Erotic Melancholia: Law, Literature, and Love

A young Egyptian fell in love with Theogonis, a woman of the Athenian court. For some time he expressed his desire openly and endeavored to seduce Theogonis and persuade her to become his lover. His every effort failed. Whatever importuning or persuasion he tried, she remained indifferent and refused his pleas. Obstacles to love will often iname it, and in this case the young man became increasingly obsessed with his passion. He ceased to be able to think of or do anything else. The ardor of his love started to eat away at his soul. He became ill for want of any prospect of success. Lovesick and wasting away, it was eventually suggested to him that he might cure himself of his passion if he paid Theogonis a sum of money to sleep with him once. Extreme circumstances required an extreme solution. The distraught lover negotiated with Theogonis at length, and it was eventually agreed that at a future date, and for a speciŽ ed time, he would make love with her once. He was then to pay her an agreed and substantial sum of money. On the night before the agreement was to be performed, however, the young man had a vivid dream. In this dream he came upon Theogonis and she invited him into her bedchamber. There, according to one later report, they made love at length, “avec tous les delices,” that is, with great sensuality, and vivid delight. On waking the next morning, the youth’s fever had lifted and his sickness was gone. His soul was no longer torn apart by desire for this woman, and in consequence he was no longer interested in fulŽ lling his costly agreement to consummate his passion. Theogonis heard of what had happened through a third party. She went immediately to court and made a claim for the sum of money promised. Her argument was that she had kept her part of the bargain because it was her image that had cured the young man of his sickness. Without her apparition