Saint Valentine takes us back to the 3rd Century, around 269 A.D. He was a Roman priest or bishop who performed weddings so that men could avoid being drafted into the Roman military. When the Roman Empire and legions needed soldiers to protect their ever-expanding territories beyond the Rubicon, Emperor Claudius II decreed that nobody could become engaged to be married! The Emperor had determined that married men made poor soldiers, so he banned marriage altogether from his Roman Empire. But Priest Valentine defied the Emperor’s demand and married off many couples in castle basements and wine cellars. Valentine‘s action was considered to be an act of outright treason against the Imperio Romano and defiance of law! But Valentine continued to marry couples secretly who came to him, anyway. When Claudius II discovered Valentine’s activities, Valentine was imprisoned and put to death by beheading on February 14, 270 A.D. This day was kept as tradition to honor sexual unions. Roman youths drew names of young ladies who were to be their romantic/sexual partners or “dates” not only for that evening, but the girl thus chosen would become the sexual partner for that young man for the remainder of the year. “Will you be my valentine??”
The Roman pagan god “Cupid” (called Eros/Erotic in Greek mythology)a smiling mischievous child armed with his bow and arrow ready to pierce lovers’ hearts with romantic love was joined with St. Valentine for the purpose of bringing pagan worshippers to the Christian catholic church. Cupid’s arrows symbolized the male penis whereas the valentines symbolized the female vagina.
Cupid’s penile arrows would strike the libido of persons stimulating their sexual desires towards whoever was nearest.
That’s why he, Cupid was termed mischievous because he would join men with men and women with women, mankind with animal kind, adult’s with children, married spouse with unmarried partner or multiple sex partners together at once.
Lingüistic sources has derived the noun form of cúpido meaning “desire” or “yearning”, eventually becoming the Roman god Cupidus, an adjectival form meaning “desirous of” and Cupid in our modern English. This in turn produced the noun form of cupiditus, and ultimately the English verbal offshoot tocovet. Another term to be heard orally (but is occasionally read in literary works) is the Latin CONCUPISCENSE, meaning strong sexual “coveting”.
1 Thessalonians 4:3: “ For this is the will of God (YHWH), even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication(sexual sins ie. Lev. 18): verse 4 That everyone of you should know how to possess his vessel(body) in sanctification and honor; verse 5 Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God (YHWH):”
SHALOM.
