The 4 types of love according to the Greeks and their meaning

Love is a abstract and universal feeling that we experience all people in different ways. love can be interpreted in different ways according to the context and sentimental relationship to the one referred to.

In ancient times the Greeks dedicated themselves to finding different ways of understanding and explaining what love is and how human beings live it.

Consequently, a great number of stories emerged, such as comedies, tragedies, epics and lyrics, full of passion, attraction, obsession, tenderness, complicity, interest and sensuality, in order to contextualize love.

According to the Greeks, Love is the responsible feeling of many of our actions, decisions and moods.

Therefore, they proposed four types or classifications of love in order to explain this feeling so complex that we have all experienced when we love.These are: Eros, Storge, Philia and Agape.

Eros

Eros represents the passionate and erotic love .In Greek mythology, Eros is the god that symbolizes romantic love, passion and impulsivity.It may be the first step to reach a deeper and lasting love if you know how to channel its intensity.

This type of love is characterized by experiencing physical, sexual and instinctive attraction.It is related to ephemeral love, which is generated at the beginning of the relationship and idealizes the moment by mixing desire and sexual attraction.

The love of Eros being highly impulsive and carnal can lead to infidelities.

Storge

The Greeks classified the brotherly, friendly and committed love as Storge.It is a love that grows over time and is related to family and friendship relationships, so it is characterized as being a loyal and even protective love.

Storge is a love that implies time, that people use to get to know each other and, great commitment.Unlike the a Mor Eros, this is not passionate or impulsive and can be given between people or people and pets.

An example of this kind of love is that of a friendship that has been built little by little through the years and which highlights the commitment and loyalty of friends.You can also mention the demonstrations of affection among relatives.

Philia

Philia is called love that exists between friends, love of neighbor that seeks the common good and expresses itself through respect, solidarity, cooperation, companerism.It is said to be one of the most beautiful loves that exists.

Philia is a love that is characterized by being disinterested and is based on the companerism that rejoices when the other is happy and well.It does not involve a love Passionate or sexual attraction.

Philia's example are those old, loyal and committed friendships in which many times more time is shared with friends than with couples, without that indicating another type of love other than fraternal.

Agape

The Greeks called Agape the purest and unconditional love that exists .It refers to a love that nourishes, generous, aware of their duties, a spiritual and deep love whose priority is the welfare of the loved one.

Agape love is characterized by being universal, that is to say, it is the love that one has for a person, animal, nature, deity (religious devotion).It is not passionate, even those who love in this way are willing to depart from the relationship for the sake of the loved one, surrenders if necessary.

Agape love does not seek its own pleasure, on the contrary, it finds satisfaction in giving love; therefore, it is considered as a sensitive, tender, careful and kind love.