Love: Did you mean...?

Christine de Pizan (also given as Christine de Pisan, l. 1364 - c. 1430) was the first female professional writer of the Middle Ages and the first woman of letters in France. Her best-known works advocated for greater equality...

Phaedra is a princess of Crete and the wife of the Greek hero Theseus in Greek mythology. She is one of the main characters in Euripides' (c. 484-407 BCE) Greek tragedy Hippolytus, which recounts how her love for Thesesus' son Hippolytus...

Khamsa (also known as Quintet or Panj Ganj) is the best-known work of Nizami Ganjavi (c. 1141-1209 CE) and without a doubt one of the most prominent works of Persian literature. Written during the last decades of the 12th century...

Empedocles (l. c. 484-424 BCE) was a Greek philosopher and mystic whose work harmonized the philosophies of Parmenides (l. c. 485 BCE), Heraclitus (l. c. 500 BCE), and Pythagoras (l. c. 571 to c. 497 BCE) in presenting a unified vision...

In medieval Europe, a code of ethics known as chivalry developed which included rules and expectations that the nobility would, at all times, behave in a certain manner. Chivalry was, in addition, a religious, moral and social...

Achilles The hero of the Trojan War, leader of the Myrmidons, slayer of Hector and Greece's greatest warrior, who sadly came unstuck when Paris sent a flying arrow guided by Apollo, which caught him in his...

The Sacred Band of Thebes was an elite unit of the Theban army comprised of 150 gay male couples totaling 300 men. They were formed under the leadership of Gorgidas but first achieved fame under the general Pelopidas. They...

The myth of Adonis is a legendary love story that combines tragedy and death on the one hand, and the joy of coming back to life on the other. The story of the impossibly handsome Adonis and his lover the goddess Aphrodite originally...

Zephyrus was the god of the west wind and the messenger of spring in Greek mythology. He was known as one of the four Anemoi, or wind gods, each of whom represented a cardinal direction and, except for Eurus, a season. Zephyrus was...

Publius Ovidius Naso, more commonly known to history as Ovid (43 BCE - 17 CE), was one of the most prolific writers of the early Roman Empire. His works of poetry, mostly written in the form of elegiac couplets, influenced many of the...