Philoxenia and Philotimo
Love and Honour
‘Tis the season of love and romance. The fragrance of love has spread all around engulfing everyone in its wide and open arms. Everyone around is talking about practicing love in some or the other way, be it self-love, familial love, platonic love, friendships, and romantic love. The couple dates, friend meet-ups, and solo dates have been booked. There are articles galore talking about the various kinds of love, the various love languages and how to practice them in real life, how the number of people signing up on dating sites during Valentine’s Day has increased, and fun and exciting ways to celebrate Valentine’s Day and all things love.
So, let me go beyond these conventional ideas of love and talk about two unique kinds of love.
Philoxenia and Philotimo.
Philoxenia is an ancient Greek concept which refers to a genuine feeling of love and hospitality towards strangers coming from a faraway land. (Philo-love, xeno- foreigner/stranger) The tradition is also followed enthusiastically by modern Greeks who are very welcoming and generous towards strangers, be it in their own country or even in other countries. I came across many stories of Greek hospitality from people on the Internet. These were stories of Greek people going out of their way to help strangers without expecting anything in return by letting them stay in their house, helping tourists who had lost their way and had a car break down, and offering them food and drinks.
The second Greek concept of Philotimo is the love of honour. (Philo-love, timi-honour) The word refers to self-pride, familial pride, cultural pride, national pride as well as taking pride in doing the right thing. Thus, it is knowing that your behaviour is a reflection of your family, culture and nationality and preserving honour by doing the right thing. Philoxenia can be considered an extension of Philotimo.
So, let us try to adapt these Greek concepts in our lives by practising random, small acts of kindness for people with no expectations and trying to always do good things.
Let us spread love all around.
