Sherry Chandler

To address, if not answer, Georgia’s question about Cupid and his arrows in the comments, according to the resident classicist, Cupid had two kinds of arrows — arrows of gold and arrows of lead. If he hit you with a golden arrow, you fell in love with the one you gazed upon; hit with the lead, you fell into hate. And here, I believe, we have the plot to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, with the mischievous fairy Puck in place of the mischievous god, Cupid.

Sins of the Flesh

Is it evil, Lord
to be so charmed
by juices of the night
that I cannot conceive of leaving
mortal touch?
How can Spirit
ever match this fever,
skin on skin,
nerve-tingled love
of loving –
unless the body’s wolfish appetites
transmigrate to higher realms
where Your caress
waits to enflame me,
flesh and core.
I will Your coals of fire
to sear my lips,
Your spittle to ease the burn.
Press me, praising,
to the length of you,
then let me go
and bid good-bye
to the messy, melancholy
copulating world.

      –from Mary E. O’Dell, A Dangerous Man

a love who’s like a red, red rose…

Sometimes her arms infold him like a band:
She would, he will not in her arms be bound;
      And when from thence he struggles to be gone
      She locks her lily fingers one in one.

“Fondling,” she saith, “since I have hemm’d thee here
Within the circuit of this ivory pale,
I’ll be a park, and thou shalt be my deer;
Feed where thou wilt, on mountain or in dale:
      Graze on my lips, and if those hills be dry,
      Stray lower, where the pleasant fountains lie.

“Within this limit is relief enough,
Sweet bottom-grass and high delightful plain,
Round rising hillocks, brakes obscure and rough,
To shelter thee from tempest and from rain:
      Then be my deer, since I am such a park;
      No dog shall rouse thee, though a thousand bark.”

–from Shakespeare’s Venus and Adonis

Modified from the Wikipedia:

The Lupercalia was a Roman spring festival held on February 15 near the cave of Lupercal – where the wolf supposedly suckled Romulus and Remus – on the Palatine Hill. The festival was so old that I’m not sure even the Romans were able to associate it with a particular god or temple.

The religious ceremonies were directed by the Luperci, the “brothers of the wolf,” dressed only in goatskin. A dog and two male goats were sacrificed. Two youths were anointed with the blood, which was wiped off with wool soaked in milk, after which they were expected to smile. They ran round the Palatine Hill, naked except for the goatskins, lashing every one they met with thongs, februa, cut from the sacrificed goats. Lashes from these whips ensured fertility so women, especially young wives, would line up on their route. February is derived from the Latin februare, “to purify” (one of the effects of fever, which has the same linguistic root).

Modern tradition has it that this is another of the pagan holidays, like Christmas and Easter, that the Christian church co-opted. In this case the holiday was named for a martyred saint, Valentine, and the date moved back one day to February 14. I don’t know whether this is true – Roman dates are slippery because their calendar was so inaccurate. And then we’ve had a few calendar adjustments in the last two millennia. The Romans considered that spring began on February 5, and even in modern Italy, that date on our current calendar is probably a little early.

Addendum: I’ve never seen anything very religious about Valentine’s Day as we celebrate it. For me, it bears earmarks of the Victorians – dressing love in paper lace looks a lot like the kind of thinking that would cover up the legs of tables. Meanwhile, my son says he doesn’t think much of a holiday that makes so many people unhappy.