I was recently talking to a friend who lived in Norway for a few years. She told me that in the Norwegian language, one would say I love you to a child, but not to a spouse. The Norwegian sentiment for a spouse is a phrase that translates to something like I'm happy with you. Regardless of nationality, those relationships and bonds are very different, of course there should be different words to describe and communicate them. Yet the English language only has one word to convey myriad, nuanced meanings and emotions. It can get seriously confusing.

Other languages take a stab at using different words to communicate ideas like, let’s get it on and my life is interwoven with yours and I would gladly Lily Potter-myself for you. There’s a world of difference to misunderstand and miscommunicate among all the ideas we try to express when we use the word love. Especially considering that we seem to be culturally well-versed with one particular manifestation of love: eros (you know what I’m talking about: it’s the sexy one). The ancient Greeks didn’t tend to think too highly of erotic love; it was viewed as a form of madness. It was associated with loss of control, which was largely distasteful in the classical world. It also had a painful connotation, personified by that little bastard Eros (a.k.a., Cupid) running around shooting people with arrows. Or think of Helen of Troy, whose hotness was so legendary that it instigated the Trojan War. Erotic love, which is passionate and romantic, is lovely and wonderful but it’s often confused or equated with other kinds of love. And given that eros has pretty well saturated the market, I’m curious about those other things we mean when we say love. The ancient Greeks had at least seven distinct words to talk about sentiments that English speakers would all call love. In honor of Valentine’s Day, I’d like to spend the month of February thinking about some of these other concepts of love, their manifestations, and how we can cultivate love them.

I’m interested to hear your thoughts on love. Where do you experience love in your own life and where do you see it reflected particularly well in fiction? Let me know what you think in the comments [spoiler alert: I’m already starting to think about the Greek word storge, or familial love].

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Image Credit: Heart by Ben Kerckx is licensed under CC0 Creative Commons.