Greek words for love

Love
Part of a series on

Types of love Affection Bonding Broken heart Compassionate love Conjugal love Courtly love (troubadours) Falling in love Free love Friendship (romantic) Interpersonal relationship Intimacy Limerence Love addiction Love at first sight Love triangle Loving-kindness Lovesickness Lovestruck Obsessive love Passion Puppy love Relationship Self-love Amour de soi Unconditional love Unrequited love
Cultural views Arabic Ishq Chinese Ren Greek words for love Agape Eros Phileo Platonic Storge Xenia Indian Kama Bhakti Jewish Chesed Latin Amore Charity Romance
Related Biological basis Love letter Valentine's Day Philosophy Religious views

The Greek language distinguishes at least four different ways as to how the word love is used. Ancient Greek has four distinct words for love: agápe, éros, philía, and storgē. However, as with other languages, it has been historically difficult to separate the meanings of these words when used outside of their respective contexts. Nonetheless, the senses in which these words were generally used are as follows:

[4]
Éros (ἔρως érōs) means "love, mostly of the sexual passion."^[5] The Modern Greek word "erotas" means "intimate love." Plato refined his own definition: Although eros is initially felt for a person, with contemplation it becomes an appreciation of the beauty within that person, or even becomes appreciation of beauty itself. Plato does not talk of physical attraction as a necessary part of love, hence the use of the word platonic to mean, "without physical attraction." In the Symposium, the most famous ancient work on the subject, Plato has Socrates argue that eros helps the soul recall knowledge of beauty, and contributes to an understanding of spiritual truth, the ideal "Form" of youthful beauty that leads us humans to feel erotic desire – thus suggesting that even that sensually based love aspires to the non-corporeal, spiritual plane of existence; that is, finding its truth, just like finding any truth, leads to transcendence.^[6] Lovers and philosophers are all inspired to seek truth through the means of eros.
Philia (φιλία philía) means "affectionate regard, friendship," usually "between equals."^[7] It is a dispassionate virtuous love, a concept developed by Aristotle.^[8] In his best-known work on ethics, Nicomachean Ethics, philia is expressed variously as loyalty to friends, family, and community, and requires virtue, equality, and familiarity. Furthermore, in the same text philos denotes a general type of love, used for love between family, between friends, a desire or enjoyment of an activity, as well as between lovers.
^[9] It's the common or natural empathy, like that felt by parents for offspring.^[10] Rarely used in ancient works, and then almost exclusively as a descriptor of relationships within the family. It is also known to express mere acceptance or putting up with situations, as in "loving" the tyrant.

References

^ ἀγάπη, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus
^
^
^
^ ἔρως, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus
^
^ φιλία, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus
^
^ στοργή, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus
^

External links

English-to-Greek word search results for love, on Perseus
Greek phrases for love
The Ancient Greeks' 6 Words for Love
Definitions

Greek language

Origin and genealogy

Periods

Mycenaean Greek (c. 1600–1100 BC)
Ancient Greek (c. 800–300 BC)
Koine Greek (c. 300 BC–AD 330)
Medieval Greek (c. 330–1453)
Modern Greek (since 1453)

Varieties

Ancient	Aeolic Arcadocypriot Attic and Ionic Doric Homeric Locrian Pamphylian Macedonian

Modern	Cappadocian Misthiotika Cretan Cypriot Demotic Himariote Italiot Greco/Calabrian Griko/Apulian Katharevousa Maniot Mariupolitan Pontic Tsakonian Yevanic

Phonology

Grammar

Ancient (tables)
Standard Modern

Writing systems

Cypriot syllabary
Linear B
Greek alphabet
- History
- Archaic forms
- Numerals
- Orthography
- Diacritics
- Braille
- Cyrillization and Romanization
Greeklish

Literature

Promotion and study

Other

The Four Loves by C. S. Lewis

Greek words for love: Agape Storgē Philia Eros

Categories

This article was sourced from Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. World Heritage Encyclopedia content is assembled from numerous content providers, Open Access Publishing, and in compliance with The Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act (FASTR), Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., Public Library of Science, The Encyclopedia of Life, Open Book Publishers (OBP), PubMed, U.S. National Library of Medicine, National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health (NIH), U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, and USA.gov, which sources content from all federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial government publication portals (.gov, .mil, .edu). Funding for USA.gov and content contributors is made possible from the U.S. Congress, E-Government Act of 2002.

Crowd sourced content that is contributed to World Heritage Encyclopedia is peer reviewed and edited by our editorial staff to ensure quality scholarly research articles.

By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. World Heritage Encyclopedia™ is a registered trademark of the World Public Library Association, a non-profit organization.

Greek words for love