Amore e bellezza in Origene. Una ricerca sui lessici erotico ed estetico nella traduzione latina del "Commento al Cantico dei Cantici"

The main aim of this paper is to compare the Greek fragments of Origen's "Commentary on the Song of Songs", which were transmitted by Procopius of Gaza, with the Latin translation by Rufinus, whose we have only the prologue and the first four books, and particularly to explain why in Ggreek fragments "love" is denoted by two main words, "agape" and "eros", and in Latin translation it is denoted by four main words, "caritas" and "dilectio", on the one hand, and "cupido" and "amor", on the other hand. By a systematic comparison between Greek texts where the terms "agape" and "eros" occur and the corresponding Latin texts it results that: 1. in his original Greek text Origen may have referred to "love" only the terms "agape" and "eros", and the couples "caritas-dilectio" and "cupido-amor" may have been introduced by Rufinus, so Latin translation seems to have complicated the original Greek text; 2. since the term "agape" is sometimes translated in Latin with "amor", and in Greek fragments the term "eros" has generally a spiritual meaning, then the Latin term "amor" may translate sometimes not only the Greek "eros", but also "agape".