Walter Pater, Neology, and the Aesthetics of Ascêsis

The OED credits Walter Pater for the first use of “ascesis.” In transliterating from the Greek, and rejecting available etymologically related nouns including “asceticism,” Pater makes “ ascêsis ” crucial to his attempts to defend aestheticism against his critics. For Pater, the original Greek idea had been obfuscated in favor of a specific set of Christian connotations. The essay historicizes Pater’s neologism within contemporary literary contexts and the wider intellectual situation of late nineteenth-century culture. It argues Pater’s use of “ ascêsis ” was part of a wider reclamation of ancient Greek culture in the service of a queer counter-discourse. The essay concludes by addressing some later uses of the word by figures including John Addington Symonds and Havelock Ellis.