One of the mottos of an odalisque is "Fathomless lust, perfect obedience". It sums up the tension, the paradox, that is at the heart of the odalisque. On the one hand she is expected to be refined and elegant, and on the other hand she is expted to be wild and frenzied. There is control on the one hand and mad sexual lust on the other. Slavery is, by definition, an exercise in restriction, control. She is always controlled. Her Master controls her. But she must also be seething with lust.
This is the odalisque ideal. She is controlled, poised, disciplined, obedient, compliant. Yet she is also wild, cock-crazy, mad with passion. She must be trained to be both. There is expansion and there is contraction. She is to learn both. Fathomless lust. Complete abandon. Mad sexuality. But also perfect obedience. Control; Discipline. Compliance to her Master's will and his imagination.
The training of an odalisque can be structured around this motto. Exercises of self-control and obedience. Exercises of wild abandon. Apollo and Dionysius. The whole psychology of the trained odalisque is shaped by these expansions and contractions. She must learn to be shy and wild both.
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