<snip>
Eros, according to SOED, is first noted 1775 [MJW]
<snip>
That's true of the SOED, but not of the OED. There's Chaucer to start off
with, specifically the 'Loveres Maladye of Hereos' in line 1373 of the
*Knight's Tale*. Then comes Milton's nephew (and thus perhaps also Thomas
Blount), who defines it as the God in his *New World of Words* (1671).
Before Phillips there's Thomas Thomas, not cited by the OED, in his
Latin/English dictionary of 1587.
But this is pedantry, of course. The basic point sounds right:
Love/Amor/Cupid and only later Eros.
<snip>
Locks back to (doesn't everything?) Plato, the Terrestial and the Celestial
Venuses in The Symposium. [RH]
<snip>
Hence Love's chaotic, uncontrollable results: all those unfortunate pairings
and so forth. But Martin's *philia* (= amity) comes from Aristotle's
*Ethics*, not from Plato.
<snip>
Been brooding moodily in the background over the eros/agape distinction, but
bugger me if I can remember the third term. [RH]
<snip>
Perhaps you're thinking of *dilectio*. Augustine uses this, along with
*caritas* to render *agape* (Godly love). If there's a distinction, it is (I
think) that *dilectio* is the behaviour, whereas *caritas* is what's
immanent in behaviour (Cf Faith and Hope) or the state out of which it
comes.
CW
____________________________________
Wasting all my days...
Boatman, I've come to the river at a bad time.
I don't know your name.
(Baul singer in Ghatak's 'Cloud Capped Star')
|