quote · Legacy record
When an individual appreciates that he alone is responsible for the content and coherence of his person, an influx like eros becomes a concrete personal threat. So in the lyric poets, love is something that assaults or invades the body of the lover to wrest control of it from him, a personal struggle of will and physique between the god and his victim. The poets describe this struggle from within a consciousness – perhaps new in the world – of the body as a unity of limbs, senses and self, amazed at its own vulnerability.
When an individual appreciates that he alone is responsible for the content and coherence of his person, an influx like eros becomes a concrete personal threat. So in the lyric poets, love is something that assaults or invades the body of the lover to wrest control of it from him, a personal struggle of will and physique between the god and his victim. The poets describe this struggle from within a consciousness – perhaps new in the world – of the body as a unity of limbs, senses and self, amazed at its own vulnerability.
Approximate author period: c. 2007 AD · contemporary
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- Author or tradition
- Anne Carson
Attribution: attributed - Country attributed
- Not established
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- Approximate author period: c. 2007 AD · contemporary
Approximate author-period evidence for Anne Carson: documented activity in 2007. Wikidata Q2633699, inspected 2026-10-08. Not a quotation composition date or independent verification of attribution. Source: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2633699 (accessed 2026-10-08).
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Supplied reference C; CSV row 211687; supplied attribution, independently unverified
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