Evripidova Medeja in svetopisemska Visoka pesem na preizkusu ljubezenskega diskurza

Irena Avsenik Nabergoj

doi:10.4312/keria.24.1.91-107

Authors

Irena Avsenik Nabergoj Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Institute of Cultural History, Ljubljana; University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Theology, Institute of Bible, Judaism and Early Christianity, Slovenia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4312/keria.24.1.91-107

Keywords:

Euripides‘ Medea, Song of Songs, vocabulary of love, comparative semantic analysis, Hebrew original and Septuagint, context and intercontextuality

Abstract

In a contextual analysis of the vocabulary of love in Euripides‘ Medea and the biblical Song of Songs, this article raises the fundamental methodological question of the relationship obtaining in Greek culture between the semantic field of the verb erân and the noun érōs, denoting sensual and sexual love, and the semantic field of the verb agapân and the noun agápē, denoting the spiritual level of love. In the Greek translation of the Old Testament (Septuagint), the verb agapân and the noun agápē are consistently used to translate the Hebrew verb ‚āhab and the noun ‚ăhābāh, which express the full range of love, from a highly sensual to a highly spiritual experience. The article is critical of the tendency of interpreters to see a contrast between the ‚erotic‘ and ‚spiritual‘ meanings of this vocabulary on the basis of the vocabulary alone, and to give little or no consideration to the polysemous use of the vocabulary. The polysemous use of the word agápē in ancient Greek culture and religion is evident, among other things, in the fact that the choice of the noun agápē or the verb agapân instead of érōs or the verb erân in the oldest Greek translation of the Old Testament does not exclude the erotic dimension of love. However, even in early Christianity the word érōs is sometimes used in cases of passionate human love for God, where one would expect the noun agápē or the verb agapân.

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