Eros and Polis: Desire and Community in Greek Political Theory

Eros and Polis examines how and why Greek theorists treated political passions as erotic. Because of the tiny size of ancient Greek cities, contemporary theory and ideology could conceive of entire communities based on desire. A recurrent aspiration was to transform the polity into one great household that would bind the citizens together through ties of mutual affection. In this study, Paul Ludwig evaluates sexuality, love and civic friendship as sources of political attachment and as bonds of political association. Studying the ancient view of eros recovers a way of looking at political phenomena that provides a bridge, missing in modern thought, between the private and public spheres, between erotic love and civic commitment. Ludwig’s study thus has important implications for the theoretical foundations of community.

• Recovers a way of looking at political phenomena that provides a bridge - missing in modern thought - between the private and public spheres • Provides a theory to explain ‘peak’ political moments when traditional motives such as security, profit and hegemony become unusually intense • Expands the standard view of Greek homosexuality by adding a political dimension

Acknowledgements and a note on citations; Introduction; Part I. Political Eros: An Account from the Symposium: 1. Statesmanship and sexuality in Aristophanes’ speech; 2. Law and nature in Aristophanes’ speech; Part II. The Discourse of Political Eros: 3. Scientific poetic traditions of eros in Thucydides; 4. The problem of aggression; 5. The problem of sublimation; Part III. The Polis as a School for Eros: 6. Civic nudity; 7. Patriotism and imperialism as eros; List of works cited; Abbreviations; Other works cited; Index.