A lot of people may smirk about this but the Classical Greeks defined love in many different forms. For example, the love of a parent for his child is one form of love. The love between spouses was another. For them, the two were not the same although very similar ... and there were other words of love in addition to distiguishing physical love from spiritual love.
In religious terms, the Greek word, agape, a form of extremely devoted, self-sacrificing and passionate love often is used to describe the condition of love that the martyred saints had for God, for example. Again a different kind of love.
I think that they may have had a better understanding of love than we do today.
Love means different things, depending upon the circumstances.
And just because, say, a gf would not care to die for her bf to prove her love for him does not mean that she doesn't love him or vice versa.
@fisch
Edited by - Indy11 on 8/2/2004 6:19:41 AM