It can be said that love has been a formidable force that has been tested through the ages. Let us travel through the ages and discover how love has transformed into what we call the act or emotion today.
Ancient cultures revered love as a divine force. It was a force orchestrated by the gods themselves. Stories could be seen to weave with threads of fate or predestined. Often seen is the antagonist of the story challenge the divine will of the gods for the love of a woman he believes is his. The struggle to keep that love rather than allow the gods to have their way.
Greek Mythology allows us to understand the tapestry of what was perceived in that time and place. Eros is the god of love, passion, sex, and fertility. In the original works of Theogony of Hesiod (fl. 700 BCE), he was the god of Chaos. Later works made him the son of Aphrodite, the goddess of sexual love and beauty. In Alexandrian poetry, Eros is depicted as youthful with wings till later in the Hellenistic period, we see him as an infant with wings, the Roman depiction of Cupid.
Stories are seen throughout ancient times. Orpheus and Eurydice are one such love story. It is a tale of love and loss, but isn’t that how we see most romance stories today. Fighting for the love that is lost, and in the end, there is a second chance. Modern stories often draw inspiration and reflect experiences that illustrated contemporary stories in our books and movies. Orpheus had a deep love for his wife Eurydice, so much so that he goes to the underworld to seek out and reclaim his wife. The story illustrates the power of such love even when there is the loss of a spouse.
The Romans celebrated love with an ancient pagan festival like Lupercalia, which was held between February 13th and February 15th. It was unlike the holiday we observe today known as Valentine’s Day. The Ancient Romans observed the annual festival to promote health and fertility, but it was a bloody, sexually charged celebration with animal sacrifices and matchmaking where they would come together and hopefully fall in love by the next year’s festival.
From Norse Mythology, where honor and loyalty play a role in love and romance, to Ancient Egypt, where their goddess Hathor and Isis were humanized, depicting what motherhood, love, and joy looked like within the confines of the relationship.
Regardless of what gods or goddesses the ancients believed. One thing is certain. The passion and sacrifice for love that is shown remains relevant today. We can learn many lessons from the stories of old. Relationships are complex, and bonds are strong when love is at play.
In the Middle Ages, we find Poets like Dante Alighieri, and Petrarch wrote about love and romance and how it was an inspiration.
Writers during the time of the Renaissance wrote about love, something above the normal everyday life. Love was very much a different part of life than marriage. Marriage was a responsibility, and often, love played very little in the role of a wife in the agreement. Society looked at marriage as a practical matter that was expected to occur. Love was an ideal, something one strived to have––A romantic notion. Shakespeare presented love as a form of courtly devotion one to another. He illustrated in his plays and sonnets compassion, unrequited love and a triumph against all odds.
Although today, we don’t celebrate rituals or sacrifice to the gods to bring love to us. It is still a complicated facet in relationships. We still have to fight for the love and passion that was discovered when the two first encountered one another. Life was simpler than today. Today’s modern relationships are even different than a half-century ago, and trying to find the perfect balance so a relationship can thrive is overwhelming.
Traditions like a man opening a door or paying for dinner are quickly being tossed to the wayside for the sake of feminism. Women want independence and do not want to depend on a man for anything, but what women fail to realize is that is what men were created to do. They are hunters, and it feeds their egos when they know they are taking care of the ones they love. Regardless of age, men are still the same at the core.
Today’s relationships are found through love and passion but it takes work to keep it. Unlike ages of old where love was something that was untouchable––rarely reached––if only the gods or goddesses bestowed it to you then you were lucky. Marriages came first, and if love followed, that was an added bonus. Today, love is what drives the two down the aisle, but we live in a society where work is hard, and it is easier to start over at the beginning than to tread through the muck to cross to the other side and rediscover passion and growth with one another.
If couples today look at one another as one unit instead of partners, love, and marriage would last a lifetime. It’s easier to move when you’re in sync instead of tied at the feet, hoping to move in the same direction. Oftentimes, we want to go our own way and end up bumping into each other, causing chaos and contention. Being married for thirty-three years this January, I have discovered that being in sync, there is fulfillment, and the love and passion the ancients wrote about in their sonnets and stories are seen and lived in real life.
This was written by our contributing writer, Shannon Hrimnak.
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