Eros under a new sky: Greek reassessments of politics, philosophy and sexuality in light of Roman hegemony

In the small, closed society of the polis, Greek political thinkers and actors often spoke of political ambition, love of freedom, and the desire for empire in erotic terms. This reflects not an over-grown metaphor, but a well-developed problematic in which the desire for honor is linked both to the desire to be loved and to the darker side of eros, the desire to subjugate.;Within this conceptual framework, I attempt to understand the transformation in political circumstances and in political psychology that the Greeks suffered as a result of Roman rule. Free political life had been extinguished. On the other hand, Roman hegemony presented an unprecedented opportunity for the rationalization of politics, or the union of philosophy and political power. But according to Plutarch, this could be accomplished only if the Greeks' love of freedom and erotic aspiration to surpass one another in excellence be tamed: this same aspiration is the source of contentiousness and faction. Plutarch seeks to domesticate men's eros, and in fact offers a positive reassessment of marriage as against pederasty, with its political valence. He also innovates in finding marriage to be ideally suited to philosophic friendship.;Philosophy too is understood to be erotic, though its eros is not on the plane of politics. The union of philosophy and political power thus has consequences for philosophy as well, requiring that it become dogmatic rather than zetetic and erotic This is necessary for the popularization of philosophy, which is crucial to its political role. But in becoming dogmatic, philosophy is transformed into theology. The emperor is the philosopher-god of the post-political condition ushered in by Roman rule; he is the god of the cosmopolis. The dissertation considers the appropriation of Platonic thought by Aelius Aristides, a pagan Greek sophist (fl. c. 150 A.D.), in his construction of a theological justification for the Roman empire. This anticipates Christian efforts to do the same under Constantine, and illuminates also the modern cosmopolitanism of Alexandre Kojeve. I critique the Hegelian concept of recognition in light of the ancient concept of eros.