The glyph of Eros stands at the centre. The branches around it show the symbolism in four colours: gods in gold, archetypes in blue, traditions in green and narratives in red. Touch a branch and its explanation opens below the map.
The first force of the cosmosHesiod
In the Theogony there is first Chaos, then Gaia and Tartarus, and then Eros. Hesiod calls him the fairest among the deathless gods and the force that loosens the mind. This Eros has no parents, so he is not a child god.
Son of AphroditeThe later layer
After the archaic period Eros counts as the son of Aphrodite, with Ares most often named as his father. In this layer he carries a bow, arrows and wings. Antiquity used both the cosmic and the childlike form of the god side by side. Aphrodite on the Venus page →
Arrows of gold and leadTwo separate effects
In the first book of the Metamorphoses Ovid writes that Eros has two arrows: the golden tip makes one love, the leaden tip makes one flee. Apollo is struck with the gold and Daphne with the lead. The chase arises from that inequality.
AnterosLove returned
Anteros is the brother of Eros and his name means love returned. Pausanias writes that an altar was dedicated to him in Athens and that it arose from a story about the revenge of unrequited love. In one account Eros grows only while his brother is beside him.
Himeros and PothosDesire and longing
Himeros is sudden desire and Pothos the longing felt for someone far away. Hesiod writes that Eros and Himeros attended Aphrodite as she came from the sea. The three name different states of desire under separate names.
The Eros of PlatoSon of Poros and Penia
In the Symposium Diotima says that Eros is not a god but a daimon. His father is Poros, resource, and his mother Penia, poverty, so Eros always searches and is never satisfied. That definition became the standard account of Eros in later philosophy.
The stone at ThespiaeAn unworked rock
Pausanias writes that in the Boeotian city of Thespiae the oldest cult image of Eros was an unworked stone. The city held the Erotidia games every four years. The record shows a layer far older than the image of the beautiful boy.
The Orphic PhanesLight from the egg
In Orphic cosmogony the universe is born from a silver egg and Phanes comes out of it. Some texts identify that figure with Eros and call him Protogonos, the firstborn. The account belongs to a tradition separate from Hesiod's.
The marriage to PsycheThe tale of Apuleius
In the novel of Apuleius, Eros disobeys his mother and wants Psyche for himself. He leaves her after the scene with the lamp and in the end has the marriage recognised before Jupiter. That tale makes Eros the hero of a narrative for the first time. The Psyche page →
CupidRome
The Roman counterpart of Eros is Cupid, whose name means desire. The name Amor is used for the same god. The winged infant familiar from Renaissance painting descends from these Roman images.
The archetype of desireMovement born of lack
In Plato's account desire begins not with having but with lacking. Eros is therefore not a calm god but a force in constant motion. In most myths what he does is disturb an order.
A near-Earth bodyThe surprise of 1898
The orbit of Eros crosses inside the orbit of Mars, so it does not stay in the belt. The discovery showed that asteroids are not confined between Mars and Jupiter. Its close approaches in 1900 and 1931 were used to measure the distance between the Sun and the Earth.
Landing on an asteroidNEAR Shoemaker, 2001
The NASA spacecraft NEAR Shoemaker entered orbit around Eros in 2000 and touched down on the surface on 12 February 2001. It was the first landing on an asteroid. The craft had not been designed to land, yet it went on sending data from the surface.
Eros in modern astrologyTwentieth century
Those who use Eros read it through passion and attraction. Its literature is thin and the readings diverge. They have no link to the classical system of dignities and cannot be added to it.