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As Aristotle once said: but only does so (love) when he longs for him when absent and craves for his presence. When we look at this definition it seems to be timeless and holds true even today, Love is that longing for someone in his or her absence. This theme of love can be seen in both the lyrical and epic poetry of the Greek. Though at first look the epic work the Odyssey by Homer and the Lyrical works of Sappho are strikingly different in not only length but also in theme, homer accounts for the story of a brave Odysseus where as Sappho relates her ideas and thoughts on life and the meaning held with in it. However, as you will see though different in time and theme there is one idea that has remained the same throughout, the idea of love. The entire story of the Odyssey is a profound take on this definition of love.
Longing for one in their absence comprises the entirety of the story, the travels of Odysseus made simply so he can be reunited with his family a stringed of twenty years. Similarly his son Telemachus leaves Ithaca in search of the answers to his fathers fait. Hes vanished, gone, and left me pain and sorrow. (Homer 1. 260 - 261) said Telemachus to Athena, left me pain and sorrow. In his absence Telemachus deals with that daily pain of not knowing the fait of his father, he is gone and that pain is the longing that he has to of know his father. As Telemachus longs for his father his mother Penelope also longs for her husband, Hear me, my friends, for the god on Olympus has given me pain beyond all other women of my generation. I have lost a fine husband (Homer 4. 774 - 777) Like her son Penelope relates the pain that is so real with her lost husband, to her he is dead but the longing is still the same.
It is not however just Telemachus and Penelope that have this longing that is love according to Aristotle. Odysseus him self longs to return home as is seen in Homer 19. 238 - 242 Lady, it is difficult for me to speak after weve been apart for so long. It has been twenty years since he left my country. But I have an image of him in my mind. Here we see Odysseus longing for himself as he masquerades as a former loyal of him self to his old maid. It can easily be assumed that in this it is not just his interpretation of what he should say but we see a longing for him to be himself again and to retake his position after those arduous twenty years.
The Odyssey, is not the only place we see that love is found in longing. As was said earlier the writings of Sappho also hold the key to love as a longing for someone in their absence. Sappho 37 shows us how love is not simply reserved for people love can also be for places and times. You know the place: then leave Crete and come to us waiting where the grove is pleasantest, by precincts sacred to you Though Sappho is lest explicit that this is love one can feel the emotion pour off the pages with her vivid description of this place, a place that feels to the reader like a place that you would long for a place that you love. If one takes the utmost literal interpretation of Sappho he pomes are meaningless the thought here conjure up a place that the reader can Identify with, maybe a home, a time or that sacred place that has been made indelible in our minds eye. Some say a cavalry corps, some infantry, some, again will maintain that swift oars of our fleet are the finest sight on dark earth; but I say that whatever one loves, is. (Sappho 41) But to me the finest sight on the dark earth is whatever you love; obvious in that first sight of something you love you have been away, and that is the most beautiful sight on earth.
This is obvious to see that the idea of yearning and love needing to be found in tandem is all too apparent there. Sappho also relates the idea that in love people find it so important that the ones they love always feel love that in there absence they should seek to find that feeling. In The gods bless you may you sleep then on some tender girl friends breast. You get the feeling as if Sappho her self would like to be there in this persons life but realizes and relegates that to ensure that the ones she loves always feel the form of the beloved.
Once you have examined both of these works and seen there vast differences in direction time and perspective you can still se that one thing remains the same. The ideas that love is found in the desire for one, who is not present, are clear and unwavering. We know we love someone when we are told like Odysseus did his father Laertes Im the one that you miss, father, right here back in my homeland but dont cry now. (Homer 24. 330 - 333) Because though it may be twenty years gone, a year or two days if we are ready to cry just to have that one short glance upon the face of one we have missed in there absence we know it is love. The hardest thing in love is to know it, to appreciate it, to understand it, we must be out of the loving feeling of our loved ones presence for a time.
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