<snip>
please note that agape is caritas in Latin, more or less; caritas is not
the 3rd term completing the 2 Greek terms [MW]
<snip>
Agreed. More or less. Agape (Greek) > caritas & dilectio (both Latin, and
Medieval Latin at that).
Latham's *Revised Medieval Word-list* defines 'caritas' as 'charity
(Christian virtue)', and 'dilectio' as 'love'; the L&S equivalents are
'esteem' (for 'caritas') and 'love' (for 'dilectio'). So there are some
gross cultural shifts before Augustine hits the page.
Two things tend to confuse the issue: the Hebraic v the Classical (ie
Greek), and the classical (ie: Latin) v the medieval (ie: < Late Latin). So
you've got the *Symposium* (earthly v divine) and the *Ethics* (what
*philia* comprises) in the Classical world. And then there's the problem of
how to render NT Greek (< the Hebraic world) into Latin. Hence *agape* > two
terms which are sometimes interchangeable and sometimes rather less so.
I hope I've got that right.
Is there a prize for pomposity? I must be in the running, at the least.
CW
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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')
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