Filotimo

Filotimo

Filotimo to the Greeks is like breathing. A Greek is not a Greek without it.

-Thales of Miletus

The exact meaning of filotimo is hotly debated, given that the word belongs to the pantheon of Greek lexical items that defy easy explanation.

Filotimo binds two of the most important words of the Greek language, that of friendship and honor.

From Homer’s times these two words work as the compass for an ethical, aesthetic, and practical way of life; this trilogy characterizes the classic Greek and that was the example that was later adopted by others.

The uniqueness of this word lays on the fact that it combines a human feeling, which is the need of friendship, with an absolute abstract concept, that of honor.

Although the etymology is not too hard to work out, explaining the concept outside of the Greek scene becomes difficult because there is no equivalent in other languages.

In essence, filotimo at its core, is about goodness. It is about selflessness and the force that drives an individual to think about the people and the world around them. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that such a concept came into existence and evolved from of the birthplace of democracy.