ATDTDA (18): 493-494 "captivated by eyes"

[Clément Lévy]

Did someone already mentioned that "Cyprian" is also a traditional  
epithet for Venus (Aphrodite)? Her island is Cyprus, it's where she  
landed after her creation from the semen of Ouranos that was thrown  
into the sea (with testicles and all) after he was castrated by his  
son Kronos.
One of the first text to mention it must be Hesiod's Theogony, v.  
176-206 (and the text gives the goddess another surname, Cytherea,  
because she went to Cythere before Cyprus).
And look there at the first lines of an homeric hymn to Aphrodite:
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext% 
3A1999.01.0138%3Ahymn%3D5
and there for general information on the goddess!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphrodite
Could Cyprian be a devotee of Venus?
Enjoy! (and thanks to Bob, Kevin and John for the links about the  
Klaxons, never heard of them before! sounds good)
Clément

Le 26 sept. 07 à 02:30, John BAILEY a écrit :

> Cyprian finds romantic – and erotic – pleasure in gazes which  
> refuse to return his own interest. Obviously schooled in classical  
> art and the averted, cold gaze of antique statues and paintings,  
> this makes a certain amount of sense. One of Pavlov’s (or  
> Pointsman’s) dogs, learning to love the object regardless of its  
> emotional return.
>
> Worth visiting Sacher-Masoch’s Venus in Furs, here, though, and  
> Deleuze’s intro as well (the equal of its subject). Masochism is a  
> key to Cyprian’s metamorphosis, as he moves through various states  
> of submission not to find a final, triumphant will to power but to  
> find the right power to submit to. In these early stages of his  
> narrative he’s clearly conflicted, aroused by Yashmeen’s voice  
> alone but “left with an inelastic embarrassment” which prevents him  
> from following the object of his desire.
>
> He conjugates Greek "in obscure gnomic tenses" to mentally distract  
> himself, but it doesn't work. A gnomic tense is one used to state  
> an apparently universal truth, I think - in Greek, usually worded  
> in a present or future tense form. He's looking for universal  
> platitudes to calm himself, but obviously his situation is far from  
> a universal one.
>
> There's also hints of the spiritual coming in here - important in  
> this chapter - when Yashmeen warns Cyps that he "burns incense at  
> the wrong altar." His devotional, perhaps even sacrificial  
> offerings won't be rewarded, in other words. Knowing as she says  
> this that, paradoxically, the voice that utters these words is  
> offering excitement (a reward?) at the same time.
>
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