One of those more pompous essayists a generation ago wrote a book on the four Greek loves, all translatable as 'love' in English.
as in Faith
Hope and Love (Charity is off, but the translator doubtless wanted to avoid its being taken for romantic love).
which is just what it looks like, sexual passion.
Literally, dearness, the love between friends and those whom we hold very close, but not to chase them erotically.
Best considered as like what books on childrearing call Tender Loving Care, but also of other caregivers; also a
quality of The Just Society.
Your
Antinous locket has the first person singular of the verb
phileîn, and it is polite to speak of driving passions as
philía; indeed, I do not doubt the aging emperor's
philia for the Bithynian boy, and a boy, once he is middle aged and
his lover is quite aged, will feel
philia for him, even care for him with
storgê.
Our feelings, of course, are often blended. The distinction in principle, however, is real.
Agapê is philosophical and detached love (though, in modern Greek, it has taken over for all affections).
Erôs regards the object, at least at first, principally as an object.
Philia is like Damon and Pythias. And
storgê is the selfless concern for the weaker party, as an infant.
On the locket a modern Greek would write,
S' agapô: I love you.
Pat L.
P.S. As for charity, that is Grace,
German Gnade, Greek
, that 'Grace of God that Passes all Understanding' and 'not by works but by Grace'.
P.P.S. The pompous author I was remembering reading was Erich Fromm; I am not recommending the book (
nor that of C. S.
Lewis).
