Eros greek god of love

eros



Eros (Greek: Ἔρως), in Greek mythology, was the primordial god of love, sexual love and beauty.
His Roman counterpart was Cupid ("desire"), also known as Amor ("love"). In some myths, he was the son of the deities Aphrodite and Ares, but according to Plato's Symposium, he was conceived by Poros (Plenty) and Penia (Poverty) at Aphrodite's birthday. Like Dionysus, he was sometimes referred to as Eleutherios, "the liberator".

Eros is Love, who overpowers the mind, and tames the spirit in the breasts of both gods and men.

 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 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 Gaea, the Earth, and Tartarus, the underworld; according to Aristophanes' play The Birds (c. 414 BC), he burgeons forth from an egg laid by Nyx (Night) conceived with Erebus (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. Rarely, he was given as the son of Iris and Zephyrus; this Eros was an attendant the Aphrodite, harnessing the primordial force of love and directing it into mortals.

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.


eros and psyche
  
 
Anteros

The twin brother of Eros

Anteros is love avenged or returned, "mutual love" or "reciprocal love". Aphrodite is called the mother of the "Twin Loves" (Eros and Anteros) (Ov.Fast.4.1). The story of Timagoras and Meles illustrates the nature of Anteros:

The Athenian Meles, spurning the love of Timagoras, bade him ascend to the highest point of a rock and cast himself down. Timagoras, who was ready to gratify his beloved friend in any of his requests, went and cast himself down. When Meles saw that Timagoras was dead, he suffered such remorse that he threw himself from the same rock and died. For this reason some people in Athens worshipped Anteros as the avenging spirit of Timagoras (Pau.1.30.1).

According to Cicero, Anteros was the son of Mars (Ares) and "the third Venus" (Cic.ND.3.60). For Cicero's confusing genealogies and duplications of the gods, see Graphic Guide to Cicero's De Natura Deorum.
 

1 Responses to “Eros greek god of love”

Anonymous said...
13 May 2013 at 17:21

I dont understand how Aphrodite gets credit ofbeing Eros' mother, when really he was born out of Chaos, like Gaea and Tartarus. Help?


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