Recipes for Valentine’s Day  - Συνταγές για την Ημέρα του Αγίου Βαλεντίνου

Valentine’s Day 2025 Menu - Μενού Αγίου Βαλεντίνου 2025

Valentine’s Day and its connection with Antiquity

💖 Η Γιορτή Του Αγίου Βαλεντίνου και η σχέση του με την αρχαιότητα

Saint Valentine lived in the 3rd century and was a priest in Rome who helped Christians who were victims of persecution in the region. He was brutally beaten and beheaded on February 14, 270 AD for marrying couples in defiance of the prohibition of the sacrament of marriage by Emperor Claudius II. He was buried in a Christian cemetery on the Via Flaminia near the Ponte Milvio in northern Rome on February 14, which has been celebrated as Valentine's Day since 496.

The flower-covered skull of Saint Valentine is on display in the Basilica of Santa Maria in Cosmedin in Rome, while other relics were transferred to the Carmelite Church in Dublin, Ireland, where they remain to this day. This site is a popular pilgrimage site, especially on February 14, for those looking for love.

Incredible you may think, but Saint Valentine's Day originated in Greece with the Arcadian Lykaia and The Lupercalia. According to some sources, the Greeks invented it, thousands of years ago, in Arcadia, Peloponnese, Greece.

In ancient Greece, at the beginning of Spring, among the mythical green meadows of Arcadia, where the God of the wild, shepherds, nature and rustic music, Pan frolicked with the nymphs, wooing them with his magical pipe, a festival was held, a ritual of spring cleaning.

This festival, held around 15th of February, to honour Pan on the day he founded his temple, was called The Festival of the Arcadian Lykaia when the city was cleansed of evil spirits, and people’s souls were purified, bringing health and fertility.

Excerpts from Greekerthanthegreeks.blogspot.nl

In Greek Mythology, there are many mentions and stories with regard to Love between Gods and mortals. One is about God Apollo who fell in love with the mountain nymph Daphne after being struck by an arrow of Eros (aka Cupid). Alas his love was not reciprocated! Eros deviously shot Daphne with an arrow that made her repulsed by Apollo.

In Greece nowadays, Valentine’s Day has taken on the western custom where love is massively celebrated and gifts are exchanged with the person you are in love with.

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Greek words for love

The Greek language distinguishes at least four different ways as to how the word love is used. Ancient Greek has four distinct words for love: agápe, éros, philía, and storgē. However, as with other languages, it has been historically difficult to separate the meanings of these words when used outside of their respective contexts. Nonetheless, the senses in which these words were generally used are as follows:

💝💝 Agápe (ἀγάπη agápē means "love: esp. brotherly love, charity; the love of God for man and of man for God. "Agape" is used in ancient texts to denote feelings for one's children and the feelings for a spouse, and it was also used to refer to a love feast. Agape is used by Christians to express the unconditional love of God for his children. This type of love was further explained by Thomas Aquinas as "to will the good of another."

💝💝 Éros (ἔρως érōs) means "love, mostly of the sexual passion. The Modern Greek word "erotas" means "intimate love." Plato refined his own definition: Although eros is initially felt for a person, with contemplation it becomes an appreciation of the beauty within that person, or even becomes appreciation of beauty itself. Plato does not talk of physical attraction as a necessary part of love, hence the use of the word platonic to mean, "without physical attraction." In the Symposium, the most famous ancient work on the subject, Plato has Socrates argue that eros helps the soul recall knowledge of beauty, and contributes to an understanding of spiritual truth, the ideal "Form" of youthful beauty that leads us humans to feel erotic desire – thus suggesting that even that sensually based love aspires to the non-corporeal, spiritual plane of existence; that is, finding its truth, just like finding any truth, leads to transcendence.

Lovers and philosophers are all inspired to seek truth through the means of eros.

💝💝 Philia (φιλία philía) means "affectionate regard, friendship," usually "between equals. It is a dispassionate virtuous love, a concept developed by Aristotle.

In his best-known work on ethics, Nicomachean Ethics, philia is expressed variously as loyalty to friends, family, and community, and requires virtue, equality, and familiarity. Furthermore, in the same text philos denotes a general type of love, used for love between family, between friends, a desire or enjoyment of an activity, as well as between lovers.

💝💝 Storge (στοργή storgē) means "love, affection" and "especially of parents and children. It's the common or natural empathy, like that felt by parents for offspring. Rarely used in ancient works, and then almost exclusively as a descriptor of relationships within the family. It is also known to express mere acceptance or putting up with situations, as in "loving" the tyrant.

Photo of the ancient marble statue of Goddess Aphrodite with Pan, found in Delos island, Cyclades (100 B.C.) and 2 drawings of St. Valentine.