Aristotle thought friendship between equals was greater than that between unequals, but did he think friendship among greater equals is greater than friendship between lesser equals?
E.g., friendships among kings > friendships among lesser citizens > friendships among slaves?
Not necessarily.
Rosemary Rader, Breaking Boundaries: Male/Female Friendship in Early Christian Communities, p. 27-28:
Aristotle includes women in this discussion of friendship between unequals, and since the previous section deals with equality as the basic constituent of true friendship Aristotle is implicitly stating his belief in women’s incapacity to be true friends [of males].30 He asserts that since friendship is an association or community, friends naturally aim at living together and sharing such common experiences as drinking, playing dice, sports, hunting, and study of philosophy, all of which remained the exclusive domain of the male.31 […] Aristotle did allow, however, that friendship between husband and wife could bring “both usefulness and pleasantness with it, and if the partners are good, it may even be based on virtue or excellence.”32
30. Ostwald, Nic. Ethics, VIII.7, pp. 227-28.
31. Ibid., IX.12, pp. 271-72.
32. Ibid., VIII.12, p. 239.
Friendships based on virtue are the greatest, and women can hold this in common with other women.
seems to think female-female friendships are superior to male-male ones (at least in modernity). Heibert, Sweet Surrender, ch. "Mandate 4: Need Fulfillment" describes Wright's thesis:
In fact it is only male friendship that is founded on the companionship of shared “side-by-side” activity.196 Female friendship, like lovers, is founded on the intimacy of shared “face-to-face” talk, and has led to a greater value, need fulfillment, and participation in friendship by women than by men. Thus, the perception and practice of friendship itself has reversed completely from a male civic virtue in antiquity to a female private indulgence in modernity. As with other dimensions of social life, when friendship was considered a male preserve, it had high social status and value, but when it came to be considered a female preserve, it lost its prestige, though not its ability to meet relatedness needs.197
