In this account we already perceive a combination of the most ancient with later notions.Īccording to the former, Eros was one of the fundamental causes in the formation of the world, inasmuch as he was the uniting power of love, which brought order and harmony among the conflicting elements of which Chaos consisted. 120, &c.), there was Chaos, then came Ge, Tartarus, and Eros, the fairest among the gods, who rules over the minds and the council of gods and men. Homer does not mention Eros, and Hesiod, the earliest author that mentions him, describes him as the cosmogonic Eros. the Eros of the ancient cosmogonies, the Eros of the philosophers and mysteries, who bears great resemblance to the first, and the Eros whom we meet with in the epigrammatic and erotic poets, whose witty and playful descriptions of the god, however, can scarcely be considered as a part of the ancient religious belief of the Greeks. In the sense in which he is usually conceived, Eros is the creature of the later Greek poets and in order to understand the ancients properly we must distinguish three Erotes: viz. POROS & PENIA (Plato Symposium 178) OFFSPRINGĮROS (Erôs), in Latin, AMOR or CUPI′DO, the god of love. OURANOS & APHRODITE (she was born pregnant with Eros from the genitals of Ouranos) (possibly Hesiod Theogony 176, Sappho Frag 198, Nonnus Dionysiaca 33.4 & 41.128)
ARES & APHRODITE (Ibycus Frag 575, Nonnus Dionysiaca 5.88) APHRODITE (Ibycus Frag 284, Anacreontea Frag 44, Apollonius Rhodius 3.82, Pausanias 9.27.1, Plato Phaedrus, Philostratus Younger 8, Oppian Halieutica 4.10, Hyginus Astronomica 2.30, Ovid Metamorphoses 1.452 & 5.363, Seneca Phaedra 274, Statius Silvae 1.2.51, Apuleius 11.218, Nonnus Dionysiaca 4.238 & 33.4) Sculptors preferred the image of the bow-armed boy, whereas mosaic artists favoured the figure of a winged putto (plump baby). His attributes were varied-from the usual bow and arrows, to the gifts of a lover such as a hare, sash, or flower. In ancient vase painting Eros is depicted as either a handsome youth or child. Eros was often portrayed as the disobedient but fiercely loyal child of Aphrodite. It was he who lit the flame of love in the hearts of the gods and men, armed with either a bow and arrows or a flaming torch. The singular Eros, however, remained distinct in myth. The scene was particular popular in ancient art where the godlings flutter about the goddess as she reclines inside a conch-shell.Įventually Eros was multiplied by ancient poets and artists into a host of Erotes (Roman Cupides). Some classical writers interpreted this to mean the pair were born of the goddess immediately following her birth or else alongside her from the sea-foam. The same poet later describes two love-gods, Eros and Himeros (Desire), accompanying Aphrodite at the time of her birth from the sea-foam. (See the Protogenos Eros and Phanes for more information.) The poet Hesiod first represents him as a primordial deity who emerges self-born at the beginning of time to spur procreation. Love, Sexual Desire Eros playing flute, Athenian red-figure lekythos C5th B.C., Museum of Fine Arts BostonĮROS was the mischievous god of love, a minion and constant companion of the goddess Aphrodite.
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