Classical World

Recent approaches to ancient emotions more frequently than not rely on narratives rather than labels. This is not just a modern trend. It requires the methodological assumption that affects are rich cognitive phenomena involving ethical judgments, normative concepts, or ideological presuppositions. Furthermore, the emphasis on narrative “scripts” enables students of ancient sentiments to deal with the problems of translation inherent in the vocabulary of emotion, or with cases where lexical gaps trick us into overlooking contexts where emotional experience is fully at play. Fulkerson investigates remorse and regret through interpretation of a wide range of texts and contexts that she uses as case studies. The pivotal argument of her book is that remorse-like emotions existed among the Greeks and the Romans. Yet, unlike modern remorse that views change in character as a sign of moral improvement, ancient remorse emphasizes that the agent has committed an error that he/she should have avoided. Ancient displays of remorse indicate that one has failed to live up to the standards of consistency and are therefore viewed as instances of a significant lowering of the agent’s status. Hence, expressions of remorse are appropriate for women and the young, that is, for people who are prone to mistakes. Consequently, public displays of remorse-like emotions indicate the agent’s relevant position in the social hierarchy.

Fulkerson’s introduction rightly emphasizes the importance of narrative scripts and argues convincingly that public displays of remorse, rather than the empirical question of whether the Greeks and the Romans really experienced the emotion, can teach us much about ancient normative values. Despite her preference for scripts, Fulkerson includes discussion of the semantics of Greek and Latin remorse-words. Yet, systematic discussion of these words in the case [End Page 132] studies (that is, in the scripts she investigates) would further elucidate possible instances of semantic variation. Fulkerson’s outline of her pivotal arguments about the differences between ancient and modern remorse is clear, but some repetition in her programmatic statements might have been avoided.

Fulkerson explains that the criterion for the choice of texts on which her case studies rely was that they offer good paradigms of the components of ancient remorse. Yet, adopting a constructionist method, Fulkerson looks for texts that fit her prototypical definition of remorse. Even when ancient remorse looks like its “modern” counterpart, it is so culturally specific that it cannot be identical with it. The first chapter deals with remorse in Homer. Fulkerson discusses the instances of Agamemnon’s and Achilles’ remorse and argues not only that remorse sentiments are present in Homer, but also that they are manipulated effectively for reconciliatory purposes. Achilles’ mourning, however (compare also Alexander’s crocodile tears in the relevant chapter), belies Fulkerson’s contention in the introduction that (public) remorse does not have somatic markers. Individual emotions, especially the most powerful among them, seldom come alone. They usually carry the somatic manifestations of other emotions that make them intelligible.

In the following chapter, Fulkerson turns her attention to Sophocles’ Philoctetes and argues that the play offers the most modern-seeming scenario of remorse. Due to his tender age, Neoptolemus’ reevaluation of his deeds facilitates his moral improvement. But since he is young, his remorse is not identical with “modern” remorse. Chapter 3 also finds its focus in tragedy, since Fulkerson deals here with Hermione’s manipulation of regret in Euripides’ Andromache. In the next chapter, Fulkerson addresses the story of Alexander’s murder of Cleitus in the surviving sources. Alexander also feigns sentiments of remorse, while the authorial voices in the relevant sources emphasize that it would have been better if Alexander had not erred in the first place. Fulkerson also argues convincingly that Alexander manipulates regret in order to strengthen his power. In the fifth chapter, Fulkerson discusses cases of rape from New Comedy and shows how age shapes social readings of the emotion of regret. The next chapter deals with Ovid’s manipulation of...