Valentine's Day

[Guest guest]

 

Valentine's Day: Festival of Love and Desire

It will soon be that time of year when our thoughts turn to sweethearts. Those we have now, or those we have

had in the past.Valentine's Day is one of our most popular holidays, inspiring a flurry of card and gift giving to those we

love. The origin of the concept of romantic love goes far back to ancient times long before the legend of St. Valentine.

Eros, Greek God of Love and DesireThe first idea of romantic love came from the god, Eros, in Greek mythology. One of the versions of the birth

of this very appealing god was presented by the Greek poet Hesiod, who tells us in his Theogony, that Eros was

one of the first gods born out of Chaos (the void), along with Gaia (the earth) and Tartarus (the underworld).

This puts his birth all the way back to the beginning of time. Theogony describes Eros in the following enthralling

terms: " …and Eros, the fairest of the deathless gods; he unstrings the limbs and subdues both mind and sensible

thought in the breasts of all gods and all men. " (Hesiod, Theogony, 120-2)

This is quite a good description of the state that engulfs us when we fall in love. From this passage we can assume

that he had power over not only man but also the gods.

The other significant depiction of the myth surrounding Eros' birth is that he was the son of Aphrodite and Ares.

Being the son of the goddess of love puts him in a less powerful role. The charming legend of Eros and Psyche,

from Metamorphoses by Apuleius, the Roman writer, is spawned from classical mythology.

The love story of Eros and PsycheThe story goes that a king had three daughters, the youngest being beautiful to the degree that she rivaled the

goddess Aphrodite. Her physical charms were so great that people began worshipping her instead of the goddess of

love. Aphrodite became enraged at this turn of events and in an attempt at revenge, conscripted her son Eros into

using his powers as the god of desire to force Psyche into falling in love with the most hideous, grotesque creature

imaginable. But when Eros cast his eyes upon Psyche, he himself fell hopelessly in love. In a cunning plan to satisfy

his own desires and deceive his mother, he transported her to an isolated place where stood a magnificent, magical

castle. This was to be Psyche's new home, and when night fell, Eros came to her bed and whispered under the cover

of darkness that he was her new husband. She was not, under any circumstances to seek knowledge his identity.

She lived quite happily until she requested that her sisters could come visit her to alleviate her isolation. When

they saw her beautiful surroundings, jealousy drove them to cause trouble by encouraging her to find out the identity

of her husband. That night when she went to bed she took a lamp that she could light when her husband had fallen

asleep. When the light fell upon the divine features of this beautiful god, Psyche was so startled and enthralled,

she let a drop of oil fall, which woke him. He realized that his identity was revealed and immediately departed.

Psyche's grief at the loss of her love was so great that she was inconsolable. She begged help from various goddesses,

even ultimately going to Aphrodite, begging to be reunited with Eros. This effort was to no avail. Ultimately Eros

longed for her as much as she for him so he went to the god Zeus for help. Zeus intervened with Aphrodite and brought

the lovers together.

Cupid and his arrows of desire

Eros' Roman name was Cupid, which means desire. In Roman mythology he is depicted as a capricious winged child

carrying a bow and a quiver of arrows. Due to the popularity of this depiction by poets and artists over the centuries,

this is how we see this darling little god today. He gads about ready to let his arrows fly, striking our hearts

with love and desire for appropriate and sometimes inappropriate people. Who of us has not felt the excitement

and exquisite pain that is produced when one of his arrows has pierced our heart?

St. Valentine, patron saint of lovers

While Cupid or the ancient god Eros gives us the inspiration, St. Valentine supplied the name of our current holiday.

There are a number of Valentine legends as to why his name is linked to lovers. One is that the Roman emperor Claudius

II thought that single men made better soldiers and therefore forbade them to marry. St. Valentine is said to have

secretly married many young lovers and therefore became their patron saint. Another story has Valentine, while

being imprisoned for his Christian faith, falling in love with his jailer's daughter and sending her a love letter

before his execution.

The roots of Valentine's Day most likely came from the ancient Roman festival of Lupercalia, which had been celebrated

for eight hundred years on February 15th. The day was dedicated to the god Lupercus and young men would take a

woman as a sexual companion for a year, by means of drawing her name in a lottery. Pope Gelasius changed this custom,

which was unacceptable to the Catholic Church. He decreed that the lottery be changed so that both young men and

women drew the names of saints to emulate for the coming year. Valentine instead of Lupercus became the patron

of this feast. Despite this change in custom, Roman men continued to seek the affections of women on this date

and sent notes of endearment to their sweethearts, including Valentine's name in their missives.

It would seem that the ancient god still lives, for today the spirit of love and desire resides as strongly as

ever in the hearts of those struck by Cupid's arrows, be they young or old.

[Guest guest]

Hi all--

A little late, but my husband and I just celebrated our 19th wedding Anniversary

on December 19, and the way we manage to hang in there is " Love keeps no record

of wrongs " and that is the biggest part of it. Actually that whole passage about

Love in Corinthians does the trick for us. Oh, one other thing is that we never

even SAY the word DIVORCE, and we never allow ourselves to consider that

possibility. We just know that we can work things out if we really put our

minds to it. Commitment is something we work at every day, and some days it

doesn't even take that much work. Our kids definitely help--they are 11 and 14,

25 and 31 and when we look at how wonderfully they are growing up and living

their lives, we want to be together to enjoy it more...

Vicki--

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> > > To Celebrate ♥ Valentines Day ♥  Make sure to tell how long

you & your spouse/significant other been together .

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> > > Going on 10 years together, and will be married for 4 years in July

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[Guest guest]

Married 41 years in July. Loving every minute. I am married to a terrific guy.