ABSTRACT
Aristotle describes erotic love in the chapters of Nicomachean Ethics in which he examines the subject of friendship. Indeed the definition he gives to this type of love is made in comparison to friendship; a laconic definition. He explains this similarity by adding that in both friendship and love a person cannot have a close bond with more than one. It is a fact of life, he says, that an erotic love should be unique, like it happens in bosom companions. The Stagirite connects erotic love with youth. His arguments are based on the similar behaviour of young people with that of those in love. The nouns orexis and epithymia are used interchangeably in the discussion about erotic love, as well as their corresponding verbs, thus denoting the intense and vehement quality of this type of emotional condition. A distinction is made by the Stagirite between erotic love and simple friendship based on the existence or not of sensual desire.
