Vous consultezLe sein et le couteau. L’ambiguïté de l’amour maternel dans l’Athènes classique

The study of the meaning and manifestations of maternal love in Ancient Greece reveals the complexity of the notion of philia. Greek mothers expressed sentiments toward their children that were both instinctive and the product of conditioning that relied on attitudes and gestures. The body, blood, and milk were all biological elements or ‘humors’ that nourished the natural side of maternal affects. While Plato and Aristotle both debated the innate or learned quality of paternal affections, the tragic poets depicted in their theatrical representations a wide range of familial sentiments where maternal hatred is found alongside love capable of and where the self-interest of men without children (apais) juxtaposes the distress of men who have been violently bereft of their child. To this extent, the Greeks conceptualized the existence of a nuanced range of maternal and paternal affects.

Keywords


philia, mother, tragedy, Aristotle, sentiments