“Eros” is one of the most powerful gods in Greek mythology, since he rules over a strong emotion, which is love, and also can give birth to these feelings not only among mortals, but also among gods. He could be viewed as a matchmaker among all living beings. The name Eros itself gives the meaning ‘desire’. Many are much familiar with his roman counterpart, who is the Cupid. But the main difference between the two is, Cupid is depicted as a blindfolded child, where as in Greek mythology, Eros is represented as a young adult male who embodies sexual power. Just as Cupid, Eros is believed to carry a bow and an arrow. Anyone who got hit by the arrows he fire, would instantly fall in love. The fact that make this god a somewhat threatening is his way of choosing targets. There are many legends that highlights the recklessness of Eros, bringing forth unethical bonds into existence.
There are many variations for the origin of Eros. In some stories, Eros is considered as a primordial god. Hesiod's Theogony, which is one of the most ancient of all Greek sources, list Eros as the fourth god to come into existence. The first three being Chaos, Gaia, and Tartarus. He is considered to have blessed the marriage of Gaia and Uranus, bringing forth the legion of Greek gods into existence. In Orphism, which is a set of religious beliefs and practices originated in the ancient Greek, consider Eros to be as the child of Nyx, who is the goddess of night. Some even equate him to phanus, considering phanus’s association with reproduction.
In later text, Eros is considered mostly as the son of Aphrodite and Aeris. Just as his mother, Eros is considered to have great beauty and many considered him to be one of the most handsome gods. It is in these tales that he’s considered to be mischievous. Aphrodite adored Eros the most, among her children and he was a constant companion of his mother. In the tale of Aphrodite and Adonis, Eros plays a considerable role by accidently making his own mother fall in love with the mortal Adonis. Out of jealousy he even get Persephone the queen of the underworld to be involved with Adonis. He even once caused a weasel to fall in love with a man. But Aphrodite took pity on the animal and turned it into a woman. Even Zeus had no control over the power of Eros and constantly became a victim. It is said the reason Zeus had many affairs is because he was a constant target of Eros.
Eros was a passionate god himself, so his powers mostly associate with the passionate aspect of love. Often, Eros targeted his fellow gods on the bidding of his mother. The only beings said to be safe from Eros were the three Virgin Goddesses, who are Athena, Artemis, and Hestia. They either avoided his arrows or as some writers claimed, were immune to his ways.
Eros also appear in the legends of the zodiac sign Pisces. According to one Greek myth, the two fishes appear in the zodiac sign are Aphrodite and his son Eros. When Typhon, the "father of all monsters," had been sent by Gaia to attack the gods, Aphrodite and Eros took the form of the fish to hide from him.
Eros’s mischievous nature changed after he met Psyche. Aphrodite was jealous of the beauty of mortal princess Psyche, as men were leaving her altars barren to worship a human woman instead, and so she commanded her son Eros, the god of love, to cause Psyche to fall in love with the ugliest creature on earth. But instead, Eros fell in love with Psyche. He disregarded his mother’s wishes and took her as his wife knowing what the consequences might be. However by the influence of Psyche’s jealous sisters, the couple got split. Even though Psyche sort help from Aphrodite, she was given impossible tasks and during the process Psyche falls into an eternal sleep. Eros somehow manages to wake her up from her eternal sleep and sort help from Zeus to end the opposition from his mother. Zeus sided with Eros making Psyche a goddess and this calmed the mischievous nature of Eros.
Love is a strong feeling making it one of the strong and divine powers that even gods find hard to resist. Such power under the hands of a mischievous god could bring chaotic consequences. But it is also with love that his ill-behavior is calmed. So love calmed the god of love himself.
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