Love was closely related to the culture and philosophy of the ancient Greeks. Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, Lucian and many other philosophers of Ancient Greece tried to describe love as a feeling and state, to define love. Cognizing friendly, love, erotic connections, thinkers of the past made them a source of reflections on the meaning of life. Four types of love: eros, filia, stern and agapesis, are most often found in written sources that have survived to this day.
Love played an important role in the life of the ancient Greeks. It is saturated with myths, works of art and philosophical treatises of Ancient Greece. It was not for nothing that the Greeks distinguished all its shades and nuances. Moreover, love was the root cause of all that exists.
Filia
The word "filia" is first encountered in the writings of Herodotus and originally means a peace treaty between states. Later, the concept of love-friendship was attached to this word. Judging by the statements of ancient philosophers, filia is a feeling that arises in relation to friends and relatives, achieving complete unity of souls. The basis of friendship is not at all sensual affection, but mutual support, which was largely needed by the Hellenes, who were constantly exploring new territories, defending their cities, and undertaking new campaigns.
An example of such love-friendship is the story of Achilles and Patroclus, who went in search of glory in the Trojan War. Friends shared business, a table, a tent. And when Patroclus fell in an unequal battle with the Trojans, the legendary hero of the Trojan epic, who had refused to fight before that, goes to avenge his friend's death.
Plato understood friendship as striving for perfection, emotional closeness of friends, emotional attachment. The theory described in the works of Plato was called "platonic love".
Eros
Ancient Greek philosophers thought about eros in a special way. This was determined by the specific position of women in society. The woman-wife, who was charged with the duties of procreation and housekeeping, was not an object of adoration and love for her husband. “Your wife makes you happy only twice: on the wedding day and on the day of her funeral,” writes Hipponactus from Ephesus. Men enjoyed in the company of heterosexuals, but they spoke impartially about them. Menander's statement about women has survived to this day: "Among the strange animals that inhabit land and sea, a woman is truly the most terrible animal."
Plato was the first to use the word "eros". In his work "The Feast" Plato divides love into true and grossly sensual. The Feast contains the myth of the origin of Eros, the eternal companion of Aphrodite. His parents were the gods of poverty and wealth - Singing and Poros. He was conceived at a feast on the occasion of the birth of the goddess of love, which predetermined his subsequent ministry. Eros was woven from contradictions, it combined coarseness and striving for the beautiful, ignorance and wisdom. Eros is the personification of love, which can simultaneously strive for death and immortality.
Plato leads the thought to the fact that love is an ascent to the highest ideals. His eros is the eros of knowledge and aesthetic pleasure.
Aristotle considers love not only from an aesthetic point of view. In Animal Stories, the thinker describes sexual behavior in detail and connects it with the sensual pleasures of eating, drinking and intercourse. However, in Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle holds the idea that not eros, but filia is the highest goal and dignity of love.
The Epicureans were most characterized by sensuality and craving for pleasure. Nevertheless, it was Epicurus who spoke of the fact that the eros inherent in all living things on earth should be controlled. He noted that love pleasures are never beneficial, the main thing is not to harm others, friends and relatives.
Stroge and agape
The ancient Greeks understood the word stern as the love of parents for children, children for their parents. In today's understanding, strict is also the tender affection of the spouses to each other.
The concept of "agape" defines the love of God for people and the love of people for God, sacrificial love. At the dawn of Christianity, this word took on a revolutionary connotation. The first attempts of Christians to translate biblical texts into Greek ran into a number of difficulties - which word to use filia, eros, mania? The revolutionary Christian idea demanded revolutionary solutions. Thus, the neutral word "agapesis", which meant love-the desire to bestow, became the all-encompassing concept "God is love."
The ancient Greeks did not know the concept of sin in the context of love, eroticism and sexuality. Sin was considered social and moral misconduct - crimes and injustice. With the spread of Christianity, a world filled with leisurely observations and reflections on human nature, in which family virtues, loyalty, friendship and love in all its manifestations were glorified, disappeared.
