View source for Greek terms applied to pederastia

{{History}}
The Greek language distinguishes numerous different ways as to how the word [[love]] is used. 

*  ''[[Agápe]]'' means "love: esp. brotherly love, charity; the love of God for man and of man for God."<ref name="LiddellScott2010">{{cite book|author1=H. G. Liddell|author2=Robert Scott|title=An Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon: Founded Upon the Seventh Edition of Liddell and Scott's Greek-English Lexicon|date=October 2010|publisher=Benediction Classics|isbn=978-1-84902-626-0|page=4}}</ref> ''Agape'' is used in the biblical passage known as the "love chapter," 1 Corinthians 13, and is described there and throughout the New Testament as ''brotherly love, affection, good will, love, and benevolence''.<ref name="Greek Lexicon">{{cite web|title=Greek Lexicon|url=http://www.greekbible.com/l.php?a)ga/ph_n-----asf-_p|website=GreekBible.com|publisher=The Online Greek Bible|accessdate=24 August 2014}}</ref> Whether the love given is returned or not, the person continues to love (even without any self-benefit).  ''Agape'' is also used in ancient texts to denote feelings for one's children and the feelings for a spouse, and it was also used to refer to a [[love feast]].<ref name="Greek Lexicon"/> It can also be described as the feeling of being content or holding one in high regard. Agape is used by Christians to express the unconditional love of God for his ''children''.  This type of love was further explained by Thomas Aquinas as "to will the good of another."<ref name="newadvent.org">{{cite web |url=http://www.newadvent.org/summa/2026.htm#article4 |title=St. Thomas Aquinas, STh I-II, 26, 4, corp. art |publisher=Newadvent.org |accessdate=2010-10-30}}</ref>
*  ''[[Éros]]'' means "love, mostly of the sexual passion."<ref>[http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3De%29%2Frws ἔρως], Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, ''A Greek-English Lexicon'', on Perseus</ref> The Modern Greek word "''erotas''" means "intimate love." It can also apply to dating relationships as well as marriage.  [[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 love|platonic]] to mean, "without physical attraction." In the ''[[Symposium (Plato)|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.<ref name="Penguin">{{cite book|last1=translated from the Greek by Walter Hamilton|first1=Plato|title=The Symposium|date=1973|publisher=Penguin|location=Harmondsworth, Eng.|isbn=9780140440249|edition=Repr.}}</ref> Lovers and philosophers are all inspired to seek truth through the means of ''eros.'' The word Eros is the most important and main word of the Greeks, the stirring force that drives the universe forward and the fuel behind nature's cycle.
*  ''[[Philia]]'' means "affectionate regard, friendship," usually "between equals."<ref>[http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Dfili%2Fa φιλία], Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, ''A Greek-English Lexicon'', on Perseus</ref> It is a dispassionate virtuous love, a concept developed by [[Aristotle]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Philosophy of Love (Philia)|url=http://www.iep.utm.edu/love/#SH1b|website=Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy|publisher=Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy|accessdate=24 August 2014}}</ref> 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.
*  ''[[Storge]]'' means "love, affection" and "especially of parents and children"<ref>[http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Dstorgh%2F στοργή], Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, ''A Greek-English Lexicon'', on Perseus</ref> It is natural affection, like that felt by parents for offspring.<ref name="Strong">{{cite book |author=Strong B, Yarber WL, Sayad BW, Devault C |title=Human sexuality: diversity in contemporary America (6th ed.) |publisher=McGraw-Hill |location= New York |year=2008 |page=228 |isbn=978-0-07-312911-2}}</ref>  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.
*The noun ''[[Xenia]]'' means "affable relationship, or friendship merriment between two parties", as well as the amicable and amiable relationship between two and the hospitality that should be expected as a result of this, whether these are cities, people, lovers etc, and is characterised by the exchange of gifts. The mandated hospitality that should be displayed to strangers, ''φιλοξενία'' philoxenia, is a separate concept, from the compound word ''φίλος+ξενία''. Hence, we have passages of Plato and others where they describe they have enjoyed the ''ξενία'' of a good friend, whom they happen to know very well and who happens to NOT be a stranger by any means, and displays this amiable sentiment through περιποίησις (attention, tending, care), and gifts. A brief glance at Liddel & Scott, will confirm this.
*''[[Latreia]]'' is similar to worship and an admiring-type of love even to the point of idolizing, BUT this is its MODERN meaning, i.e. two lovers will say: ''Σε λατρεύω'' to each other, but a mother can also say this to her child. In antiquity λατρεία meant a different kind of love, that of servitude, and dedication or devotion to someone, particularly to a god, and this side of the meaning has survived among orthodox Christians who say they λατρεύουν Christ. The other, ancient meaning of λατρεία comes from its semantics as "servitude" and "dedication", so it also means to "work in the service of someone" whether this includes pay or not, and usually (supposedly) due to admiration. Hence, a master would say that his slave ''λατρεύει'' him, but maybe the slave would say, "well... rrriiiight".
*''[[Pathos]]'' is used in English as well, and has had more or less the same meaning throughout history in Greek in the sense of passionately loving something or someone, to the point of befalling into error, whether this is your wife, your work, smoking or food.
*''[[Pothos]]'' is a flaming desire, more chthonic than Eros, and shows the lowly burning sentiment that one has for something or someone. The modern word for this is "καψούρα", and it is a counterpart to Eros, as the burning, flaming lovey feeling one has when not receiving response to their erotic love.
*''[[Piste]]'' is the love one devotee has to a cause, idea, belief, person of thing.
*''[[Eusplahneia]]'' is a type of love that signifies compassion. A mother can have eusplahneia for her child, a stranger for a person in need, or a friend to a friend and a lover to a lover. The ancient and modern Greek remain selfsame in definition.
*''[[Omoria]]'', is the explicit love between neighbors, and harmony of relations in a community. The word ὁμόνοια, concord, unity, is a derivative of the same lexime ὀμοιος (same, equal, counterpart, togethered, matched)
*''[[Etaireia]]'', finally, means the union of two people or things in concord and absolute harmony of comradeship and camaraderie, which is why we have the name Ἑταίριος Ζευς, ("Zeus of the concord and amity, and the sharing between two"), and has nothing to do with the hetaires, the female consorts, who were "shared". The modern meaning has shifted slightly to include under this definition only that of a business union or company so as to conduct a trade in unison and amity by two counterparts.
*''Οικειότης'',  love between members of the house, and the sentiment of closeness akin to being brothers or relatives.

==References==
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[[Category:Ancient Greece]]