The Greeks also used the word philia, which defined another type of love—the love that we have for family. When William Penn first settled in the New World, he named his first and most important city Philadelphia, “the city of brotherly love.” The Greek word philia was at the heart of the name of his new city, where he dreamed that people would treat each other as brothers.
The concept of brotherly love, or love of family, is a warm and sensitive type of love. It avoids the erotic or sexual aspects of eros, but goes well beyond friendship. The Greeks, and much of Western civilization, believed that the bond between family members in general far exceeded that of any other relationship. Most of us would agree that our relationships with our family members are strong and critical elements of our own personal development.