When the February 14th is near, we can already perceive that Valentine’s Day is approaching. Many images refer us to this date: hearts, flowers, angels and chocolates. But, how was love represented in ancient times? What importance was given to love symbols? Here we will make a brief review of the vision of love, according to the different mythologies belonging to civilizations and peoples of the history of humanity.
The love It has been present in the world for as long as it exists. Adam and Eve, if we conceive of them as the first man and the first woman, already loved each other in such a way that it is clear that It has been the engine of life in many aspects.
Regardless of the vision of romantic love that we all have when Valentine arrives, There are several ways to interpret it and of course, represent it, based on the different mythologies.
Therefore, throughout the following article we will make a review of what some of the most important civilizations that have populated the Earth considered love, as well as some of its most representative figures and deities in relation to love, beauty or falling in love. Shall we start? So let’s go there.
love in egyptian mythology
One of the first representations we have of love in mythology is that of Hathor, which belongs to Egyptian mythology.
In many ornamental elements, as well as in manuscripts or drawings from this period, we find representations of this Egyptian goddess.
Hathor Egyptian goddess of love
A) Yes, Hathor was the name of the egyptian goddess of love, joy and song. Wife Horus (initiator of the Egyptian civilization), she is also considered the patron saint of music and the drunk.
It represents drunkenness, love, fertility and pleasure. This is because formerly Hathor he was a bloodthirsty beast without control.
The god Ra (god of the sun) felt a deep desire to have her with him, so he sent messengers to the lands of Nubian to convince her that moved to Egypt, country of joy and good drinking. This convinced she moved there, losing her wildness and becoming pure jubilation and laughter.
Hathor It was represented by a woman with long cow horns that hold a large sphere symbolizing the sun.
The Goddess was considered as the eye of Ra, as well as his daughter, and also as the wife of the god Horus, another of the most important in Egyptian mythology. Hathor is generally depicted as a kind of cow holding a sun disk.
love in greek mythology
We continue with Greek mythology, one of the richest and which was later adopted (under other names) by the Roman Empire.
Greek mythology tells us that at that time there were three sexes: it male was represented by sunit feminine by Earthand what interceded between the two of them was the Moon.
Zeus and the legend of love in Greek mythology
together they were arrogant and strong, and paid no attention to the criticism of the gods. Then Zeus (king of the Olympian gods) found himself under a great dilemma: he could not make them disappearsince in this way there would be no more men to perform sacrifices, but he could not allow them to make fun of the highest gods either.
That was how he decided to make men one more being weak: split in two each being of the human species, becoming one more race fragile and at the same time more useful, since by multiplying these, the sacrifices would also be multiplied.
The man was then cut in two. But it happened that each part yearned for the other, so that they felt the great need to have to be togetherso that the two parts of each person tended to embrace each other, wishing to be one single being again.
The god that represents love is embodied in Erosthis being responsible for the attraction sexualthe fertilitythe love and the sex.
love in roman mythology
in mythology roman we are presented with the figure of Cupidgod of love and his Latin name is the desire. Son of the goddess of Love (Venus) and the god of war (Mars), Cupid is responsible for generating a harmonious balance between the love and tragedy.
cupid figure
Cupid is represented by a winged childsending us the image of a Angel equipped with a bow and arrow. He is often found with blindfoldedrepresenting blind love and love away from reason.
His mother, VenusShe was the goddess of love and fertility. She was extremely revered by the Romans, dedicating numerous temples to her that are still standing today.
love in hindu mythology
Of course, Hindu mythology, despite being less known to most Westerners, also has its representative deity of love, how could it be otherwise.
Kamadeva the god of love in Hindu mythology
The god which represented the love, the sex and lust is named Kamadeva. Your name Kama means sexual desire, or lust, while deva it means god.
It is said that the well-known book Kama Sutra It was inspired by this Hindu god who is usually always represented as a slender, winged man of great beauty and distinction.
This God is also usually represented with a sugar cane bow and arrows (decorated with five types of flowers), capable of making even the coldest of hearts fall in love but they can also be the cause of Kamadeva’s own death.
The legend of Kamadeva
According to the legend of Kamadeva, who once wanted to help the maiden Parvati so I could get the love of the Lord Shiva.
Therefore, the God did not hesitate to use his arrows of flowers, in order to awaken the love of Shiva, even though he was deep in meditation.
Upon awakening from his meditation, Shiva was furious so that He opened his third eye of fire and reduced Kamadeva to ashes.
Despite killing the deity, the arrow shot towards Shiva made him fall in love with Parvati, but she then realized that without Kamadeva the world would become frigid, without desire or love.
If the sexual desire disappeared, the possibilities of regeneration of the cosmos were nil, so that Parvati spoke to Shiva about the disgrace of having killed Kamadeva.
That is why Mr. Shiva finally decided to resurrect the godso that the world could reproduce again without problems.
However, the resurrection was not corporeal, so Kamadeva would only be resurrected in spirit and would remain as a mental image for eternity.
love in celtic mythology
Finally, within the conception of love that ancient civilizations and cultures had, we find the celtic mythologyand tells us that the Love’s God it was called Angus Og.
The god of love for the Celts
Originally Irishthis god was also called mac oc (meaning young son) and had the power to fall in love with couples with his song.
This was represented with four birds on his head, a symbol of his kisses. Mythology tells that the god fell in love with a maiden in dreams, and did not stop until he found her in life.
The God didn’t even know her name, but he decided to look for her without much luck, until at one point he ended up falling ill and he couldn’t look any further.
With this tragic mother of Angus Og the goddess Boyne, questioned him. The god told her mother what was happening to her and it was she who decided to order a search for the maiden throughout Ireland.
For a whole year the maiden was searched with no resultsso the god got worse and his mother decided to ask the other gods for help.
Three years of relentless searching finally resulted in what The mysterious woman was found, who lived in a lake, her name was Caer and she was the daughter of King Ethal.
When Angus goes looking for her, but finds her with 150 other maidens and when he calls her name she turned into a swan due to a spell.
He followed her into the lake and together they sang beautiful harmonies. It is said that everyone who heard these lovers sing slept for three days and three nights.
Video about love in Greek mythology
Below we leave you with a series of videos with which you can learn more about love in the mythology of the Greek and Roman civilizations, and with some articles of interest that can serve to complement the information in the article.
Within the mythology of each people and each civilization in particular, there are various stories and legends that help to know a little better what was the vision of love of that civilization, precisely through its myths and legends.
For example, if we talk about Greek mythology, one of the best known fables is that of Eco and Narcissus, although in this case, More than a love story, it is more of a heartbreak story.
Video about Aphrodite – goddess of love
Many of you will already know that Aphrodite was the goddess of beauty, love and desire in Ancient Greece.
In the following documentary you can learn much more about this goddess, whose intervention, for example, led to the kidnapping of Helen by Paris.
This kidnapping would trigger the Trojan War and the events narrated by Homer in The Iliad.
Video of Hathor, Egyptian goddess of love
To finish, in the following video you can see a series of images and engravings corresponding to Hathor, the Egyptian goddess of love, beauty and music.
Links of interest
In Overhistory we have many other articles that might interest you if you are a lover of history and ancient mythology:
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