Nom d'un dieu!! - for momentary lack of a red red Robin, I will just say
that I think you're on the ball here, Mark - Eros, according to SOED, is
first noted 1775, quite late (erotic being about a century earlier); La
Fontaine's delightful *Les amours de Psiché et de Cupidon* (1669)
generally refers to the latter as l'Amour.
mj
Mark Weiss wrote:
> The Romans also played on both, or rather didn't separate them: Cupid was
> also Amor--Love, in for example the story of Amor and Psyche in Apuleius.
> In French, as well, Cupide is often Amour.
>
> I don't have an OED available, but I'm guessing that the common usage of
> Eros in English is pretty recent. I also remember frequent use in Middle
> English and Elizabethan poetry of Love in this sense--for instance, in
> Chaucer's translation of the Roman de la Rose.
>
> Robin, are you there? It would be nice to hear from someone who unlike me
> actually knows something (and has the necessary books).
>
> Mark
>
>
>
> At 03:43 AM 1/16/2005, you wrote:
>
>> On 16/1/05 7:14 PM, "Mark Weiss" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>
>> > If I'm not mistaken, eros in Greek is an ordinary word meaning
>> erotic love,
>> > and to a Greek ear Eros the god is simply the god Love, in which case
>> > translating Eros as Eros is anachronistic.
>>
>> I assumed something like that was behind Economou's choice to
>> translate it
>> as "love". But also, the painting of Eros, the lovely boy god, is a
>> standard European trope. I suppose te original was able to play on both
>> meanings more directly...
>>
>> Best
>>
>> A
>>
>>
>> Alison Croggon
>>
>> Blog: http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com
>> Editor, Masthead: http://masthead.net.au
>> Home page: http://alisoncroggon.com
>
>
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