Three colours of love
Philia, agape and eros
The FameWorks were in Greece last week, where there seem to be as many words for love as eskimos mythically have for snow. Behind three of them lie some intriguing stories about this singular culture:
First philia: the brotherly love that is the basis of loyalty to one’s community and family. The enduring importance of philia might explain why fully 80% of all Greek businesses, from SMEs to conglomerates, are family owned. It’s a far higher proportion than anywere else in Europe; and reckoned to bring all kinds of benefits – easier hiring decisions, staff trained in the requisite skills from early on, and continuity in company culture.
But is this love tainted? Where does it leave the individual who doesn’t get on with their family, or who isn’t born into a business-owning family? It’s doubtful that such a commercial culture can be strongly meritocratic, or much good for social mobility. This might explain why most of the fabric of Athens appears to be covered in exuberant grafitti, some of it very beautiful: if you can’t affect the odyssey of your life, you can at least alter its canvas.
Next agape: the term used by early Christians to describe their communal meals and the origin of the eucharist ritual. The reflex to commensal eating seems alive and well in modern Greece. Greeks spend more minutes per day eating and drinking together than any other nation bar France. Greece is also consistently among the least obese nations in Europe. Correlation or causation? Who knows, though some studies suggest that eating together may produce a natural moderating effect on individual consumption, the kind of effect that doesn’t happen if you eat alone or on the go.
And finally eros: love in the sense of sexual passion, but not just that. In Plato’s Symposium, Socrates argues that eros helps the soul recall its inherent knowledge of ideal beauty and spiritual truth. If that sounds prudishly virtuous, bear in mind that Greeks according to Statista have more sex (164 times a year) than pretty much anyone else in the world, even Brazilians.
Socrates may have been onto something. Whatever the colour, there’s a great deal to love about Greece.
