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Eros
1st c. BCE marble from Pompeii.

Eros. Attic red-figure bobbin, ca. 470 BC–450 BC.

In Greek mythology, Eros (Greek: Ἔρως) was the primordial god of lust, love, and intercourse; he was also worshipped as a fertility deity. His name is the root of words such as erotic. In some myths, he was the son of the deities Aphrodite and Ares. Like Dionysus, he was sometimes referred to as Eleutherios, "the liberator". His Roman equivalent was Cupid, "desire", also known as Amor, "love".

According to tradition, Eros was principally the patron of male love, while Aphrodite ruled the love between men and women. His statue could be found in the palaestrae or wrestling schools, one of the principal venues for men to associate with their beloveds, and it was to him that the Spartans sacrificed before battle. Meleager records this role in a poem preserved in the Greek Anthology: "The Cyprian queen, a woman, hurls the fire that maddens men for women; but Eros himself sways the passion for males." (Mousa Paidiké, 86) Throughout Greek thought, there appear to be two sides to the conception of Eros; in the first, he is a primeval deity who embodies not only the force of erotic love but also the creative urge of ever-flowing nature, the firstborn Light that is responsible for the coming into being and ordering of all things in the cosmos. In Hesiod's Theogony, the most famous Greek creation myth, Eros sprang forth from the primordial Chaos together with Gaia, the Earth, and Tartarus, the underworld; according to Aristophanes' play The Birds, he burgeons forth from an egg laid by Night conceived with Darkness. In the Eleusinian Mysteries, he was worshiped as Protogonus', the first-born.

Alternately, later in antiquity, Eros was the son of Aphrodite and either Ares (most commonly), Hermes or Hephaestus, or of Porus and Penia, or sometimes of Iris and Zephyrus; this Eros was an attendant to Aphrodite, harnessing the primordial force of love and directing it into mortals, an apt role for the issue of a union between "Love" and either "War" or "Fire." In some myths, he is portrayed as being playful, frequently causing trouble for gods and mortals; in others, he is mindful of the power he wields, sometimes refusing the entreaties of his mother and other gods to interfere in the course of some mortals' lives. In some versions he had brothers named Anteros, the embodiment of requited love, and Himerus.

In art, Eros was usually depicted as a nude winged boy or infant (although this is associated more with Cupid from Roman religion; to the Greeks he was a young man or a teenager), with his bow and arrows in hand. He had two kinds of arrows: one was golden with dove feathers that caused instant love; the other was lead with owl feathers that caused indifference. Sometimes, Eros is depicted with a blindfold or blinded because of the saying, "Love is blind." The poet Sappho described him as "bittersweet" and "cruel" to his victims; he was also unscrupulous, mischievous and charismatic. In his ancient identification with Protogones and Phanes he was adorned represented as a bull, a serpent, a lion, and with the heads of a ram. He is occasionally shown blind or blindfolded.

Worship of Eros was uncommon in early Greece, but eventually became widespread. He was fervently worshiped by a fertility cult in Thespiae, and played an important role in the Eleusinian Mysteries. In Athens, he shared a very popular cult with Aphrodite, and the fourth day of every month was sacred to him.

In modern times, Eros is honored on Eros Day, a holiday that celebrates love and human sexuality on January 22, the day when the planetoid 433 Eros is closest to Earth.

Eros, very angry at Apollo for making fun of his archery skills, caused him to fall in love with the nymph Daphne, daughter of Ladon, who had scorned him. Daphne prayed to her father, the river god Peneus to help her and was changed into a laurel tree, which became sacred to Apollo.

Eros and Psyche

The story of Eros and Psyche has a longstanding tradition as a folktale of the ancient Greco-Roman world long before it was put to print; first seen in Apuleius' Latin novel, The Golden Ass, this is apparent and an interesting intermingling of character roles. The novel itself is picaresque Roman style, yet Psyche and Aphrodite retain their Greek parts. It is only Eros whose role hails from his part in the Roman pantheon.

The story is told as a digression and structural parallel to the main storyline of Apuleius' novel. It tells of the struggle for love and trust between Eros and Psyche, whose name is difficult to appropriately translate as it transcends both the Greek and Latin language, but can be taken to mean "soul", "mind" or rather both. Aphrodite is jealous of the beauty of mortal Psyche, as men are leaving her altars barren to worship a mere human woman instead, and so commands her son Eros to cause Psyche to fall in love with the ugliest creature on earth. Eros falls in love with Psyche himself and spirits her away to his home. Their fragile peace is ruined by a visit of Psyche's jealous sisters, who cause Psyche to betray the trust of her husband. Wounded, Eros departs from his wife and Psyche wanders the earth, looking for her lost love. In order to regain the trust and love that she cast away, Psyche must complete three tasks, one requiring descent to the underworld. By embracing the help of nature, she is successful and is received into the pantheon of gods as an immortal and reconciles with her mother-in-law. Eventually, she bears Eros a daughter, Hedone, whose name means "pleasure." Psyche's visit to and return from the underworld made her an object of some devotion, like Dionysus and Persephone. She was an object of some mystery religions and was occasionally mentioned in connection with the popular Eleusinian Mysteries.

Some people believe that this story tells of how love can come when desire (Eros) starts to fancy a person's soul (Psyche) rather than that person's body. The two find love, but easily lose it because of mistrust.

Eros was also depicted in mythology as a trickster god, for love and passion were often perceived as capricious, especially by men^{[citation needed]}.

• Bartsch, Shadi and Thomas Bartscherer, eds. Erotikon: Essays on Eros, Ancient and Modern. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005.
• Bataille, George Translated The Tears of Eros. Translated by Peter Connor. San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1989.
• Calame, Claude. The Poetics of Eros in Ancient Greece. Translated by Janet Lloyd. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999.
• Carson, Anne. Eros the Bittersweet: An Essay. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1986.
• Nygren, Anders. Agap New York: and Eros. by Philip S. Watson.Harper and Row, 1969.
• Amatorius, 756 E-F: Plutarch's Citation of Parmenides and Hesiod Hubert Martin, Jr. The American Journal of Philology, Vol. 90, No. 2. (Apr., 1969), pp. 183-200.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Eros

• Anteros
• Himerus
• Greek words for love
• Cupid
• Kama