Chapter 1 - Augsburg Fortress

26 | Eros and the Christ
“To his most honoured and truly longed-for lord brother (ἀληθῶς
π[οθ]εινοτάτωι ἀδελφῶι) Psais, Pamouris sends greetings in God. . . .” 91
The superlative form of ποθεινός did yeoman’s work from the fourth century
on. Even to be called “thrice longed for” was not unusual. 92 Synesius wrote
to Asclepiodotus, “The evil spirit whose business it is to hurt me arranged
beforehand also that you, always so dear to me, should not be present. Oh best,
thrice dear (τριπόθητε) and most loyal of friends, may you yet come!” 93 Finally,
Augustine plays with the motif of tripled longing calling Christinus “much
desired brother” three times in one short letter. 94
The final epistolary motif, which both affirms and challenges epistolary
presence, is that of holding the absent one in memory or in the heart. 95
Remembrance, it should be stressed, is by no means a simple comfort, although
letters often speak as if this were the case. Memory and longing are in reality
a single desire differentiated only with respect to past and future; this means
that the ache of longing and grief of remembering contradict the reports of joy
when the absent one is imagined to be present. Pain is hidden in the metaphors.
The imagery of remembering alludes to injury: inscribing the surface of the
soul, stamping or molding it, or the soul’s bearing of the absent other as if it
were a heavy load. 96
Having mentioned memory (μνεία) in Phil 1:3, Paul goes on to justify his
emotional connection to the community: “because I have you in my heart.”
Since this sentence might also been translated “because you have me in your
heart,” Paul’s meaning is ambiguous, perhaps intentionally so, and suggests a
relationship of mutual ecstasy and shared joy and grief. 97 Longing drove the
heart out to abide within the beloved; Cato was thought to have “declared
that the soul of the lover is ever present in that of the beloved.” 98 Conversely,
the absent one dwelt within the lover’s heart. 99 Ovid was perhaps the first to
employ this poetic motif in a letter. His unusual talking epistle mentioned above
addresses the recipient: “But thee—O, if thou believest me in anything, dearer
than all to him—thee he holds constantly in his whole heart (in toto pectore semper
habet).” 100 Yet, instead of pure consolation, the heart’s reception of the other
created pain as well as joy:
. . . my fatherland is far away, far my dearest wife, and all that after
these two was once sweet to me. Yet these things are so present that,
though I cannot touch them, all are visible to my mind. Before my
eyes flit my home, the city, the outline of places, the events too that
happened in each place. Before my eyes is the image of my wife as
though she were present. She makes my woes heavier, she makes