O God Eros he is the god of passion, love and eroticism in Greek mythology. His main function was to unite people through his magical arrows. This god represented true love and in Roman mythology he is called Cupid.
Representation of Eros
Eros is represented as a very handsome winged youth who carries a bow and arrow, his most important symbols. It can also be associated with the symbology of the arrowed heart. As a very handsome and charming figure, he was considered irresistible. Note that Eros can also appear as a winged child.
Myth of Eros
There are several versions of the Eros myth, but the best known is that it was the result of the union of Aphrodite and Ares. Besides him, the couple had six more children: Anteros, Deimos, Phobos, Harmonia, Himeros and Pothos.
Eros was a very spoiled child and for that reason, his aspect was always very childish. When Aphrodite had her second child with Ares, Anteros, Eros began to become a very beautiful man.
He was very brave, cunning, mischievous, and always on the lookout for intrigue. That's how for a long time he shot his arrows at people to make them fall in love. His mother's constant companion, he often released his arrows at her request.
Eros and Psyche
Eros' most famous relationship is with Psyche, a princess. Charged with shooting an arrow at the girl and at a very ugly creature, he missed and ended up hitting. That's because his mother, aphrodite, she was envied with the beauty of Psyche and asked her son to fall in love with a monster.
However, his plan did not work out and he falls madly in love with Psyche and with her they had Hedonê (or Volupia), the goddess of pleasure. Eros married her, but the condition was that Psyche never saw her face. However, one night, she saw the beauty of her beloved's face. At that moment, he woke up and felt betrayed by his wife.
After that, they cut off the relationship, but both are lost and Eros decides to ask for help from Zeus, so that she becomes immortal. Thus, psyche feeds on ambrosia and nectar from the gods and becomes an immortal goddess.
In the myth of Eros and psyche, she represents the soul, while Eros, love, and for many scholars together they represent human spirituality.
Poem
The Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa wrote a poem entitled Eros and Psyche:
Legend has it that I slept
an enchanted princess
who she would only wake up to
an Infant, who would come
from beyond the road wall.
He had to, tried,
overcome evil and good,
before, already released,
leave the wrong way
for what the Princess comes.
The Sleeping Princess,
if waiting, sleeping wait.
She dreams of her life in death,
and adorns her forgotten forehead,
green, a wreath of ivy.
Far away the Infante, struggling,
without knowing what purpose it has,
she breaks the fated path.
He of hers is ignored.
She to him is nobody.
But each fulfills the Destiny -
she sleeping enchanted,
he looking for her mindlessly
by divine process
that makes the road exist.
And, although it is obscure
all along the road,
and false, it comes safe,
and, overcoming road and wall,
arrives where in sleep she lives.
And, still dizzy from what had happened,
to the head, in sea air,
raises your hand, and finds ivy,
and see that he himself was
the sleeping Princess.
Curiosities
- In Greek, the term “Eros” means “to desire with much love”.
- The terms “erotic” and “eroticism” originate from the name of this god.
- In psychoanalysis, Eros represents sexual desire and passion.
- Erotes are the winged children of Aphrodite: Eros, Anteros, Pothos and Himeros.
- Eros was portrayed in the work Theogony of the Greek poet Hesiod, and in this version, he was the child of Chaos.
read more:
- What is a myth?
- Greek mythology
- Roman Mythology
- Greek gods
- Gods of Olympus
- Roman gods
