Mythical Love Stories: A Comparative Analysis

I'm sorry that I wasn't able to make a post in so long.

There was a software issue that prevented me from making any blog posts.

Fortunately, I have found a way to work around this issue.

Thank the gods I was finally able to post something here on Mythology Worlds!

This post was supposed to be timed for Valentine's Day, but it is still February, so...

Here is my post about mythological love stories

For as long as humankind has lived on Earth, human beings have expressed their feelings and desires for one another.

Hence, we exist today.

As such, tales of love and romance can be found in mythological traditions from just about every culture.

While at work during downtime, I decided to perform a comparative analysis of mythological love stories from all over the world, and found several common threads.

Many mythical love stories culminate with that most classic of romantic comedy tropes:

Love at first sight

In many of these stories, the love partners meet and they instantly fall in love.

One exception to this rule is the Roman legend of Pomona and Vertumnus.

In this story, the god of the woodlands tries his very hardest to impress the goddess of the orchards...up to and including disguising himself as an old lady and finally revealing his true self to her.

Many mythical love stories begin with something along the lines of "Once upon a time there was a beautiful maiden; the guy was smitten by her beauty; etc. etc.".

At risk of being labeled as woke, I guess this comes to show that lookism is as old as humankind and comes in all varieties.

To be fair, it also occurs in reverse.

Many mythical love stories involve relationships between humans and supernatural sky beings.

For me, the Chinese folktale of the Cowherd and the Weaver Maiden comes to mind.

They often have children together.

In my own fantasy universe called Mythika, this results in half-celestial communities.

When I was in college majoring in anthropology, I was taught that arranged marriage is (and has been) the norm for human cultures and that marrying for love is an Occidental (or "Western") construct.

However, a lot of these mythical love tales from cultures worldwide have the lovers eloping for love, and arranged marriage makes them unhappy.

For me, the versions of the Inuit legend of Sedna where she refuses to marry human males and instead marries a husky or a were-bird come to mind.

This has led me to conclude that, in fact...

Everyone marries for love

Not only that; everyone prefers to marry for love rather than be married off to a total stranger

Essentially, these mythical lovers are rebelling against the customs of their time and place.

Even though most of the love stories I have found from different cultures are about opposite-sex relationships, I have been able to find a few love stories about same-sex relationships as well.

A good example is the Greek myth of Apollo and Hyacinthus.

Apollo would also pursue female figures such as the nymph Daphne, which means that Apollo is bisexual.

In mythology, adultery leads to strife and animosity.

Perhaps the best-known examples of this are Zeus's many affairs...and Hera's attempts to kill his love children or his mistresses.

In Irish mythology, Finn McCool is engaged to the princess Grainne...when she runs off with Diarmuid, one of Finn McCool's Fianna warriors.

Finn McCool sets off in pursuit of the runaway lovers, who are aided by Aenghus (the Irish Celtic god of love).

Anyway,...

I hope you have enjoyed this belated Valentine's Day post.

Thanks for checking it out, and have a legendary day.