One of the most favourite subjects of ancient poetry is the oath of love. Previous research has taken it for granted that this oath always means the proverbial vow of eternal love, which may be broken unpunished, because no mortal can ever fulfil it. Apart from this manifoldly varied oath, however, there is also the one by which lovers deny an affair they have had, and this is, in contrast to the proverbial vow, a real, punishable perjury. This paper examines (...) respective poems of ancient literature on the basis of this distinction and aims to clear up misapprehensions and, on the whole, to reach a better understanding of ancient poetry of love. (shrink)