Wednesday, March 01, 2006
Affection
Euripides, Orestes 792 (tr. E.P. Coleridge):
![](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_vSmKDHi8AKV2LAr431igTg5xZqK0yR1AJ_Wr2yiCqnAtF_BykLvDswBVppgjADeD9nuFetN8_LMhiMmyTkCgL5rVfWR32p6ikBmXT4CdY=s0-d)
There is a more detailed image here.
The young man is sick because he drank too much. The girl is a courtesan. This post might have been more appropriate yesterday, for Mardi Gras, which probably saw many similar acts of affection.
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A wretched task, to come in contact with a sick man.M.L. West, commentary ad loc. (Warminster: Aris & Phillips, 1987), p. 237:
δυσχερὲς ψαύειν νοσοῦντος ἀνδρός.
There is no more touching depiction of affection in Greek art than the cup by the Brygos Painter which shows a girl tenderly holding a young man's head while he vomits over her feet.This is apparently Würzburg L 479, shown below. How touching it is, you judge.
There is a more detailed image here.
The young man is sick because he drank too much. The girl is a courtesan. This post might have been more appropriate yesterday, for Mardi Gras, which probably saw many similar acts of affection.