Eros, in Greek mythology, was known as the god of love and sexual desire. In more recent versions, he is the son of Aphrodite, also the goddess of love. Eros has a bow and arrow with which he harms mortals and immortals, causing them to fall in love.
In Ancient Greece, Eros was represented as a beautiful winged young man, just as he was represented in Ancient Rome, when he was known as Cupid. In the Renaissance, Eros began to be represented as a chubby and mischievous child. His most famous myth is that of his passion for Psyche. God and humanity faced several challenges to stay together.
Read too:What are the main Greek deities of Antiquity?
Summary about Eros
- Eros is the god of love in Ancient Greece. He was one of the erotes, deities associated with love and sexual desire.
- He has two types of arrows, golden ones, which make people fall in love, and lead ones, which create repulsion and hatred in the person or immortal struck by them.
- Eros, when observing Psyche sleeping, accidentally injured himself with his own golden arrow, falling in love with the mortal.
Representations of the god Eros in mythology
In Ancient Greece, Eros was commonly represented as a young man, very beautiful and with wings, similar to those of angels. Always represented with bow and arrow in hand, a weapon with which he injured men and gods, leaving them in love. In Ancient Rome, Eros was also represented as the beautiful winged young man, yet, sometimes the god was represented as a child, usually accompanied by her mother, Aphrodite.
During the Renaissance, Eros began to be represented as a chubby child, with blond hair, full of folds and very mischievous. Eros has two types of arrows in her arsenal, the golden ones, that when they reach some being, they fall in love, and the lead ones, which, when they hit someone, cause the opposite, awakening hatred and repulsion in whoever was hit.
What is the myth of Eros?
At Theogonyby Hesiod, from approximately 700 BC. C., Eros éone of the primordial gods, was born after Chaos, Gaia and Tartarus. Eros, love, is the god who unites all things, allowing the origin of the Cosmos. Parmenides, one of the Socratic philosophers, stated that Eros is the first of all gods, being the love responsible for the existence of everything that exists.
In the Classical Period, the most common version of the myth stated that Eros is the son of Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty. That is the most common version until nowadays.
Eros It's one of the erotes, winged gods that relate to love and sexual desire. Another erote is Hermaphroditus, son of Hermes and Aphrodite, considered a deity associated with love and homosexual relationships. Another is Hymeneus. The Greeks believed that Himinaeus is present at all weddings, which is why they evoked him in these ceremonies. Some linguists argue that the name Himineus gave rise to the word hymen.
See too: What does the myth of Pandora say?
What are the powers of the god Eros?
Eros is one of the most powerful gods, as his arrows are effective with humans, gods, demigods and all living creatures. A passion awakened by the arrows of Eros can lead the arrow to the loss of reason, acting only on the impulse of love. On the other hand, Eros also has its lead arrows, which cause the person hit to develop great repulsion, the opposite of love.
→ Eros, Apollo and Daphne
Apollo, Greek god of beauty, angers Eros by stating that his arrows are more powerful than his. Eros strikes Apollo's heart with a golden arrow, causing the god to fall in love with the nymph Daphne. Eros then launches a lead arrow into the heart of Daphne, who develops a total aversion to Apollo.
The Greek god of beauty starts to chase Daphne, who constantly runs away from him. Unable to escape any longer, Daphne asks her father, the god Peneus, to free her from her pursuer. Her father turns her into a bush, the laurel tree. Sad about losing his loved one, Apollo starts wearing a laurel wreath in her head. Find out more about this myth by clicking here.
What is the difference between Eros and Aphrodite?
The love provoked by Eros is considered ardent, passionate and emotional. The love awakened by Aphrodite is more contained and rational. Eros causes an intense desire in the person in love, making them act impulsively to reach their loved one. Eros is also more associated with sexual desire. In many myths, he obeys Aphrodite's orders, launching his arrows and numbing her target with love.
Unlike us, who we only use the word love, the Greeks used several words for this abstract concept. Ludus, for example, was the youthful, innocent love that occurred between young lovers, this type of love also contained eros love.
Filia it was love between friends, without sexual involvement. And eros, love full of sexual desire, of passion. O pragma it was the love that only occurs between those who have loved each other for a long time, a kind of love in which the two lovers become one.
Know more: Trojan War — territorial dispute or a love competition?
Myth of Eros and Psyche
Psyche, which in Greek meant something like “breath”, “breath” and is associated with current terms such as “soul”, “ego”, “mind” or “spirit”, was one of the three daughters of a king. All three daughters were very beautiful, but Psyche stood out more than her sisters, with some even claiming that She was more beautiful than the goddess Aphrodite.
Psyche's beauty attracted many admirers, who stopped paying tribute to Aphrodite, which aroused great jealousy in the goddess. With the aim of punishing the mortal, Aphrodite ordered her son, Eros, to shoot Psyche so that she would fall in love with a horrible creature that would cause her harm.
Eros flies to Psyche's house one night, when the young girl is sleeping. As he approaches the woman, Eros observes her beauty, becoming paralyzed for a moment. When Psyche moves, Eros is distracted and wounds himself with his own golden arrow, falling in love with the mortal. Eros runs away and starts watching Psyche from afar, not shooting any more men because becomes jealous of humans.
As the years pass, Psyche's father becomes worried, his most beautiful daughter has no suitors, unlike her two other sisters, who were already married. The father she goes to the oracle of Apollo, where he is informed that his daughter will fall in love with an ugly creature, which will cause her death. The father must then take his daughter to the top of a cliff, dressed in wedding attire.
Her father takes his daughter to the top of the cliff and leaves her there. When she's alone, Psyche is carried by a strong wind to a beautiful palace, where invisible servants begin to serve her. At night, in her dark room, Psyche is surprised by a figure, who enters the room, lies down on her bed and has sex with Psyche. When she wakes up, Psyche is alone.
The meeting takes place over several nights, until, on one of them, Psyche asks the stranger to introduce himself. The stranger claims that he will never reveal himself or be seen by her, and that is the only thing he asks of Psyche, who agrees to the condition imposed by her lover. She asks to see her family, who think she was killed by the creature after being abandoned on the cliff.
When visiting family, Psyche tells her sisters how happy she is in her beloved's palace. He also says he never saw his face. The sisters, jealous of Psyche, claim that their beloved must be a monster and that she must use a lamp to see his face and a knife to then slit his throat.
Psyche lets herself be influenced by her sisters and, when Eros sleeps, she approaches the god with the lamp in her hand, observing his beauty. Distracted, she lets a drop of oil fall from the lamp, which hits the god's chest, who wakes up irritated. Eros says that Psyche betrayed him when she saw him and tried to kill him. Eros abandons Psyche.
Psyche begins to wander the world and is instructed by the goddess Demeter to ask Aphrodite herself for Eros' forgiveness. Psyche goes to the temple of Aphrodite, where the goddess imposes four tasks on her. so that she can receive her son's forgiveness.
In the first work, Psyche must separate wheat from three species, which are mixed in a large silo. Aided by ants, she manages to separate the grains into three piles.
In the second work, Psyche must collect the golden wool of carnivorous sheep. She hears a voice that instructs her to follow the golden sheep and collect their wool that gets stuck to the thorns of the vegetation they pass by. She collects the golden threads and takes them to the goddess.
The third task that must be accomplished by Psyche is to store the waters from the source of the River Styx in a pot, located at the top of a large mountain. Psyche begins to climb, but finds it very difficult to climb. Zeus, in the form of an eagle, takes the pot from her hands and flies to the spring, collecting its water and taking it to her, who gives it to Aphrodite.
Psyche's last work is to receive from Persephone part of her beauty, which must be placed in a golden box and given to Aphrodite. Thinking that death is the only way to reach the underworld, Psyche climbs to the top of a mountain, from where she wants to throw herself. She again hears a voice, which tells her where the entrance to the underworld was.
Psyche enters Tartarus and receives part of her beauty from Persephone. While walking the path to take the box to Aphrodite, Psyche opens the box, falling into a deep sleep. At that time, Eros approaches, kisses Psyche, who returns to life. Eros ask Zeus and his mother to marry Psyche, being attended to by them. Psyche is taken to Olympus, and Zeus turns her into an immortal. Find out more about this myth by clicking here.
Curiosities about Eros
- Eros and Psyche have a daughter, Hedonê, the goddess of pleasure. Hedonê is usually represented with butterfly wings, and, like her mother, she is also endowed with a great capacity for persuasion. The term hedonism derives from the name Hedonê.
- In the rebirth, cupids They were widely represented in paintings and sculptures. Initially known as amorinis and then how puttis, were represented as chubby, smiling and mischievous children, a representation still present in the popular imagination.
- Eros and Thanatos are two important concepts in the work of Sigmund Freud. Eros, god of love, represents the principle of the psyche, which motivates, gives courage, energy and leads us to development. Thanatos, the god of death, unbalances the human psyche, demotivates it and destroys us.
- In Ancient Greece, Eros used his arrows to hit people's livers. Nowadays, the heart is the organ related to love, but at that time, it was the liver. This is due to the butterflies in the stomach, in the liver region, that a person feels when he sees the person he is in love with.
Image credits
[1]Millionstock/Shutterstock
[2]Wikimedia Commons
[3]Wikimedia Commons
Sources
APULEIO, Lucio. The golden donkey. Lebook Editora, 2019.
BULFINCH, Thomas. GARDEN, David. The golden book of Greek mythology: story of gods and heroes. Harper Collins Publishers, 2017.
GRAHAM, James. The book of Greek mythology. Globo Livros, Rio de Janeiro, 2018.