… ἤτοι κάλλους ἔκφρασις. Ομορφιά και ερωτισμός στην ποίηση του 12ου αιώνα. Η περίπτωση των εκφράσεων του Νικήτα Ευγενειανού

Abstract

The study examines the ideal of beauty and its visual reception, the concept of eroticism and the impact of erotic emotion in Byzantine poetry in general. Moreover, the case of the erotic literature of the comnenian era is studied and in this context the ekphraseis of Nicetas Eugenianos, which are included both in his novel Drossilla and Charikles, as well as in his Epithalamium entitled Ἐπιθαλάμιοι ἤτοι κάλλους ἔκφρασις τῶν συναφθέντων, are presented in detail. The thorough examination of the particular thematic and stylistic characteristics of the different descriptions (ekphrasis of garden, fountain, Drosilla, beauty of a newlywed couple) makes clear that Nicetas Eugenianos with his ekphraseis managed to transform the beauty into a higher ideal, in order to create an intensely sensual atmosphere in his texts, to demonstrate through words the power of erotic feelings and to give the opportunity to the human desire to become the object of free expression.

Keywords

• nicetas eugenianos, drossila and charikles, ekphrasis, epithalamium, eroticism