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Feb 9, 2024 · Centuries before Christianity, the Greeks had their own ideas about desire. Erotic love was not a pleasant diversion, but a high-stakes trial to be survived, quivering with perilous energy. These poets’ and philosophers’ ideas can stimulate our thinking today – and perhaps our loving as well. Deadly serious
- Eros, Or Sexual Passion
- Philia, Or Deep Friendship
- Ludus, Or Playful Love
- Agape, Or Love For Everyone
- Pragma, Or Longstanding Love
- Philautia, Or Love of The Self
The first kind of love was eros, named after the Greek god of fertility, and it represented the idea of sexual passion and desire. But the Greeks didn’t always think of it as something positive, as we tend to do today. In fact, eroswas viewed as a dangerous, fiery, and irrational form of love that could take hold of you and possess you—an attitude ...
The second variety of love was philia or friendship, which the Greeks valued far more than the base sexuality of eros. Philia concerned the deep comradely friendship that developed between brothers in arms who had fought side by side on the battlefield. It was about showing loyalty to your friends, sacrificing for them, as well as sharing your emot...
While philia could be a matter of great seriousness, there was a third type of love valued by the ancient Greeks, which was playful love. Following the Roman poet Ovid, scholars (such as the philosopher A. C. Grayling) commonly use the Latin word ludus to describe this form of love, which concerns the playful affection between children or casual lo...
The fourth love, and perhaps the most radical, was agape or selfless love. This was a love that you extended to all people, whether family members or distant strangers. Agape was later translated into Latin as caritas, which is the origin of our word “charity.” C.S. Lewis referred to it as “gift love,” the highest form of Christian love. But it als...
The use of the ancient Greek root pragmaas a form of love was popularized by the Canadian sociologist John Allen Lee in the 1970s, who described it as a mature, realistic love that is commonly found amongst long-established couples. Pragma is about making compromises to help the relationship work over time, and showing patience and tolerance. There...
The Greek’s sixth variety of love was philautiaor self-love. And clever Greeks such as Aristotle realized there were two types. One was an unhealthy variety associated with narcissism, where you became self-obsessed and focused on personal fame and fortune. A healthier version enhanced your wider capacity to love. The idea was that if you like your...
Feb 14, 2019 · The modern idea of romantic love probably traces back to the medieval concept of chivalry, made popular as well as more specific by French, Italian and Spanish troubadours, and finally canonized for Western audiences during the Romantic era that followed, as a backlash, the Enlightenment. However, it is arguably the Ancient Greeks and Romans ...
Sep 2, 2023 · Platonic love is one of the most widely misinterpreted concepts in Plato’s philosophy. It has transcended the realm of philosophy, becoming widely used across culture and has strayed from its original meaning throughout the process. Plato believed that love is the motivation that leads one to try to know and contemplate beauty in itself.
Feb 9, 2024 · Centuries before Christianity, the Greeks had their own ideas about desire. Erotic love was not a pleasant diversion, but a high-stakes trial to be survived, quivering with perilous energy.
Because the nature of male-male and male-female relationships in Ancient Greece differ greatly from our own, it is important to delve deeper into the discussions of love in The Symposium. First, the term “homosexual” is not appropriate in discussing the nature of the suggestion made by Phaedrus and the others that male-male love is ...
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The emotions, including love, did not play a large role in ancient medicine. They were almost always explained reductively as the result of an imbalance in the four humors – black bile, yellow bile, phlegm, and blood – that formed the basis of ancient medical theory. Occasionally, however, emotions were recognized as a cause of illness.
