this post was submitted on 16 Sep 2024
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The classic love triangle was with Arthur, Lancelot, and Guinevere, where both guys wanted the girl but were also best friends. Does that not qualify?
Ah, a triangle with a platonic base.
Great joke man! The unrelated Greek term plausibly masquarading as another geometical term, brilliant!
Unrelated Greek word? Platonic here refers to the nature of Arthur and Lancelot's relationship. It's a platonic relationship, rather than romantic or sexual one.
Unrelated to triangles, I mean, sorry! Of course it's very topical.
I think you're somewhat understanding what Platonic love is. In modern usage, I'd say that Platonic love is a really strong form of love, stronger than could be called friendship, but which lacks a sexual or romantic dimension (or at least lacks enough of those to characterise as a romantic or sexual relationship).
But it might also be interesting to look at what Platonic love meant to Plato. I'm not an expert. Not even close. But my understanding is that he might have meant it to be the most perfect form of love. We have the phrase "platonic ideal" that we use in other contexts to refer to something that is the most perfect version of that thing, and I think Platonic love likely originally meant that, for love. It was love of the body, the mind, and the soul. Not less than romantic love. Not equal-but-different like the modern usage of the term. But instead encompassing everything that romantic love is and more.
But I've only read extremely shallowly into this matter, and would love to hear more from someone who really knows their stuff.
The thing to keep in mind with Plato's ideals is he's taking about actual divine ideals that you're attempting to connect yourself to in order to reach the truth of reality. So Plato's pure Eros isn't really dependent on the physical nature of something and is a love that supposedly connects you to the divine realm.
That is the standard of the love triangle. The two love rivals have to be friends with, or at least know, each other or else there is no tension between them for their love of the 2nd party. Or else every person talking to multiple people on dating apps is in a love n-gon. And love should never intersext with n-gons.
Technically the triangle just refers to 'relationships' and not 'romantic relationships' so two male friends and one female love interest works as a triangle but one woman with two male strangers doesn't with because that's just a V.
I vote that it should. Sounds like good drama, the kind you'd expect seeing a love-triangle tag on a fancfiction site.