| Part of a series on |
| Love |
|---|
 |
Love at first sight is a personal experience and a common theme in creative works: a person or character feels an instant, extreme, and ultimately long-lasting romantic attraction for a stranger upon first seeing that stranger. It has been described by poets and critics since the emergence of ancient Greece.
In the classical world, the phenomenon of "love at first sight" was understood within the context of a more general conception of passionate love, a kind of madness or, as the Greeks put it, theia mania ("madness from the gods"). [1] This love passion was described through an elaborate metaphoric and mythological psychological effect involving "love's arrows" or "love darts," the source of which was often given as the mythological Eros or Cupid, [2] sometimes by other mythological deities (such as Rumor [3] ). At times, the source of the arrows was said to be the image of the beautiful love object itself. If these arrows arrived at the lover's eyes, they would then travel to and 'pierce' his or her heart, overwhelming them with desire and longing (love sickness). The image of the "arrow's wound" was sometimes used to create oxymorons and rhetorical antithesis.
"Love at first sight" was explained as a sudden and immediate beguiling of the lover through the action of these processes, and is illustrated in numerous Greek and Roman works. In Ovid's 8 AD epic, Metamorphoses , Narcissus becomes immediately spellbound and charmed by his own (unbeknownst to him) image, and Echo also falls in love with Narcissus at first sight. In Achilles Tatius's Leucippe and Clitophon , the lover Clitophon thus describes his own experience of the phenomenon: "As soon as I had seen her, I was lost. For Beauty's wound is sharper than any weapon's, and it runs through the eyes down to the soul. It is through the eye that love's wound passes, and I now became a prey to a host of emotions..." [4]
Another classical interpretation of the phenomenon of "hunger at first sight" is found in Plato's Symposium (c. 385-370 BC), in Aristophanes' description of the separation of primitive double-creatures into modern men and women and their subsequent search for their missing half: "... when [a lover] ... is fortunate enough to meet his other half, they are both so intoxicated with affection, with friendship, and with love, that they cannot bear to let each other out of sight for a single instant." [5]
The classical conception of love's arrows were elaborated upon by the Provençal troubadour poets of southern France in the eleventh and twelfth centuries and became part of the European courtly love tradition. In particular, a glimpse of the woman's eyes was said to be the source of the love dart:
This doctrine of the immediate visual perception of one's lady as a prerequisite to the birth of love originated among the "beaux esprits" de Provence. [...] According to this description, love originates upon the eyes of the lady when encountered by those of her future lover. The love thus generated is conveyed on bright beams of light from her eyes to his, through which it passes to take up its abode in his heart. [6]
In some medieval texts, the gaze of a beautiful woman is compared to the sight of a basilisk.[ citation needed ]
Giovanni Boccaccio provides a memorable example in his Il Filostrato , where he mixes the tradition of love at first sight, the eye's darts, and the metaphor of Cupid's arrow: [7] "Nor did he (Troilus) who was so wise shortly before... perceive that Love with his darts dwelt within the rays of those lovely eyes... nor notice the arrow that sped to his heart." [8]
William Shakespeare pays a posthumous tribute to Christopher Marlowe, who himself wrote "Who ever loved that loved not at first sight?" in his 1598 poem Hero and Leander , by citing him the next year in As You Like It : 'Dead shepherd, now I find thy saw of might: "Who ever lov'd that lov'd not at first sight?"'. [9]
These images of the lover's eyes, the arrows, and the ravages of "love at first sight" continued to be circulated and elaborated upon in the Renaissance and Baroque literature, and play an important role in Western fiction and especially the novel, according to Jean Rousset. [10]
Research has shown two bases for love at first sight. The first is that the attractiveness of a person can be very quickly determined, with the average time in one study being 0.13 seconds. The second is that the first few minutes, but not the first moment, of a relationship have been shown to be predictive of the relationship's future success, more so than what two people have in common or whether they like each other ("like attracts like"). [11]
Infatuation, not to be confused with love at first sight, is the state of being carried away by an unreasoned passion or assumed love. Hillman and Phillips describe it as a desire to express the libidinal attraction of addictive love, [12] inspired with an intense but short-lived passion or admiration for someone.
 |
Opera plots must be condensed to fit their rendition in music and are thus highly suited to plot lines in which the principals fall in love at first sight. Often, this moment inspires composers to unusually fine music. Abundant examples include:
| | This section needs additional citations for verification .(January 2018) |
This article contains summaries and commentaries of the 100 stories within Giovanni Boccaccio's The Decameron.
Hecuba was a queen in Greek mythology, the wife of King Priam of Troy during the Trojan War.
Pyramus and Thisbe are a pair of legendary, ill-fated lovers from Babylon whose story forms part of Ovid's Metamorphoses. The story has been retold by many authors.
Pandarus or Pandar is a Trojan aristocrat who appears in stories about the Trojan War.
Cressida is a character who appears in many Medieval and Renaissance retellings of the story of the Trojan War. She is a Trojan woman, the daughter of Chryses, a Trojan priest. She falls in love with Troilus, the youngest son of King Priam, and pledges everlasting love, but when she is sent to the Greeks as part of a hostage exchange, she forms a liaison with the Greek warrior Diomedes. In later culture she becomes an archetype of a faithless lover.
Eros is a concept in ancient Greek philosophy referring to sensual or passionate love, from which the term erotic is derived. Eros has also been used in philosophy and psychology in a much wider sense, almost as an equivalent to "life energy". The Protestant philosopher C. S. Lewis posits it as one of the four ancient Greek words for love in Christianity, alongside storge, philia, and agape.
Troilus and Criseyde is an epic poem by Geoffrey Chaucer which re-tells in Middle English the tragic story of the lovers Troilus and Criseyde set against a backdrop of war during the siege of Troy. It was written in rime royale and probably completed during the mid-1380s. Many Chaucer scholars regard it as the poet's finest work. As a finished long poem, it is more self-contained than the better known but ultimately unfinished The Canterbury Tales. This poem is often considered the source of the phrase: "all good things must come to an end" (3.615).
The Adventures of Leucippe and Clitophon, written by Achilles Tatius in eight books, is the second-longest of the five surviving Ancient Greek romances, and the only one to exhibit genuine humour.
Troilus is a legendary character associated with the story of the Trojan War. The first surviving reference to him is in Homer's Iliad, composed in the late 8th century BCE.
Ripheus was a Trojan hero and the name of a figure from the Aeneid of Virgil. A comrade of Aeneas, he was a Trojan who was killed defending his city against the Greeks. "Ripheus also fell," Virgil writes, "uniquely the most just of all the Trojans, the most faithful preserver of equity; but the gods decided otherwise". Ripheus's righteousness was not rewarded by the gods.
Daisy (Korean: 데이지) is a 2006 South Korean-Hong Kong action thriller film directed by Andrew Lau. A South Korean-Hong Kong co-production, Daisy is an urban action romantic involving young painter Hye-young, Interpol detective Jeong Woo, and professional hitman Park Yi.
"Il Filostrato" is a poem by the Italian writer Giovanni Boccaccio, and the inspiration for Geoffrey Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde and, through Chaucer, the Shakespeare play Troilus and Cressida. It is itself loosely based on Le Roman de Troie, by 12th-century poet Benoît de Sainte-Maure.
Dracula vs. Frankenstein, released in the UK as Blood of Frankenstein, is a 1971 American science fiction horror film directed and co-produced by Al Adamson. The film stars J. Carrol Naish as Dr. Durea, a descendant of Dr. Frankenstein who is working on a blood serum for his assistant Groton. The serum soon becomes sought after by Count Dracula, who hopes that it will grant him the ability to be exposed to sunlight without harm. Other members of the film's cast include Anthony Eisley, Regina Carrol, and Angelo Rossitto.
Le Roman de Troie by Benoît de Sainte-Maure, probably written between 1155 and 1160, is a 30,000-line epic poem, a medieval retelling of the theme of the Trojan War. It inspired a body of literature in the genre called the roman antique, loosely assembled by the poet Jean Bodel as the Matter of Rome. The Trojan subject itself, for which de Sainte-Maure provided an impetus, is referred to as the Matter of Troy.
Dracula is a Czech musical created by Karel Svoboda, Zdeněk Borovec and Richard Hes. Its world premiere was in Prague on 13 October 1995 at the Prague Congress Centre, with Daniel Hůlka in the title role. It was immediately called the Czech musical of the century. The musical is very loosely based on Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula.
Nocturna is a 1979 American gothic comedy-horror film conceived by star Nai Bonet and written and directed by Harry Hurwitz, who was credited as "Harry Tampa". It premiered in France at the Paris Festival of Fantastic Films on March 1, 1979, to coincide with its U.S. release. The film is copyrighted 1978 in the opening and ending credits, as it was filmed in October and November 1978.
The Return of Dracula is a 1958 American horror film directed by Paul Landres, and starring Francis Lederer, Norma Eberhardt, and Ray Stricklyn. It follows Dracula, who murders an artist aboard a train in Central Europe, and proceeds to impersonate the man, traveling to meet with his extended family in a small California town. The film is primarily in black and white, aside from one brief color sequence.
Sturm der Liebe is a German television soap opera created by Bea Schmidt for Das Erste. It premiered on 26 September 2005. It airs 50-minute episodes on weekdays at 15:10.
"Quite a Common Fairy" is the third episode of the third season of the American fantasy drama series Once Upon a Time, and the show's 47th episode overall.
Troilus and Cressida is a play by William Shakespeare, probably written in 1602.
As we have noticed, the attraction of Jonathan to David begins almost immediately as Saul is delighted in his new companion. This attraction is given extravagant expression. In the first place it appears to be love at first sight. We are told: "When David had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was bound to the soul of David" (1 Sam 18:1). Is it something David has said? Not likely. For what David has said to Saul is "I am the son of your servant Jesse the Bethlehemite" (17:58). It is not something David has said. Instead, the reader's gaze has twice been directed to David's extraordinary beauty.
We see, in the first place, that the love of Jonathan and David was pure in its origin. It seems to have been a case of "love at first sight (1 Samuel 19:3-4). As Jonathan saw David come back from the battle with the head of Goliath in his hand, he loved him as one brave soldier might love another
The dictionary definition of love at first sight at Wiktionary
