The ancient Greeks were all over the 'love-thing'. From observation and philosophical discourse, they determined that there were 8 'types' of love.
The 8 Greek love categories are:
Eros (sexual passion)
Philia (deep friendship)
Ludus (playful love)
Agape (love for everyone)
Pragma (longstanding love)
Philautia (love of the self)
Storge (family love)
Mania (obsessive love)
So what did the Greeks make of these different types of love?
Eros (sexual passion)
Eros was thought to be a dangerous type of love by the ancient Greeks, because of how it made people lose control!
Philia (deep friendship)
The famous Greek philosopher Plato coined this term. Plato believed that physical attraction was not an essential element of love ... hence the term you may have heard ... 'platonic friendship'.
Ludus (playful love)
Teasing & flirting might be examples of this playful affection shared between people ... again this type of love may occur between friends or children for example.
Agape (love for everyone)
This form of love was seen by the Greeks as 'spiritual'. It involved enormous empathy and the concepts of charity and sacrifice within agape were regarded as 'the highest form of love'. Similar concepts can be found in Christianity & Buddhism as just 2 examples.
Pragma (longstanding love)
The term to describe enduring or long-lasting love. It involves actions by those involved to preserve the love.
Philautia (love of the self)
The Greek forerunner to 'self-esteem' or 'self-love' (no not masturbation!). They believed that loving yourself meant you had a wider capacity to love others. All things in sensible proportion, however, as the myth of Narcissus highlights!
Storge (family love)
This form of love is referred to as 'family' love but really speaks about connection and belonging. Love for children or siblings but also patriotism ('I love my country') or even your local footy team ('I love my Tigers')
Mania (obsessive love)
Mania is the yang to Eros yin! It is typically used to describe a jealous and obsessive kind of love. Strong feelings of codependency and the concept of someone 'completing' you. Now we might consider these behaviours to be symptoms of an imbalanced, unhealthy or even 'toxic' relationship.
History regards the Greeks as being no dummies! They are credited with being critically important to western civilisation. So what is the takeaway? Indulge in the first 7 types of love ... be careful not to over-indulge in a couple ... and leave the MANIA for this mob!
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