Ancient Language - Blog Posts

‹‹ Ό φίλος άλλος έαυτός ››

‹‹ The friend is another me. ›› said Phytagoras, showing a relationship of deep harmony between two persons, an unbreakable love and woven between the souls that melt inevitably.

Ancient greek world and its language descrive three different faces of love, all of them classifications that, according to Greeks, happen in human world: Ἔρως, Άγάπη, Φιλία (Eros, Agapee, Philia).

Eros means physical and passionable love, where it shows the desire to possess the other one and bases on a continuous give and receive.

Agape is, instead, celestial love, pure, bright that raises humans. A cosmic love that drive to desire the good for others before ours, that pushes to love every person beyond the fact that he/her/h* can deserve our love. It is, then, a love that sublimes, that makes you fly high, that asks for nothing in change because, as Kahlil Gibran said: "Love is enough for love" A disinterested love, trascendent and far from all selfishness. Near to charity, in fact, agape becomes God's love for the men, and from the men to God. It's a model of a relationship lighted by reciprocity, understood as overcoming of selfishness.

At the end, there's Philia, the friendship, brotherly love. A human love made of pure affection, attraction and sympathy, characterised by a feeling of joy that you can feel staying with the other. A love knows how to lull, confort and protect.

Greeks were very wise to distinguish every kind of love in a maniacal way.

here down different types for saying "I love you" in ancient greece.

Ψυχὴ καί Θανατος (psyche kai thanatos) would whisper uninhibited greek women during sex. The translation loses his meaning (You're my soul and my death), but along with aspirates and assonances, they made it a powerful aphrodisiac.

Διαπετομαι, "fly" or, as we say today, "cum". "To make love" can be translated with κατεύδειν.

Σοι φλήγω, "glow of love for you". It's a clue of strong passion, generally led by Eros. Then the fault is Eros': Ἔρως επὴ μοι κατεθεχατο τοχα καί ιὺς, for "Eros sharpened me with arches and arrows), but these are better for poetry than in the bed.

Τιτροσκώ συ πὸθω means "I'm pierced by desire for you". It means the moment of excitement before love.

Ση πειρώ, in military words can mean being pierced from side to side with a sword, then it specialized also in erotc sense, with the meaning of "I'm pierced of love for you".

The Theocritus Χος ιδον ος εμανην "As I saw you, I god mad" like the formula for "since I first saw you".

Μαινόμαι επή σὸι, "I'm crazy for you".

Σιουναρπαζεις, e.g "You stole my soul" express the strenght and the speed of amorous ignition that in an all-encompassing way hit the loved one.

But fortunately Love is not only pain and absolute passion: ιανεις καρδιαν , means "You warm my heart".

Σ'ηρώ is exactly our "I love you": commonly, less recent, more polyvalent: if instead of common feelings, you can say Σ'αγαπώ; in more carnal and heroic way (only Homer and Archilochus used it) you can say Σ'ηραμαι.

Σοι τερπομαι, means "I'm happy when I'm with you", to a friend, a son or a dear, you can name them with Σε φιλώ, e.g "I love you".

πάθει μάθος

< paa-they maa-thos >

"Suffer to understand"

- Aeschylus, Agamemnon

Famous quotes expressed in a memorial way in Agamemnon of Aeschylus, when the chorus intones the famous Zeus' Hymn.

" But who to Zeus with joy raises the epinikion shout Will bring fully the widsom to Zeus who led the mortals to be wise, who put as solid law "widsom through pain" also in the sleep oozes before the heart an anguish mindful of sorrows: well as who does not, widsome comes. "

Aeschylus faces theme like evil, pain and fear that hit men in their intimacy relationships with Deities and society. According to a first conception of evil and pain, they were determined only by Gods' envy, the Hybris (hy-brys), but later they gained a new value, becoming an instrument to educate men to justice, since only through the pain they can ackwonledge deep inside themselves.

The tragic experience is, according to Greeks, internalization of knowledge. Aristotle few times emphasises how the pain leads the men "from no-knowledge to knowledge."

By the way, no one can escape from the face-off of the pain. How Greek widsome teaches us, one must be courageous and accept the involvement in it: what is next is the greatest mystery which we go against.

ῥαθαπυγίζω

I give kick in the ass

Νειλοθερής

Toasted by the sultry Egypt’s weather