The Greek Loves: Agape

PREFACE TO THE ARTICLES ON GREEK LOVES

The following article series on the Greek Loves has been crafted under the supreme influence of Irving Singer’s The Nature of Love: Plato to Luther (Random House 1966) and Gardner Fair’s An Introductory Guide through Plato’s Symposium (Molloy College 2000). I am immensely indebted to both of these authors; Singer for his original division of the Greek loves, and Fair for his application of them to Plato’s Symposium. While I am in some ways quite close to these authors (in fact quoting them verbatim in places), my study also departs from their conclusions and assessments in substantial and significant ways. All errors are of course my own.

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“And so it appears that every lesser creature is too small a receptacle for that good which has no end and is its own measure.” – Dante Alighieri, Paradiso, canto XIX ...