Tracing Medulla as a Locus Eroticus

Abstract

The subject of passionate love can mire even the most creative author in cliches. When we read the corpus of Greek and Latin love poems that span half a dozen centuries, from Sappho to Ovid, we quickly become accustomed to the conventional topoi, the “moon-in-June” scenarios of desire and frustration that survive to this day in popular song. This is not to say that love poets never invent anything new. Indeed, the best of them, working within the genre’s boundaries, develop striking variations on familiar themes. But it is rare to find a really fresh image in the age-old discourse of love. Sappho and the creative team employed by Hallmark Cards seem to share a (very long-lived) Muse. Love is often described in terms that are also applicable to other experiences, such as madness, war, or physical illness. The physiology of eros shares some of its terms with biology or medical science: passion can affect the mind, nerves, pulse, or tongue. In this paper, I will discuss one such “biological” erotic image: “marrow,” afi≈n or muelOw in Greek, medulla in Latin. The marrow, physically remote and insensate, deep within the bone or cerebro-spinal cavity, is not as accessible an image to the modern reader as, for example, a fluttering heart, another topos widely used by ancient authors. Why did poets choose to portray the marrow as a