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gender and sexuality in ancient greece
sexuality and literature
sexuality in ancient greece and rome
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The concept of love and sex is hard to ascertain consciously. "Sex is a function of love. Love is a function of sex, and lust is only a function of sex." Many researchers think that love is nothing but a chemical drive within the brain, very similar to the drive for sex. If it were true, all these effusive feelings would be nothing more than a breeze up the leg. Greek and Roman mythology are based on themes that depict human nature which can be true or fictitious; myths, in a sense, are the "highest reality." Most stories of the myth have its root in love and sex. Love between two people can be said to happen due to erotic desire or because of actual love.
Although sex and love seems inextricably linked, our brain distinguishes between the two. Dr. Helen Fisher, anthropologist, believes that the initial purpose of reproduction influenced the evolution of love. According to her, love consists of three functions. Sex drive, the first function, is intended to keep sexes interested in each other for long enough. Romantic love is to love one person at a time. It is the root of the beginnings of family. The third is attachment or as we say "true love." True love ensures the happiness of the couples, gives their offspring the best chance for survival. The Greek and Roman mythology has stories that represent true love where sex isn’t important at all. The tale of Cupid and Psyche describes the overcoming of obstacles to their love, and their ultimate union.
Psyche was the most beautiful of the three daughters of an unnamed king. People admired her beauty that angered goddess Venus. The god of Love, Cupid, fell in love with her. Following the oracle from Apollo, Psyche met Cupid at night, in the dark and fel...
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.... Although it sounds weird, such cases do exist in today's world. Different dynamics of sex and love is a huge topic in our Art, Music, and Literature. In the entertainment business, it is often said that "sex sale." Sexually provocative tools are widely used to lure in a viewer, reader or listener although the brand being promoted has a tenuous link to those tools.
In conclusion, I can say that the constant arguments and conflicts over love without sex and sex without love will never have an end. The interpretation of love is not the same for everyone. As we have seen, sex and love is portrayed separately in the mythology. Stories that are based on love without the sexual content are intended to illustrate that "true love cannot be found where it doesn't exist, nor can it be denied where it does." Sex is part of nature, and without love sex is meaningless.
"PSYCHE : Greek Goddess of the Soul | Mythology, Psykhe, W/ Pictures." THEOI GREEK MYTHOLOGY, Exploring Mythology & the Greek Gods in Classical Literature & Art. Web. 8 Oct. 2011. .
The first chapter begins with an exploration of love and marriage in many ancient and current cultures. Surprisingly many cultures either avoid the discussion of love in marriage or spit on the idea completely. China and other societies believed that love was simply a product of marriage and shouldn’t get too out of hand, while a few Greek and Roman philosophers shunned excessive
Humans have many ambitions in life, yet most people’s ambitions fall into one spectrum. This spectrum? Love. People often express their desire for love, yet don’t realize that love is carried with them throughout their lives. In today’s society, ‘love’ is a commonly used term to describe a relationship based on affection for another person. However, love has many levels of complexities. Ancient greeks recognized the various forms love can take. Some of which include eros, storge, and philia. William Shakespeare, in his classic drama “Romeo and Juliet,” and other authors use eros, storge, and philia to explore the complexities of love and its effects.
Love is often misconstrued as an overwhelming force that characters have very little control over, but only because it is often mistaken for the sum of infatuation and greed. Love and greed tread a blurred line, with grey areas such as lust. In simplest terms, love is selfless and greed is selfish. From the agglomeration of mythological tales, people deduce that love overpowers characters, even that it drives them mad. However, they would be wrong as they would not have analyzed the instances in depth to discern whether or not the said instance revolves around true love. Alone, true love help characters to act with sound reasoning and logic, as shown by the tales of Zeus with his lovers Io and Europa in Edith Hamilton’s Mythology.
We live in a society full of commercialism. With marketing companies competing with one another to sell their products, they must produce the most appealing advertisements to attract the consumer. Adults and children are exposed to many advertisements on a daily basis, from television to magazines to billboards. These all use many rhetorical strategies and ideologies to gain the audience’s attention. In advertisements there are hidden tactics to promote their products and appeal to the consumer. One very popular technique used by these companies is sex. Sexual appeal is a huge marketing tactic in our society and many advertisements definitely promote “sex sells” in their advertisements. For instance, Carl’s Jr. commercials and advertisements
...efining who we are, it is impossible to isolate ourselves while making a moral decision, as the market forces are now a part of what we are. And thus the gift value of a good can be realized in commercial terms. We may value money less than or equal to the lower “use” value of a good hence it thinking about the two values of a personal good becomes contradictory and should be viewed differently. In my opinion sex and love are closely related but not one and the same. They do share some values such as mutual attraction, trust, pleasure, enjoyment, but sex is individually realized as even people in love may not have sex and still continue being in love and people who are in love might have sex with their loved one just to satisfy their own needs while the partner would agree to sex even though he or she might not enjoy it as much, but out of love, would do it anyway.
What is love? The age-old question arises once more. In truth, a universal definition has not been agreed upon, but generally one can define love as “an indication of adoration” or an “an ineffable feeling of intense attraction shared in interpersonal and sexual relationships.” Love can be directed towards kin, a lover, oneself, nature, or humanity- but regardless that love in an emotional sense is eternal. Some fall into love, and some claim they fall out. Love should be endless, lasting, and pure, but half of the time that love ends up being a sham. There is solid record of this false love- love that is meant to look pure- in the famous writings The Lottery and To His Coy Mistress.
Love and affection is an indispensable part of human life. In different culture love may appear differently. In the poem “My god my lotus” lovers responded to each other differently than in the poem “Fishhawk”. Likewise, the presentation of female sexuality, gender disparity and presentation of love were shown inversely in these two poems. Some may argue that love in the past was not as same as love in present. However, we can still find some lovers who are staying with their partners just to maintain the relationship. We may also find some lovers having relationship only because of self-interest. However, a love relationship should always be out of self-interest and must be based on mutual interest. A love usually obtains its perfectness when it develops from both partners equally and with same affection.
In the Aeneid, love is depicted as an uncontrollable emotion. Venus and Juno promote the romance between Dido and Aeneas. Dido, the queen of Carthage, begins to fall in love with Aeneas, even though she has vowed to her late husband that she would set her “face against marriage” (Virgil 975). Aeneas falls in love with Dido and remains with her in Carthage, even though he knows that he must continue his travel to Rome. Love is a passion which consumes the soul in spite of its will. It is an “inward fire” (Virgil 976). Juno arranges it so that Dido and Aeneas consummate their love in a cave during a storm. Again, mortals have little or no control over their loves. The gods are the ones who cause people to fall in love.
I have always thought that there was only one type of love, which was that feeling of overwhelming liking to someone else. I am aware that Lust does exist and that it is separate from Love, being that the desire for someone's body rather their mind. In Plato's Symposium, Plato speaks of many different types of love, loves that can be taken as lust as well. He writes about seven different points of view on love coming from the speakers that attend the symposium in honor of Agathon. Although all these men bring up excellent points on their definitions on love, it is a woman that makes the best definition be known. I will concentrate on the difference between the theory of Common and Heavenly love brought up by Pausanias and the important role that Diotima plays in the symposium.
with some very different views of love as brought to us by Agathon, Phaedrus and
Some people get the word love mixed up with lust. People do this because they tend to forget that when in love, sex is never a necessity but an accessory to the feeling. Lust and love have so many differences it is considered ridiculous. Some people say that they love someone just to get the physical action that is so commonly wanted but never really needed. Lust is something that is completely physical, while love is the complete opposite. Love is a feeling so euphoric that everything, but at the same time nothing m...
Some people believe that there is no such thing as “true love” they believe that love is nothing but an illusion designed by social expectations. These people believe that love ultimately turns into pain and despair. This idea in some ways is true. Love is not eternal it will come to an end one way or another, but the aspect that separates true love from illusion, is the way love ends. “True Love” is much too powerful to be destroyed by Human imperfection; it may only be destroyed by a force equal to the power of love. Diotima believed that “Love is wanting to posses the good forever” In other words love is the desire to be immortal and the only way that we are able to obtain immortality is through reproduction, and since the act of reproduction is a form of sexual love, then sexual love is in fact a vital part of “True love”. Sexual love is not eternal. This lust for pleasure will soon fade, but the part of love that is immortal, is a plutonic love. You can relate this theory to the birth of love that Diotima talks about. She says that love was born by a mortal mother and immortal father. The mother represents the sexual love, the lust for pleasure. The father represents the plutonic love that is immortal. Plutonic love is defined as a true friendship, the purest of all relationships. A true plutonic love will never die; it transcends time, space, and even death.
The question fundamental to the philosophy of sex is the question probing into the nature of sexual activity. What is sex? Many have postulated on the subject, but have only further clouded the waters surrounding the subject. There are a multitude of philosophical answers addressing the question of sex ranging from the natural to the phenomenological to everywhere in between. It is essential to the discussion that a proper definition of sex be established before addressing any other issues. I plan to establish a proper definition of sex with an account of sexual perversion and then continue on discussing the nature of cybersex, infidelity, and love.
“The Tale of Cupid and Psyche” is a tale about the relationship that the God of Love, Cupid, has with a mortal named Psyche. Venus, the Goddess of beauty and the mother of Cupid, was offended when people believed in a rumour that Psyche, the most beautiful of the three daughters of the king and queen, is Venus’s daughter from a union with a mortal. She ordered Cupid to revenge in her behalf. However, Cupid, fell in love with Psyche.