The present article analyzes the presence of diverse Greek terminology for the translation of the word “love”, philia, eros, and agape, to try to define its relevance and importance in the author`s works mentioned, with the aim of clarifying, from a linguistic point of view, the characteristics of the relationships withing the writings of the poeti...
The Aristotelian definition of man as a political animal (zoon politikon) is not exempt from possible interpretations, including that only within a polis can the human being be happy. From the case of the philia as it appear, above all, in books VIII and IX of Nicomachean Ethics and in relation to the figure of spoudaios that appears also in both b...
Dans Les Phéniciennes, Euripide réécrit l’histoire de la famille d’Œdipe sous un jour féminin. Jocaste en est en effet le personnage principal, tandis que le chœur est constitué d’un groupe de jeunes filles phéniciennes qui n’ont a priori rien à faire sur cette scène strictement thébaine. À travers ces deux créations dramatiques, il donne ainsi une...
Published in Trends in Classics
In the final scene of Alcestis, while handing him his recovered wife, Heracles tells Admetus: ‘keep her safe’ (σῶιζε). This verb has a very marked meaning in the play, the plot of which focuses on saviours of different kinds (Apollo, Alcestis, Heracles). Heracles’ ironical exhortation to Admetus shows that Euripides is interested in contrasting dif...
Plato’s Socrates is famous for claiming that “I know one thing: That I know nothing” (see e.g. Ap. 21d and Meno 81d). There is one subject that Socrates repeatedly claims to have expertise in, however: ta erôtika (see e.g. Symp. 198d1). Socrates also refers to this expertise as his erôtikê technê (Phdr. 257a7–8), which may be translated as “erotic ...
La réflexion sur la tyrannie grecque ne se limite pas au simple jeu politique. Opposé radical de la cité harmonieuse, le tyran fédère autour de sa représentation toutes les notions non civiques : l’étude d’Hérodote, qui associe régulièrement tyrannie et érôs, permet de se repencher sur la configuration singulière des termes érôs, philia, echthra da...
Compte rendu de J.R. Ferreira, D. Leão, M. Tröster, P. Barata Dias (éds), Symposion and Philanthropia in Plutarch, Coimbra, 2009, 573 p.
Published in Res Publica
It is sometimes held that modern institutionally-focussed conceptions of social justice are lacking in one essential respect: they ignore the importance of civic friendship or solidarity. It is also, typically simultaneously, held that Aristotle’s thought provides a fertile ground for elucidating an account of civic friendship. I argue, first, that...
Published in Clio
The study of the meaning and manifestations of maternal love in Ancient Greece reveals the complexity of the notion of philia. Greek mothers expressed sentiments toward their children that were both instinctive and the product of conditioning that relied on attitudes and gestures. The body, blood, and milk were all biological elements or ‘humors’ t...
