Eros gocciante (Euripide, Ippolito 525-526)

Abstract

Dripping Eros (Eur., Hipp. 525 f.)The Prädikation Ἔρως, ὃ κατ’ ὀμμάτων στάζεις πόθον (Eur., Hipp.525) lends itself to different interpretations: 1. “Eros, you who dripdesire down into the eyes” (Halleran and most critics); 2. “Eros, thou814 ENGLISH ABSTRACTSthat distillest longing upon the eyes” (Barrett); 3. “Love dropping desiredown from his eyes” (Paley). Paley’s interpretation, hitherto neglected,is best suited to the hymnodic context and above all to the developmentof the Chorus’s thought in the first strophic couple. The image of desirethat drips down from one’s own eyes is attested for various deities connectedwith the erotic sphere, from the Charites in Hesiod to Gamos inMenander Rhetor. It also concerns the modes of representation of deities(e.g. Apollo in Callimachus or the Erinyes in Aeschylus) that by drippingfluids from eyes or other parts of their body transmit positive ornegative effects to the human beings with whom they come into contact.