Romeo and Lothario

Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of desire and beauty inspired the word aphrodisiac. This love goddess’ son, Eros, gave us erotic, and the word venereal derives from Venus, the Roman goddess of love.

Today, we look at a duo of literary characters whose biographies inspired monikers for ardent male suitors.

The nickname Romeo is usually reserved for a man obsessed by desire and romance, perhaps one who considers himself an passionate paramour, the lady’s opinion notwithstanding. Yet the original Romeo, the teen-aged lover in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, was so virtuously devoted to his sweetheart that he was willing to die for her. His noble reputation has decayed over the centuries; the modern Romeo is now a skirt-chaser and serial seducer.

Another famous lover is Lothario, the name of a notorious rake, libertine, and scurrilous cad. Lothario is a character in a popular 1703 tragedy called The Fair Penitent by English dramatist Nicholas Rowe. Described by the playwright as “haughty, gallant, and gay,” this Lothario flatters, seduces, then abandons the innocent Calista, who then takes her life in shame. Nicholas Rowe’s Lothario lives on as an eponym for a notorious ravisher of pure-hearted women.