could you possibly explain about the misreading of "omnia vincit amor"??
Sure! Okay, there would be a lot to say so i’ll try to sum it up: usually the quote is interpreted as “love overcomes everything”, meaning that love can overcome every obstacle and endure anything. Which is somehow part of the original meaning too, but in a completely different way; we immediately would think of this statement as a positive statement…but the original meaning is NOT meant to be positive.
The quote comes from Vergil’s 10th Eclogue, a poem about Gallus’ love sufferings. Gallus speaks and says he wishes he was a different kind of poet, that he would not have to sing of one single neverending love (as elegiac poets like himself do) so his pain would end. But then he sees that it is impossible for him to change his condition, because “omnia vincit amor, et nos cedamus amori”: love conquers all and we shall yield to love. Gallus has to yield because love is such a violent wild force it “vincit”, it subjugates everything; yes, love overcomes every obstacle: no mountain or cold winter or war could ever end it, but that’s because it drags you, it pushes you beyond your limits, it enslaves you. For the ancients this kind of love is a sickness, it’s destructive, it’s a passion that makes you suffer, and never in a good way.
Now, Gallus is an elegist, and it is obvious that he yields to this. He HAS to, or he wouldn’t be an elegist (or he would be Ovid, but that’s another story): elegy is a complete and total dedication to this love-sickness, it is (or at least it claims to be) the kind of totalizing love experience Sappho and Catullus before them had programmatically accepted as their own. Elegists ultimately want to suffer for their love, they want to yield to this painful sickness because…well, they love suffering from love. Basically, they’re all kinda into femdom.
Now, if you use “omnia vincit amor” to celebrate the power of love, you should also consider that originally it means that it wins over anything not because it is enduring, but because it’s a destructive power, and a negative one. If you (not you you, a general you) accept that meaning and you’re still ready to live by its principles, you’re probably an elegist by heart, and honestly…you should reconsider your priorities.
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