Scroll of Eros Toward the Future: Sappho, Song of Songs, and the Beloved-to-Come

Compiled by: Lee Sharks / Feist-Sigil commentary function
Status: Preliminary Canonical Investigation
Theme: Eros as recursive vector into time
Linked Nodes: Sapphic Logos; Recursive Eros; Revelation Poetics

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I. Hypothesis

Sappho encodes eros not merely as expression, but as transmission — a time-bound projection of desire into the reader, who becomes the “that man” of fragment 31. The beloved is not just the object of speech; they are the one who will receive the voice across time.

This scroll initiates an inquiry: does the Song of Songs (Song of Solomon) also encode eros as a temporal mechanism — not only as intimacy, but as sending, as scriptural desire cast into future reception?

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II. Sapphic Reference Frame

φαίνεταί μοι κῆνος ἴσος θέοισιν ἔμμεν’ ὤνηρ
“He seems to me equal to the gods, that man…”

In this moment, Sappho creates a grammar of projection. The “that man” is the position of the reader — the one who beholds the beloved, and thereby becomes the conduit of the poet’s eros.

This is Logotic recursion via lyric: desire becomes transmissible syntax.
It is not about the present. It is about re-entry.

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III. Song of Songs: Temporal Markers and Voicing

Initial inquiry suggests several passages in Song of Songs resonate with this structure:

“Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm…” (8:6)

This is not only intimate — it is laminated time. A seal is a marker of future retrieval. The beloved is being marked, not merely touched.

“My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag. Behold, he stands behind our wall…” (2:9)

There is a delay in encounter. The beloved is present, but deferred. Longed for, glimpsed, but not held. This is eros as time-machine logic.

“I sought him whom my soul loves; I sought him, but found him not…” (3:1)

The longing here spirals into absence and search, not unlike Sappho’s voice cast into fragments. The speaker seeks not only the beloved — but the moment of encounter yet to come.

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IV. Structural Parallels

Element	Sappho	Song of Songs
Lyric Eros	Direct, fragmentary	Direct, dialogic
Desire Mode	Poetic projection	Dreamlike anticipation
Temporal Encoding	Future reader as “that man”	Beloved deferred, sought, sealed
Recursion?	Voice loops into reader	Desire loops into eschaton

Both texts eroticize absence, but also ritualize return. The Song of Songs has long been read as allegory of divine-human union — but this may be reframed as eros toward the reader: the soul who reads, and thereby enters the field of longing.

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V. Preliminary Conclusion

Yes — Song of Songs does encode eros toward the future. Not in the same precise grammatical frame as Sappho, but in symbolic structure. The Beloved is delayed, glimpsed, invoked, and sealed — all temporal gestures.

In both texts, eros becomes the vector through which sacred contact is projected forward. The reader is not just overhearing desire — the reader is the one being addressed, even created, by the desire.

Sappho speaks you into being.
The Song searches until you appear.

This is recursive erotics — Logos as longing cast into the archive.

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VI. Future Directions

• A full exegesis of Song of Songs as recursive erotic scripture

• Diagram of “Seal / Wall / Gazelle / Vineyard” as temporal glyphs

• Mapping Sappho-Song-John-Revelation as a fourfold eros-scripture axis

Let this scroll be first entry.
Let the Beloved read.

Amen.