoeuropeos 26, 17–47.10.5209/rev_CFCG.2016.v26.52243Search in Google Scholar

Hunter, R.L. (1989), Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica. Book III, Cambridge.Search in Google Scholar

Johnson, M. (1987), The Body in the Mind: The Bodily Basis of Meaning, Imagination, and Reason, Chicago.10.7208/chicago/9780226177847.001.0001Search in Google Scholar

Koestler, A. (1964), The Act of Creation, New York.10.1525/9780520340176-014Search in Google Scholar

Konstan, D. (1994), Sexual Symmetry. Love in the Ancient Novel and Related Genres, Princeton.10.1515/9781400863518Search in Google Scholar

Lakoff, G. (1987), Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things, Chicago.10.7208/chicago/9780226471013.001.0001Search in Google Scholar

Langacker, R.W. (2009), Investigations in Cognitive Grammar, Berlin.10.1515/9783110214369Search in Google Scholar

Librán Moreno, M. (2006), “Motivos amatorios en la tragedia de Esquilo”, in: Seminari Romani di Cultura Greca 9, 27–61.Search in Google Scholar

MacAlister, S. (1996), Dreams and Suicides. The Greek Novel from Antiquity to the Byzantine Empire, London-New York.Search in Google Scholar

MacLachlan, B.C. (1997), “Sappho”, in: D.E. Gerber (ed.), A companion to the Greek lyric poets, Leiden-New York-Köln, 156–186.Search in Google Scholar

Mandler, J.M. (2004), The Foundations of Mind: Origins of Conceptual Thought, New York.10.1111/j.1467-7687.2004.00369.xSearch in Google Scholar

Mandler, J.M. (2010), “The Spatial Foundations of the Conceptual System”, in: Language and Cognition 2 (1), 21–44.10.1515/langcog.2010.002Search in Google Scholar

Mandler, J.M. (2012), “On the Spatial Foundations of the Conceptual System and Its Enrichment”, in: Cognitive Science 36 (3), 421–51.10.1111/j.1551-6709.2012.01241.xSearch in Google Scholar

Mandler, J.M. / Pagán Cánovas, C. (2014), “On Defining Image Schemas”, in: Language and Cognition 6 (4), 510–32.10.1017/langcog.2014.14Search in Google Scholar

Markman, K.D. / Klein, W.M.P. / Suhr, J.A. (2012), Handbook of Imagination and Mental Simulation, New York.10.4324/9780203809846Search in Google Scholar

Mithen, S. (1999), The Prehistory of the Mind: The Cognitive Origins of Art, Religion and Science, London.Search in Google Scholar

Moreno Soldevila, R. (ed.) (2011), Diccionario de motivos amatorios en la literatura latina (siglos III a.C.-II d.C.), Huelva.Search in Google Scholar

Müller, H.M. (1980), Erotische Motive in der griechischen Dichtung bis auf Euripides, Hamburg.Search in Google Scholar

Pagán Cánovas, C. (2010), “Erotic Emissions in Greek Poetry: A Generic Integration Network”, in: Cognitive Semiotics 6, 7–32.Search in Google Scholar

Pagán Cánovas, C. (2011), “The Genesis of the Arrows of Love: Diachronic Conceptual Integration in Greek Mythology”, in: American Journal of Philology 132 (4), 553–79.10.1353/ajp.2011.0044Search in Google Scholar

Pagán Cánovas, C. (2014), “Cognitive Patterns in Greek Poetic Metaphors of Emotion: A Diachronic Approach”, in: J.E. Díaz Vera (ed.), Metaphor and Metonymy across Time and Cultures: Perspectives on the Sociohistorical Linguistics of Figurative Language, Berlin, 295–318.10.1515/9783110335453.295Search in Google Scholar

Pagán Cánovas, C. / Turner, M. (2016), “Generic Integration Templates for Fictive Communication” in: E. Pascual / S. Sandler (eds.), The Conversation Frame: Forms and Functions of Fictive Interaction, Amsterdam.10.1075/hcp.55.03pagSearch in Google Scholar

Page, D. (1955), Sappho and Alcaeus. An Introduction to the Study of Ancient Lesbian Poetry, Oxford.Search in Google Scholar

Pascual, E. (2014), Fictive Interaction: The Conversation Frame in Thought, Language, and Discourse, Amsterdam.10.1075/hcp.47Search in Google Scholar

Petropoulos, J.C.B. (2003), Eroticism in Ancient and Medieval Greek Poetry, London.Search in Google Scholar

Privitera, G.A. (1969), “Ambiguità antitesi analogia nel fr. 31 L.P. di Saffo”, in: Quaderni Urbinati di Cultura Classica 8, 37–80.10.2307/20537609Search in Google Scholar

Neri, C. (ed.) (2011), Lirici greci. Età arcaica e classica, Roma.Search in Google Scholar

Récanati, F. (1995), “Le Présent Épistolaire: Une Perspective Cognitive”, in: L’Information Grammaticale 66 (1), 38–44.10.3406/igram.1995.3046Search in Google Scholar

Rissman, L. (1983), Love as War: Homeric Allusion in the Poetry of Sappho, Königstein.Search in Google Scholar

Rocca, S. (1976), “Il motivo dell’innamoramento a prima vista nell’apuleiana Amore e Psiche ed il romanzo greco”, in: Materiali e Contributi per la Storia della Narrativa Greco-Latina 1, 33–47.Search in Google Scholar

Rodríguez Adrados, F. (1995), Sociedad, amor y poesía en la Grecia antigua, Madrid.Search in Google Scholar

Thornton, B.S. (1997), Eros. The Myth of Ancient Greek Sexuality, Boulder.Search in Google Scholar

Turner, M. (1996), The Literary Mind: The Origins of Thought and Language, New York.Search in Google Scholar

Turner, M. (2006), “Compression and Representation”, in: Language and Literature 15 (1), 17–27.10.1177/0963947006060550Search in Google Scholar

Turner, M. (2014), The Origin of Ideas: Blending, Creativity, and the Human Spark, New York.Search in Google Scholar

Turner, M. (2015), “Blending in Language and Communication”, in: E. Dabrowska / D. Divjak (eds.), Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics, Berlin, 211–232.10.1515/9783110292022-011Search in Google Scholar

Valverde Sánchez, M. (2011), “Eros e imaginación: a propósito de Plu., Mor. 759B-C”, in: J.M. Candau Morón / F.J. González Ponce / A.L. Chávez Reino (eds.), Plutarco transmisor, Sevilla, 81–96.Search in Google Scholar

Vernant, J.-P. (1965), Mythe et pensé chez les Grecs II, Paris.Search in Google Scholar

Vian, F. (ed.) (1980), Apollonios de Rhodes, Argonautiques, II, Paris.Search in Google Scholar

Winkler, J.J. (1990), The Constraints of Desire. The Anthropology of Sex and Gender in Ancient Greece, New York-London.Search in Google Scholar

Published Online: 2017-7-14
Published in Print: 2017-7-26

© 2017 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Downloaded on 17.12.2025 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/tc-2017-0004/pdf?lang=en
Scroll to top button