Eros gocciante (Euripide, Ippolito 525-526)

Dripping Eros (Eur. Hipp. 525 f.) The Prädikation Ερως, ὃ κατ 'ὀμμάτων στάζεις πόθον (Eur Hipp. 525) lends itself to different interpretations: 1. "Eros, you who drip desire down into the eyes" (Halleran and most critics); 2. "Eros, thou that distillest longing upon the eyes" (Barrett); 2. "Love dropping desire down from his eyes" (Paley). Paley's interpretation, hitherto neglected, is best suited to the hymnodic context and above all to the development of the Chorus's thought in the first strophic couple. The image of desire that drips down from one's own eyes is attested for various deities connected with the erotic sphere, from the Charites in Hesiod to Gamos in Menander Rhetor. It also concerns the modes of representation of deities (e.g. Apollo in Callimachus or the Erinyes in Aeschylus) that by dripping fluids from eyes or other parts of their body transmit positive or negative effects to the human beings with whom they come into contact.