Month: August 2016

A non-theological response:

I’m grabbing all the definitions of agapaō from ἀγαπάω, DGE Diccionario Griego-Español, and highlighting those for which they give New Testament or Septuagint instances.

As you can see, there’s a fair area of coverage for the verb; theologians have tried to pin it down in a nice schema, but a concept as vague as “love” is not going to fit nicely.

A ref. to pers.

I 1 welcome with displays of affection (caress, cuddle, etc.), make an affectionate gesture Odyssey; NT.Marc .10.21 (kiss)

• of animals: to caress Plutarch

I 2 fig. Treat with great affection, pamper Xenophon

II love

1 in a relationship between a loving couple: love, caring or affection, in opposition to mere sexual desire Democritus, Plato, Anaxilaus, Aristotle, Dio Chrysostom

• in the LXX with a more general value, freq. in an erotic sense: LXX Ge .29.18, ref. the incestuous desire of Amnon towards Tamar, LXX 2 Kgs .13.1, with. different shades in the same cont. (cf. A II 3 and BI 3) LXX Os .3.1, Ca LXX .1.3, LXX Ca .1.4, LXX Ca .1.7, 3.1-4.

2 more generally: Love, appreciation, esteem mainly towards a king or important person Pindar, Isocrates, Polybius, Dio Chrysostom, Xenophon, Dio Cassius

• towards relatives, esp. children Plato, Xenophon, Dio Chrysoston, Menander LXX Pr.4.3

• esteem of friends, like Isocrates, Aristotle, Dio Chrysostom, in epistolary formulas in papyri

3 of a king or important person: to esteem, appreciate, have in their favour Democritus, Polybius

• from parents to children LXX Ge .25.28.

4 favor, sympathizing, inclination towards people Polybius, Andocides, Aeschines, Isocrates

• empathize, having affinity with Dio Chrysostom

5 of people: to have high appreciation, to liking some, to be fond of someone for their special characteristics or occupations Plato, Xenophon, Dio Chrysostom

III Religious Sense.

1 render funeral honors Euripides

2 of gods: to feel predilection, love ὅτι ἠγάπησέν σε κύριος ὁ θεός σου LXX De .23.6 , cf. Ep.Rom .8.37, Demosthenes, Dio Chrysostom

• esp. ref. to being loved by Hellenistic divinities. freq. of Oriental or Egyptian origin in papyri; Jesus Christ the much loved (by God), the beloved son, Ep.Eph .1.6 1 Ep.Clem .59.2, Dio Chryostom; Jerusalem Rev. .20.9, Inscription

• loving of man towards divinity Dio Chrysostom, cf. LXX De .6.5, 11.1, Ps .30.24, Eu.Matt.22.37 , Josephus, Julian

3 love, driven by not only a religious but philosophical or social imperative, in primitive societies Plato

• in sects or schools, e.g. those following a “Homeric” or Pythagorean life, regard for one’s teachers Plato, Chrysippus

• in Judaeo-Christian literature. LXX Le .19.18, cf. 34, Ev.Io.13.34, Eu.Matt .5.44, Eu.Luc .6.27, 35, Ign. Magn .6.2

• abstract reference to this kind of selfless love 1 Ep.Io. .3.18

• to show love Ev.Io.17.26.

B referring to a thing or action

I 1 liking to do something Odyssey, LXX. Os .12.8, Theopompus

• liking something Plato, Aeschines, Lucian

• have a habit of Aristotle

2 of possessions. Love, crave Plato, Isocrates, Demosthenes, 2 Ep.Petr .2.15

• to wish for, desire Plato, esp. OT and NT LXX Ps .39.17, 2 Ep.Ti .4.8

• with infinitive LXX Ps .33.13 1 Ep.Clem .22.2, τὸ παθεῖν desire martyrdom Ign. Tr .4.2, cf. imperial inscription

3 abstract. Love, cherish, have high price Thrasymachus, Plato, Pseudo-Archytas, Isocrates, Josephus, Xenophon LXX Si .4.12 1 Ep.Petr .3.10

• of perceptions Aristotle

II be happy, content Plato, Isocrates, Demosthenes, Antiphon, Lycurgus, Lucian, Herodian, Alciphron, Thucydides, Xenophon, Aristophanes, Lysias, Aristotle

• in comparative contexts to prefer Xenophon, Demosthenes, Ev.Io.12.43, Plutarch

So DGE identifies, specifically in the New Testament, the following nuances; and note that there’s plenty more nuances even in the Septuagint, let alone Classical literature

• to display affection (kiss)
• love from (a) god
• love towards (a) god
• love as a social imperative
• craving for worldly possessions
• wishing for, desire for something or to do something
• to cherish
• to prefer

The great Scots comedian Billy Connolly had a good strategy for this:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=a0RqqF62Xac

“THANK GOD YOU’RE HERE!

AND NOT A MOMENT TOO SOON!

YOU’RE NEVER GOING TO BELIEVE THIS!”

And proceed to disarm them with the shaggy dog story that ensues…

I wrote a poem about this scenario. In my teens, which is the right time to be pondering such a scenario.

The final verse of said poem is:

Ni iris — laborejen. Malkontraŭ la malbeno.

We went — to the office. Un-against the un-blessing.

I’d like to think that’s still my answer. But it’s not.

At this stage of my life, there are worse things to be doing than spending 10 hours cuddling my honey.

It’s already changed the culture significantly, of course. It has had a change in what kinds of sex teenagers expect to have, since that’s become a primary source of information on sex for them; but I’m not sure that counts as a cultural change. It’s better addressed in a question like What Is the effect of pornography on young teens? , although there’s curiously few responses there; there are statistics around on that question.

For broader cultural changes, I’ll venture:

• Mainstreaming (to some extent) of porn actors. It’s much easier for porn stars to transition to at least B-grade celebrities, without being stigmatised. There’s still a barrier for “serious thespians”; there was a fuss when the porn films Sibel Kekilli had made were unearthed. (And they weren’t really buried to begin with.) But Sasha Grey hasn’t suffered for it, and has probably gotten a lot further in her non-porn career than, say, Ginger Lynn did.
• Public acknowledgement of porn. Not everywhere in everything; “adult topics” are still curtailed for distribution on Quora, for example. But the open discussion of porn is far different to 30 years ago.
• More skin shown in “mainstream” TV and Hollywood. That’s a broader cultural move in the west, and it has run at different speeds in the US and Europe; but the prevalence of porn has something to do with making it less of a big deal.
• Causal use in the vernacular of obscure sexual references (that porn has made less obscure), particularly in metaphorical or non-literal senses. For example: A unicorn bukkake on a canvas is not art.
• The reinforcement of a laissez-faire attitude towards sexual practices, simply by exposing the diversity of sexual practices that people are into.

With monographs, you’re pretty much selling to university libraries. And the books are priced to match: north of $150.

If you still 300 copies, you’re doing well.

Greek:

The colour of sex is pink. Actually, it’s roz, a borrowing from French rose.

The colour of freshness and youth is not green, but pale green, khloros.

Sky blue, galanos, is the colour of calm. (There’s been some etymological conflation there.)

You go yellow with fear, not cowardice.

Critical insight with the four-way classification of love in Koine Greek (Greek words for love): do not assume that the Greek classification was that clear cut. These are theologically useful idealisations. Like I already pointed out in Nick Nicholas’ answer to Why isn’t there a non religious equivalent of agape love?, the Diccionario Griego–Español’s definitions of agapē are:

1. Sexual love, with a link to Song of Songs thank you very much. (Inb4 “no, no, there’s no sex in the Song of Songs, it’s all metaphor.)
2. General sense: love, affection
3. Religious sense: love between god and humanity; Christian love, charity
4. a favour; alms
5. agape, communal feast; funeral feast; church, community

English certainly makes a distinction between erōs and agapē, without using the word “sex”: it’s the distinction between love and “being in love”. Modern Greek speakers would translate storgē as “caring” for a child, and would just as readily speak of agapē for a child. And while Aristotle defined philia carefully as a kind of love-as-loyalty, in ancient usage it overlaps with storgē, and lovers can feel it too (hence the –philia words in English.)

Que?

Taking the *Greek* Wikipedia article as a baseline, Dimitris Almyrantis?

I hate you.

The fact that the anthem of Rebetika, Frangosyriani, means “Catholic Girl from Syros”, is too obvious for the Greek Wikipedia page to mention; it does at least mention that the song’s composer Vamvakaris was himself a Catholic Boy from Syros (a frangosyrianaki, as he himself sings).

Ok, one thing about Syros jumps to my mind that is on the obscure side. As Wikipedia says, there are two main towns in Syros island: Syros town itself, inhabited by the Catholics indigenous to the island, and Ermoupolis, founded by Orthodox refugees during the Greek War of Independence.

Now in 1918–19, a linguist named John Voyatzidis did a dialectological tour of the Cyclades, on behalf of the Historical Dictionary of the Academy of Athens. He published his findings here:

Βογιατζίδης, Ι.Κ. 1923. Έκθεσις γλωσσικής αποστολής εις τας Κυκλάδας (1918–1919). Λεξικογραφικόν Αρχείον 6: 142–159.

Voyatzidis found that the old Cycladic dialect (which is related to Cretan) was already moribund: he could only found two or three people per island that spoke what he deemed to be authentic dialect. And this is a lot earlier than the mass dying off of the Greek dialects; but then again, the Cyclades were part of the Greek State since the very beginning.

One of the places he visited, of course, was Syros. In the old town of Syros, he heard the same thing as elsewhere on the Cyclades: one or two old timers speaking the authentic dialect, and the rest speaking a mixture of standard and dialect.

… When he went to Ermoupolis, all he heard was Standard Greek.

He published his lightbulb realisation here:

Βογιατζίδης, Ι.Κ. 1923. Πώς ανεπτύχθη η δημοτική μας γλώσσα. Ημερολόγιον της Μεγάλης Ελλάδος 218–225.

His lightbulb realisation might be obvious to us now, but I think he was actually the first one to say it at the time—so blinded were Greek linguists by the Greek Language Question polemics. Standard Modern Greek is a dialect koine. That’s why it was spoken in Ermoupolis and Athens—two towns that were essentially settled by people from throughout Greece, after Greek independence.

To date:

• Nick Nicholas’ answer to What does the Greek word “malaka” mean? 14,054 views
• What it says about me: I like talking about obscenities, but when I do, it’s still going to be as a linguist, with exploration of nuance and cultural difference. And contemporary Greek politics.
• What it says about Quora: Herp derp, Greek obscenity!
• Nick Nicholas’ answer to How did the “Swastika”, which is said to be the symbol of the Aryan race, get its place in Hinduism? 8,580 views
• What it says about me: I am familiar with the meta-history of Indo-European linguistics; and I have a devastating turn with colloquial English. (“I shit you not.”)
• What it says about Quora: There are many Indians on Quora.
• Nick Nicholas’ answer to Why was Richard White banned from Quora? 8,086 views
• What it says about me: I am deeply unhappy with the excesses of Quora moderation. Also, I like to draw artless cartoons on Quora.
• What it says about Quora: Richard White is a popular Quoran. And look, a picture!
• Nick Nicholas’ answer to How do you say “cheers” in Greek? What are some other common Greek toasts? 6,291 views
• What it says about me: I know Greek; and my Greek is in some ways antiquated.
• What it says about Quora: Lots of Quorans take Greeks out for drinks.
• Nick Nicholas’ answer to What is the difference between authorise and authorize? 6,100 views
• What it says about me: I know enough about the vagaries of English spelling, to know that Oxford University Press is a traitor to its own country, favouring Greek etymology over our proud Anglo-Norman history.
• What it says about Quora: Lots of Quorans are anxious about how to spell.