ABSTRACT
Words are soundful, and sounds are meaningful. Starting from this acknowledgment, this chapter investigates some of the aesthetic questions brought up by the sensual (sonorous) appeal of language. Grounding my discussion in readings of three mythological scenes, I argue for an erotics of listening and discuss puns, word games, and sound effects in Greek and Latin literature. I focus on language as auditory event and examine three dimensions along which language can be appreciated by an audience: what I call language’s resistance, opacity and immediacy. This model for the “erogenous ear” better captures the complex dynamics involved in listening to linguistic sounds than one focusing on an in-built tension between sound and sense in language.
