Classic Love Story Selection: Ancient Greek love myths
In all love stories, there are both winners and losers. This love story from ancient Greece is one such example. In a certain sense, the love that the handsome youth Adonis felt for himself was no less deep than the love Venus had for him. The only difference was that Venus’s love for him was something society could tolerate, despite a slight difference in status and position. However, Adonis’s passionate love for himself was difficult for others to understand. In fact, this behavior was later labeled “narcissism,” and in psychological research, it is classified as a type of pathological condition. This is quite unfair to the youth himself, for all love, as long as it is love, should not be dismissed or scorned by people.
Of course, Venus’s love for this beautiful youth was also admirable. Her relentless pursuit, her urgent desire, is something that many of today’s proud and self-satisfied young women would find hard to understand. In modern slang, one might say, “If being a goddess means falling for someone like this, I’d rather not be one.”
Venus, who was utterly infatuated, met with the indifference and cold-heartedness of Adonis. From her perspective, she had simply fallen for the wrong person. But what could she do? Love is not about right or wrong; she just loved him, and there was no way around it. Venus used every method she could think of, and the descriptions of desire in the story are so intense that even today’s men and women might find them provocative. But don’t get the wrong idea—this was Venus expressing her love, and it has nothing to do with lust.
This story opened up a broader space for later love literature. In a certain sense, Adonis was not in love with himself but with a third party. In an even broader sense, all later literary works about love triangles—or even love quadrangles and pentagons—can be traced back to the story of “Venus and Adonis.”
Thank you for reading! ” Sitestorys “
