Agape
conceptSelfless, unconditional love — the highest form of love in Greek philosophical and theological thought.
The Myth
The Greeks distinguished multiple forms of love: eros (passionate desire), philia (friendship), storge (familial affection), and agape (selfless love). Agape was relatively rare in classical Greek, but early Christians adopted it as the supreme form of love — God's love for humanity and the love Christians owed one another. Paul's famous passage in 1 Corinthians 13 ("love is patient, love is kind") uses agape throughout. The concept became central to Christian ethics and distinguished it from Greco-Roman virtue systems.
Symbols
Fun Fact
The "love feast" or agape meal of early Christians gave the word its lasting association with communal, selfless love — some churches still practice agape meals today.
Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth:
Explore Further
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