bq_leftThe ancient Greeks had no word for romantic love. To them, love for a thing and love for a woman were one and the same. When speaking or writing of a man’s relationship to a woman they had used words that meant “owned,” “valued highly,” or “had sex with.” When Odysseus returned home, he and Penelope did not cuddle. They fucked.

Very occasionally they would employ the word “mingle” to refer to intercourse, but even then the most striking example of this is when the bones of Achilles and Patroclus are mingled together in death.

Aphrodite was not the goddess of love as is popularly believed, as we tell our children. She was the Goddess of Sex. The patron goddess of prostitutes in fact. And her son, Eros, dear little Cupid with his darling little arrows, was the god of passion.

And this is why even Sappho spoke only of longing, of pain, of sex, of people being precious to her, this is why even Sappho never used the word “love.” It didn’t exist.bq_right

—Girls, Nic Kelman