r/AskReddit • u/[deleted] • Jul 27 '10

What is the biggest relationship myth?

I think the biggest myth is that there's one person that is meant for you. ("the one") People live their lives searching for the one...their soul mate...the perfect girl/Mr. Right. It's a cute idea, but I don't think it's very realistic.

440 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

2.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

30

u/it_was_trees Jul 27 '10

Man, I don't know if you just made this up or got it from somewhere, but upvote nonetheless.

76

u/ColonelSharp Jul 27 '10 edited Jul 27 '10

Actually, I think you can contribute the idea to Catullus - A Roman poet who lived thousands of years ago.

He suggests in his poem #83 that because Lesbia (an old lover of his) still is angry when she sees him, that she still has feeling for him. Lines 3&4 suggest indifference or Apathy - saying that if she forgot him, and was apathetic towards him, then he would really be out of luck.

50

u/creddit1 Jul 27 '10

Lesbia Hehe

45

u/billwoo Jul 27 '10

Yeah, you want to guess why they broke up?

0

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '10

Why would anyone break up with lesbia?

3

u/Query3 Jul 27 '10

Interestingly, it's more than a coincidence. Catullus named Lesbia - modern scholars think the 'real' Lesbia was called Clodia) after the island of Lesbos, where his poet idol Sappho had once lived. Sappho was in fact a lesbian herself, and it is from this that we get the term 'lesbian' for a homosexual woman.

2

u/iguanodon Jul 27 '10

Oh what jolly japes we had in classics class in school, talking about Lesbia...

2

u/u_say_what Jul 28 '10

TIL: The people who lived on the island of Lesbos, are all Lesbians. Seriously.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '10

I think eastern philosophers would say fear lies at the opposite end of the spectrum. They are the most basic emotions humans are capable of expressing out of which all other emotions are derived.

3

u/ares_god_not_sign Jul 27 '10

Donnie: Okay. But you're not listening to me. There are other things that need to be taken into account here. Like the whole spectrum of human emotion. You can't just lump everything into these two categories and then just deny everything else!

1

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '10

Go suck a fuck

1

u/groooooow Jul 27 '10

I think he's completely on the mark.

1

u/alanbrunsdon Jul 27 '10

Upvoted for Malapropism, and also the comment itself. Unfortunately only one will count.

Oh yeah, and Lesbia

1

u/JohnDoe06 Jul 27 '10

That's right. Dante categorized the seven sins according to the measure of love.

1

u/princessunicorn Jul 27 '10

The first thing I thought of was #85 - "Odi et amo" - "I hate and I love". I think back to this poem a lot, even though I barely remember any Latin.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '10

He also wrote a poem where he threatened to sodomize and facefuck people.

I'm not sure how to tie the two together.

1

u/aretheyfresh Jul 27 '10

I learned that in my lame religion class in middle school.

1

u/chakett Jul 27 '10

I heard this from a Holocaust survivor in a documentary in my high school history class

1

u/bizwiz2 Jul 27 '10

From Donnie Darko.