ABSTRACT
Agamemnon uses, for the first time in epic poetry, a metaphor about the city that eventually becomes one of the most frequent metaphors in ancient Greek and European literature. This chapter presents the origin and development of this particular metaphor in a series of writers, starting with Aeschylus in the fifth-century BC and concluding with the second-century AD orator Aelius Aristides. At the same time, it chronicles the 'moral' and ideological fluctuations of this 'erotic' relationship between the city and its citizens, that as one can guess are affected by the political conditions and perceptions current at the time. The description of that erotic passion includes not only scenes of erotic rivalry, but also feelings and situations that refer to the relationship between a lover and a loved one, where strong sexual innuendos are present. Finally, since the city-state institution gradually dissolved over time, the city's image as it appears in Aristides has the features of an ideal loved one.
