#13 - Love In Ancient Greece
Love is a highly complex word which can hardly be defined accurately, for it has far and deep connotations spread across various cultures. Throughout time in history, philosophers and writers, scholars and celebrities have attempted to define and categorize love within different contexts. Stumbling upon fascinating facts on ancient Greece and their interpretation of life, I was very much intrigued by their understanding of Love.
The Greeks of ancient civilization recognized and distinguished several versions of love. They strongly believed in love’s existence in many dimensions amongst all kinds of inter-personal relationships. Ancient Greeks coined the terms Xenia, Philia, Storge, Eros and Agape to represent different kinds of love one feels for another.
Foremost, Xenia was the basic concept of love that was of great importance to the Greeks who valued friendship between a host and his guest, both of whom may be complete strangers beforehand. Greeks emphasized on gracious sharing for hosts toward the guests and demanded an almost ritualized friendship between the two. Hence, Xenia is the basic arm of extension to practically everybody and anybody one may encounter in life. Homer’s Odyssey is an excellent example of how Xenia is integrated into the Greek culture.
Philia was a theory developed by Greek philosopher, Aristotle. It refers to a dispassionate virtuous love shared by friends, family, and community. Philia requires loyalty, virtue, equality and familiarity in order to be functional as it is a mutual emotion between two people who are on close terms. Differing from Philia is Storge, which is a natural affection specifically, shared between family members or relatives with blood ties. For instance, parents naturally feel for their children and these emotions are classified as Storge.
Charged with passion, sensual desire and longing, Eros is defined by Plato to be the initial affections felt for a person romantically (usually of the opposite sex). He then refined his concept by adding that the initial affections become an appreciation of the beauty within that person, and slowly evolves into the appreciation of beauty itself. Eros is a tool in seeking the true meaning of beauty and learning how to appreciate the beauty of a fellow human.
Lastly, Agape is selfless altruistic love. It often appears in descriptions of the love God has for mankind in the Bible and absolutely unconditional. Apparently the greatest and noblest kind of love as defined by the Ancient Greeks, Agape is cherished above all others.
So many dimensions within just the Greek culture, yet love continue to mystify most of us. There are many more interpretations of love and how one defines this abstraction will have to be left up to one’s own discretion.
The Greeks of ancient civilization recognized and distinguished several versions of love. They strongly believed in love’s existence in many dimensions amongst all kinds of inter-personal relationships. Ancient Greeks coined the terms Xenia, Philia, Storge, Eros and Agape to represent different kinds of love one feels for another.
Foremost, Xenia was the basic concept of love that was of great importance to the Greeks who valued friendship between a host and his guest, both of whom may be complete strangers beforehand. Greeks emphasized on gracious sharing for hosts toward the guests and demanded an almost ritualized friendship between the two. Hence, Xenia is the basic arm of extension to practically everybody and anybody one may encounter in life. Homer’s Odyssey is an excellent example of how Xenia is integrated into the Greek culture.
Philia was a theory developed by Greek philosopher, Aristotle. It refers to a dispassionate virtuous love shared by friends, family, and community. Philia requires loyalty, virtue, equality and familiarity in order to be functional as it is a mutual emotion between two people who are on close terms. Differing from Philia is Storge, which is a natural affection specifically, shared between family members or relatives with blood ties. For instance, parents naturally feel for their children and these emotions are classified as Storge.
Charged with passion, sensual desire and longing, Eros is defined by Plato to be the initial affections felt for a person romantically (usually of the opposite sex). He then refined his concept by adding that the initial affections become an appreciation of the beauty within that person, and slowly evolves into the appreciation of beauty itself. Eros is a tool in seeking the true meaning of beauty and learning how to appreciate the beauty of a fellow human.
Lastly, Agape is selfless altruistic love. It often appears in descriptions of the love God has for mankind in the Bible and absolutely unconditional. Apparently the greatest and noblest kind of love as defined by the Ancient Greeks, Agape is cherished above all others.
So many dimensions within just the Greek culture, yet love continue to mystify most of us. There are many more interpretations of love and how one defines this abstraction will have to be left up to one’s own discretion.
posted by Lady Lazarus at 11:37 PM
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