Greek Text - 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".

... Ἥρη δὲ κραιπνῶς προσεβήσετο Γάργαρον ἄκρον Ἴδης ὑψηλῆς· ἴδε δὲ νεφεληγερέτα Ζεύς. ὡς δ' ἴδεν, ὥς μιν ἔρως πυκινὰς φρένας ἀμφεκάλυψεν, οἷον ὅτε πρῶτόν περ ἐμισγέσθην φιλότητι εἰς εὐνὴν φοιτῶντε, φίλους λήθοντε τοκῆας.....

---Hera reached quickly the top of Mount Gargano on the high Ida, and she saw Zeus gathering the clouds, and when he saw, passion (ἔρως) invaded his wise soul, as when for the first time they bonded in love and went to the bed, unknown to his parents----

(Illiad -  XIV, 293-295)

Once Zeus took his power, decided to take to wife and noticed the beauty, worthy to became the Gods' Queen, in his sister Hera, who lived isolated in Eubea's Island, along with her nurse Makris, in the house of Thetis. Since it was very difficult getting close to her, because she watched assiduously over the nurse 'cause of her early age, in a cold winter day, when Hera were by chance alone and lost in a country roead, Zeus used a strategy and in the form of a cuckoo numb and shaking from cold, he leaned of her shoulder. The Goddess took pity and warmed him up with her robe, starting to caressing him. The cuckoo transformed himself in an handsome and attractive boy who made himself known as Zeus, who declared his love to the Goddess and asked her hand. Heca accepted, so the wedding were celebrated on the Olympus at all Gods presence. The wedding between Zeus and Hera is ofter told as an happy marriage even if Zeus had lot of nymphs and mortal women as lovers, whom in the end these unions were symbolics, for example to indicate what the Earth needed  rains to be fecundated, or the Moon runs through the vault of heaven from east to west. These adventures sparked the jealousy of Hera and lot of poets attributed this kind of jealousy to heaven events, even it is told that the king and the queen of heaven, with their fights determinated rough hurricanes and cold winters. Despite everything, the divine lovers continued to be perhaps the only durable in the Olympus and from the marriage of Zeus and Hera were born four children: Hebe, Eileithyia, Ares and Hephestus

ρθροφοιτοσυκοφαντοδικοπαλαίπωροι, τρόποι

The unhappy habit to get up in the early morning to attend tribunals dealing with (stupid) judgments and convictions

In the beginning there were Chaos and Nyx and the black Erebus and the wide Tartarus, but there were not Earth, nor Air, nor Sky; and in the wide hole of Erebus, first of all Nyx of black wings created an egg raised by the wind, from where in the cyrcle returning seasons bloomed Eros the Desirable, with his refulgent back from two golden wings, similar to speedy whirlwinds. And he at night blending with winged Chaos, in the wide Tartarus, hatched our people, and firstly brought to the light. Until then there were not immortal seed, before Eros mixed everything; but being mixed each other, birthed Uranus and Oceanus, and Earth and seed without destruction of all blessed Gods.

Aristophanes, The Birds -  693-702

“ I love delicacy, and for me Love has the sun's splendour and beauty

Ὦ τὸν ὑποχθόνιον ναίων δόμον, ὀβριμόθυμε, Ταρτάριον λειμῶνα βαθύσκιον ἠδὲ λιπαυγῆ, Ζεῦ χθόνιε, σκηπτοῦχε, τάδ' ἱερὰ δέξο προθύμως· Πλούτων, ὃς κατέχεις γαίης κληῖδας ἁπάσης, πλουτοδοτῶν γενεὴν βροτέην καρποῖς ἐνιαυτῶν. ὃς τριτάτης μοίρης ἔλαχες χθόνα παμβασίλειαν, ἕδρανον ἀθανάτων, θνητῶν στήριγμα κραταιόν· ὃς θρόνον ἐστήριξας ὑπὸ ζοφοειδέα χῶρον, τηλέπορον τ', ἀκάμαντα, λιπόπνοον, ἄκριτον Ἅιδην, κυάνεόν τ' Ἀχέρονθ', ὃς ἔχει ῥιζώματα γαίης. ὃς κρατέεις θνητῶν θανάτου χάριν, ὦ πολυδέγμων Εὔβουλ', ἁγνοπόλου Δημήτερος ὅς ποτε παῖδα νυμφεύσας λειμῶνος ἀποσπαδίην διὰ πόντου, τετρώροις ἵπποισιν ὑπ' Ἀτθίδος ἤγαγες ἄντρον δήμου Ἐλευσῖνος, τόθι περ πύλαι εἴσ' Ἀίδαο. μοῦνος ἔφυς ἀφανῶν ἔργων φανερῶν τε βραβευτής, ἔνθεε, παντοκράτωρ, ἱερώτατος, ἀγλαότιμε, σεμνοῖς μυστιπόλοις χαίρων ὁσίοις τε σεβασμοῖς ἵλαον ἀγκαλέω σε μολεῖν κεχαρηότα μύσταις.