Cognición encarnada y placer en la antigua ira cómica

This paper explores the application of a model of embodied cognition as a lens to understand anger in Aristophanes’ Lysistrata. It argues that the representation of anger in the comedy follows a pattern found across genres in Greek literature in which the emotion is associated with pleasure. This sensory element is found ranging from a more articulated fashion in Aristotle to a variety of metaphors that link anger to erotism in other authors. The theory of conceptual metaphors, whose main claim is that our conceptual apparatus brings forth its own world of significance which depends upon having a body embedded in a biological, psychological and cultural context, provides an important tool to understand emotions in a text. The idea that our language carries information about the way in which we conceptualise things sheds light on the relationship between eros and anger in Lysistrata.