Love TimeLine
(Page 2 of 5)
November/December 1996
By Libby Stephens, Utne Reader
5th CENT.
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Religion governs marriage. Almost all weddings in the Roman Empire now include an ecclesiastical benediction and marriage is considered a sacrament. In the next century, Emperor Justinian makes adultery a capital offense and divorce nearly impossible.
...
6th CENT.
Buddhists and Hindus in India begin to practice Tantrism in an attempt to transform the human body into a mystical one. Through maithuna (ceremonial sex), human union becomes a sacred act.
In England, marriage between blood relatives is outlawed.
939
In one of the first known attempts to suppress the ancient Japanese practice of phallic worship, a large phallic image, which had been displayed and worshipped in Kyoto, is moved to a less prominent place.
994
Ibn Hazm, Spanish Muslim author, is born in Cordova. In The Dove's Necklace, he describes the many symptoms of love, such as "drinking the remainder of what the beloved has left in his cup, seeking out the very spot against which his lips were pressed."
early 11th CENT.
One of the earliest and greatest romance novels, The Tale of Genji, by Lady Murasaki Shikibu, describes the refined and libidinous court life of Japan.
11th CENT.
Chinese philosophers begin to interpret the ancient Yin and Yang symbols as not opposed but interdependent--like man and woman. The undivided circle becomes known as t'ai chi t'u: "the supreme ultimate." A few gentlemen in southern France jokingly concoct a little game of flattery they call "cortezia, courtesie." In the next century, their pastime will blossom into courtly love--an entire social philosophy.
...
12th CENT.
Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine holds mock trials judging "proper" love behavior at her Court of Love at Poitiers. In Persia, the untimely death of poet Nizami's young beloved, Afaq, inspires him to write Leyla and Majnun, a sensual/spiritual romance about the tragic death of a lover.
1244
Sufi teacher Rumi meets Shams of Tabriz and abandons himself to divine and earthly love. "There's no studying, no scholarly thinking having to do with love, but there is a great deal of plotting, and secret touching, and nights you can't remember at all." 752 years later, Rumi is the best-selling poet in America.
1477
Margery Brews of England writes the earliest known valentine to her "Right Worshipful and well-beloved Valentine." She hopes he'll make her "the merriest maiden on the ground" and marry her despite a meager dowry.
16th CENT.
Some 400 years before America's "The Joy of Sex" comes India's "Ananga Ranga" which shows husband and wife how to keep a marriage lively with 32 sexual positions. Meanwhile, in Germany, early Puritans praise sex within marriage, and religious reformer Martin Luther, believing that sexual impulse is natural and irrepressible, persuades a group of nuns to leave the convent and helps them find husbands. When one of them, Katharina von Bora, remains unwed, Luther marries her. Six years later he writes, "My wife is more precious to me than the Kingdom of France and all the treasures of Venice."
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