?

oikeios

I already made this point in my "Short Talk on Vulcans", but my dad and I were watching Star Trek III: The Search for Spock last night and some of the things Kirk says are just incredibly evocative of Anne Carson's readings of Greek literature of desire in Eros the Bittersweet:[1]

οἰκεῖος, α, ον, also ος, ον E. Heracl. 634; Ion. οἰκήϊος, η, ον:

      • II of persons, of the same household, family, or kin, related, ὥς οἱ ἐόντες οἰκήϊοι as being akin to him, Hdt. 4.65; οἰκεῖον οὕτως οὐδὲν . . ὡς ἀνήρ τε καὶ γυνή so closely akin, Men. 647; ἀνὴρ οἰ. kinsman, relative, near friend, Hdt. 1.108; οἱ οἰ. kinsmen, opp. οἱ ἀλλότριοι, And. 4.15, cf. Th. 2.51; opp. ὀθνεῖοι, Pl. Prt. 316c; οἱ ἑωυτοῦ οἰκηϊότατοι his own nearest kinsmen, Hdt. 3.65, cf. 5.5, D. 18.288; of the tie itself, κατὰ τὸ οἰ. Ἀτρεῖ because of his relationship to Atreus, Th. 1.9.
      • III of things. belonging to oneʼs house or family, oneʼs own (defined as ὅταν ἐφʼ αὑτῷ ᾖ ἀπαλλοτριῶσαι Arist. Rh. 1361a21), οἰ. ἄρουραι Pi. O. 12.19; σταθμοῖς ἐν οἰκείοισι A. Pr. 398; γῆ, χθών, S. Aj. 859, Ant. 1203; οἰκεῖον, ἢ ʼξ ἄλλου τινός; born in the house, or . . ? Id. OT 1162; αἱ οἰ. πόλεις their own cities, X. HG 3.5.2; ἡ οἰ. (sc. γῆ), Ion. ἡ οἰκηΐη Hdt. 1.64; [ἀναθήματα] οἰκήϊα his own property, ib. 92; πόλεμοι οἰ. wars in oneʼs own country, of the Helot war in Laconia, Th. 1.118, cf. 4.64; σῖτος οἰ. καὶ οὐκ ἐπακτός homegrown, Id. 6.20.
        • 2 = ἴδιος, oneʼs own, personal, private, οἰκείων κερδέων εἵνεκα Thgn. 46; ἐὼν ἐν κακῷ οἰκηΐῳ Hdt. 1.45, cf. 153, Antipho 1.13; αἱ χεῖρες -ότεραι τοῦ σιδήρου Id. 4.3.3; μηδὲν -οτέρᾳ τῇ ἀπολαύσει with enjoyment not more our own, Th. 2.38, cf. 7.70; ἀλλοτρίας γῆς πέρι οἰ. κίνδυνον ἔχειν Id. 3.13; οἰ. ξύνεσις mother wit, Id. 1.138; πρὸς οἰκείας χερός by his own hand, S. Ant. 1176, etc.; for A. Ag. 1220, v. βορά.

32

Eros the Bittersweet

Reaching for an object that proves to be outside and beyond himself, the lover is provoked to notice that self and its limits. From a new vantage point, which we might call self-consciousness, he looks back and sees a hole. Where does that hole come from? It comes from the lover’s classificatory process. Desire for an object that he never knew he lacked is defined, by a shift of distance, as desire for a necessary part of himself. Not a new acquisition but something that was always, properly, his. Two lacks become one.

KIRK

The death of Spock is like an open wound. It seems that I have left the noblest part of myself back there on that newborn planet.

40

Eros the Bittersweet

The physiology that they posit for the erotic experience is one which assumes eros to be hostile in intention and detrimental in effect...giving a cumulative impression of intense concern for the integrity and control of one’s own body.

KIRK

But even if there's a chance that Spock has an eternal soul, then it's my responsibility.

MORROW

Yours?

KIRK

As surely as if it were my very own.

34

Eros the Bittersweet

It is profoundly unjust of Sokrates to slip from one meaning of oikeios to another, as if it were the same thing to recognize in someone else a kindred soul and to claim that soul as your own possession, as if it were perfectly acceptable in love to blur the distinction between yourself and the one you love. All the lover’s reasoning and hopes of happiness are built upon this injustice, this claim, this blurred distinction.

Works cited

  • Carson, Anne. Eros the Bittersweet: An Essay. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1986.
  • Logeion. "Οἰκεῖος". Accessed August 16, 2024.[2]
  1. For the record, it is not only on the internet that I quote this book incessantly. When I cited it in a presentation I gave for a class, it was so predictable a move that my classmates started laughing.^
  2. Note that the entry that appears here is abridged from the original LSJ entry which can be found on Logeion.^