Ascensus amoris atque descensus. Topos stopni miłości jako narzędzie interpretacyjne antycznej poezji erotycznej

Wojciech Kopek

doi:10.18290/rh25733.6

Published : 2025-07-07

Vol. 73 No. 3 (2025)

Ascensus amoris atque descensus. Topos of the Steps of Love as an Interpretative Device of Ancient Erotic Poetry

Wojciech Kopek

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9786-650X

DOI: https://doi.org/10.18290/rh25733.6

Abstract

The aim of this article is to demonstrate the centuries-long persistence of the gradus amoris (steps of love) topos within the tradition of ancient literature, both as a compositional element and as a guiding framework for textual interpretation. Taking as a starting point for a discussion the codification of this topos in the scholia of Donatus (on Terence) and Pomponius Porphyrion (on Horace) as a five-stage structure for describing erotic relationships (3rd–5th century CE), the author employs structural and comparative analysis to trace its presence in Hellenistic epigraphy and bucolic poetry (1st–3rd century BCE). Ultimately, the study extends to the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite, which is identified as the foundational source of the topos in the form that was later solidified in Greek and Latin literature.

Keywords:

gradus amoris, steps of love, necessity (ananke), epigram, idyll, Homeric Hymns

Details

References

Statistics

Authors

Download files

pdf (Język Polski)

Altmetric indicators

Cited by / Share

Licence

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

References

Acronis et Porphyrionis Commentarii in Q. Horatium Flaccum. Edidit Ferdinandus Havthal, vol. I. Berolini: Sumptibus Julii Springeri, 1864.

Aeli Donati quod fertur Commentum Terenti. Recensuit Paulus Wessner, vol. I. Lipsiae: In Aedibus B. G. Teubneri, 1902.

Alster, Bendt. „Sumerian Love Songs”. Revue d’Assyriologie et d’archéologie Orientale 79, nr 2 (1985): 127-159.

Anthologia Graeca. Edidit Hermann Beckby. 2. Auflage. München: Ernst Heimeran Verlag, 1965-1968.

Antologia Palatyńska. Tłum. Zygmunt Kubiak. Warszawa: Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, 1978.

Bataille, Georges. Erotyzm. Tłum. Maryna Ochab. Gdańsk: słowo/obraz terytoria, 1999.

Bergren, Ann L. T. „‘The Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite’: Tradition and Rhetoric, Praise and Blame”. Classical Antiquity 8, nr 1 (1989): 1-41.

Bernhard, Maria Ludwika. Sztuka grecka V wieku p.n.e. Warszawa: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 1991.

Bickerman, Elias J. „Love Story in the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite”. Athenaeum 54 (1976): 229-254.

Breitenberger, Barbara. Aphrodite and Eros. The Development of Erotic Mythology in Early Greek Poetry and Cult. New York: Routeledge, 2007.

Brink, Charles Oscar. Horace on Poetry, vol. 2: The ‘Ars Poetica’. Cambridge: The University Press, 1971.

Cholmeley, Roger James. „Introduction”. W: The Idylls of Theocritus, ed. Roger J. Cholmeley, 1-60. London: Bell, 1919.

Clairmont, Christoph W. „The lekythos of Myrrhine”. W: Studies in Classical Art and Archaeology. A Tribute to Peter Heinrich von Blanckenhagen, eds. Günter Kopcke and Mary B. Moore, 103-110. New York: J.J. Augustin, 1979.

Clay, Jenny Strauss. „Hide and Go Seek. Hermes in Homer”. W: Tracking Hermes, Pursuing Mercury, ed. John F. Miller and Jenny Strauss Clay, 67-78. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019.

Cody, John V. Horace and Callimachean Aesthetics. Bruxelles: Latomus, 1976.

Czerwińska, Jadwiga. „Metaforyka śmierci i archetyp niezniszczalnego życia”. Roczniki Humanistyczne 62, z. 3 (2014): 5-27.

Dodds, Eric R. The Greeks and the Irrational. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1951.

Farrell, Joseph. „Hermes in Love. The Erotic Career of a Mercurial Character”. W: Tracking Hermes, Pursuing Mercury, ed. John F. Miller and Jenny Strauss Clay, 121-140. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019.

Faulkner, Andrew. The Collection of Homeric Hymns. From the Seventh to the Third Centuries BC, w: The Homeric Hymns. Interpretative essays, edited by Andrew Faulkner, s. 175-205. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.

Faulkner, Andrew. The Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite. Introduction, Text, and Commentary. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.

Friedman, Lionel J. „Gradus Amoris”. Romance Philology 19, nr 2 (1965): 167-177.

Gadamer, Hans-Georg. „Hermeneutyka”, tłum. Andrzej Bronk. Życie i Myśl 26, nr 4 (1976): 137-150.

Gibson, Roy K. „Gallus: The First Roman Love Elegist”. W: A Companion to Roman Love Elegy, edited by Barbara K. Gold. 172-186. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012.

Hanusiewicz, Mirosława. Pięć stopni miłości. O wyobraźni erotycznej w polskiej poezji barokowej. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Semper, 2004.

Harrison, Stephen J. „Horace’s Mercury and Mercurial Horace”. W: Tracking Hermes, Pursuing Mercury, ed. John F. Miller and Jenny Strauss Clay, 159-172. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019.

Herondas. Mimy. Tłum. Janina Ławińska-Tyszkowska. Wrocław: Wydawnictwo Dolnośląskie, 1988.

Homerikά, czyli Żywoty Homera i poematy przypisywane poecie. Tłum. Włodzimierz Appel. Warszawa: Prószyński i Spółka, 2007.

Inanna. Queen of Heaven and Earth. Her Stories and Hymns from Sumer. Trans. Diane Wolkstein, Samuel Noah Kramer. Cambridge: Harper, 1983.

Jenkins, Ian. „Is There Life after Marriage? A Study of the Abduction Motif in Vase Paintings of the Athenian Wedding Ceremony”. Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies, nr 30 (1983): 137-145.

Jones Roccos, Linda. „The Kanephoros and Her Festival Mantle in Greek Art”. American Journal of Archaeology 99, nr 4 (1995): 641-666.

Lausberg, Heinrich. Retoryka literacka. Podstawy wiedzy o literaturze. Tłum. Albert Gorzkowski. Bydgoszcz: Homini, 2002.

Liddell, Henry George i Robert Scott. A Greek-English lexicon. Oxford: Clarendon press, 1869.

Nisbet, Robin George Murdoch i Margaret Hubbard. A Commentary on Horace: Odes. Book I. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1970.

Olson, S. Douglas (ed.). The ‘Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite’ and Related Texts: Text, Translation and Commentary. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2012.

Oxford Latin Dictionary, red. Peter G. W. Glare. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1968.

Parry, Hugh. „The Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite: Erotic ‘Ananke’”. Phoenix 40, nr 3 (1986): 253-264.

Rappaport, Roy A. Ritual and Religion in the Making of Humanity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.

Rubio, Gonzalo. „Review of Inanna and Dumuzi: A Sumerian Love Story, by Yitschak Sefati”. Journal of the American Oriental Society 121, nr 2 (2001): 268-274.

Saayman, Francois. „Dogs and Lions in the Oresteia”. Akroterion 38, nr 1 (1993): 11-18.

Schmidt, Peter Lebrecht. „Porphyrio, Pomponius”. W: Brill’s New Pauly: Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World. Edited by Hubert Cancik, Helmuth Schneider, Christine F. Salazar, David E. Orton. Vol. 11. Leiden–Boston: Brill, 2007.

Scholia in Theocritum vetera, rec. Carl Wendel. Lipsiae: In Aedibus B.G. Teubneri, 1914.

Sowa, Cora Angier. Traditional Themes and The Homeric Hymns. Chicago: Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, 1984.

Teokryt. Sielanki. Tłum. Artur Sandauer. Warszawa: Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, 1953.

Terence. The Eunuch. Edited, translated, and commentary by Anthony J. Brothers. Warminster: Aris and Phillips, 2000.

Terencjusz. Komedie. Tłum. Ewa Skwara. Tom I. Warszawa: Prószyński, 2005.

The Comedies of Terence. Translated by Henry Thomas Riley. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1872.

The Homeric Hymns. Edited by Thomas William Allen, William Reginald Halliday, Edward Ernest Sikes, 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1934.

Utwory Teokryta. Tłum. Kazimierz Kaszewski. Warszawa: P. Laskauer, I. W. Babicki, 1901.

Vendôme, Matthieu de. Ars versificatoria. W: Les arts poétiques du XIIe et du XIIIe siècle. Recherches et documents sur la technique littéraire du Moyen Âge, red. Edmond Faral, 106-193. Paris: Librairie ancienne Édouard Champion, 1923.