Eros
Who did Eros fall in love with?
Is Eros the son of Chaos or Aphrodite?
Eros, in Greek religion, god of love. Eros was a god not simply of passion but also of fertility. His Roman equivalent was Cupid. Later writers assumed the existence of a number of Erotes, who represented different aspects of love and desire (like the several versions of the Roman Amor). The Erotes included Anteros, the god of mutual love, who was sometimes described as Eros’s opponent; Pothos, the god of longing; and Himeros, the personification of desire. Eros’s symbols were the bow and a quiver of arrows, which could be used to provoke both love and indifference or loathing. He was also associated with flowers, particularly roses.
Origin and attributes
In the Theogony of Hesiod (fl. 700 bce), Eros was a primeval god. Alternate accounts regarded him as the son of Chaos, the original primeval emptiness of the universe. Later tradition made him the son of Aphrodite, goddess of sexual love and beauty, by either Zeus (the king of the gods), Ares (god of war and of battle), or Hermes (divine messenger of the gods). In some traditions Eros’s parentage was attributed to Aphrodite alone, with no father given.
Eros was a constant fixture in Aphrodite’s entourage. Celestials and mortals alike were powerless against his weapons, and he was blamed for several divine romantic liaisons. Eros was famously responsible for Apollo’s unrequited love for Daphne, which he engineered in revenge for Apollo’s derisive comments about his archery skills. He often employed the arrows at Aphrodite’s direction. In some accounts of Persephone’s abduction by Hades, Eros caused Hades to fall in love with Persephone at Aphrodite’s behest.
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Eros and Psyche
Eros defied Aphrodite’s command in one famous instance—when he fell in love with the mortal princess Psyche, whose beauty had aroused Aphrodite’s jealousy. Instead of causing her to love the most despicable of men, as Aphrodite had instructed, Eros placed Psyche in a remote palace where he could visit her secretly and, at his insistence, only in total darkness. When Eros fled after Psyche discovered his identity, Aphrodite imposed several difficult tasks on Psyche before she was finally rescued by and reunited with Eros. The story, featuring the Roman counterparts of Eros and Aphrodite—Cupid and Venus—was first written down in its entirety in the 2nd century ce by Latin author Lucius Apuleius in his Metamorphoses. However, the Roman legend is predated by depictions from the 4th century bce of Eros and Psyche in Greek art.
Art, literature, and worship
The representation of Eros in literary traditions as a young man transformed over time until he degenerated into a mischievous child in Alexandrian poetry. Likewise, in Archaic art he was represented as a beautiful winged youth but tended to be made younger and younger until, by the Hellenistic period, he was an infant. This shift, which reduced Eros’s power by infantilizing him, originated in evolving social beliefs and influenced representations of Cupid.
Although the cult of Eros never achieved the same status and importance as those of some of the other Greek gods, he was a deity who received formal worship and was not merely a figure of myth and literature. His chief cult center was at Thespiae in Boeotia, where the Erotidia were celebrated. He also shared a sanctuary with Aphrodite on the north wall of the Acropolis at Athens. Statues of Eros were sometimes placed alongside those of Hermes at public gyms.