Many different accounts of Eros’s birth exist. One of the oldest is found in the Theogony (History of the Gods), written by the Greek Hesiod around 700 bce. Hesiod claimed that Eros, like Gaia (pronounced GAY-uh) the earth goddess, was one of the offspring of the primitive emptiness called Chaos (pronounced KAY-oss). He believed Eros to be one of the first powers in the universe, representing the force of attraction and harmony that filled all of creation. The Greeks spoke of Eros as the son of Aphrodite (pronounced af-ro-DYE-tee), the goddess of love, and Ares (pronounced AIR-eez), the god of war. In this way, the Greeks Demonstrated their view of romantic love as a force that would produce violent emotions.
In some myths, Eros makes mischief with his ability to make gods and mortals alike fall in love. His arrow forced the god Apollo to fall in love with Daphne, a river nymph who did not love Apollo in return. His mother Aphrodite ordered him to make a beautiful mortal woman named Psyche (pronounced SYE-kee) fall in love with the ugliest creature he could find because men were paying more attention to Psyche than to her. Instead, Eros himself fell in love with Psyche. The two married, but Eros kept his identity a secret from Psyche, and only visited her at night when she could not see him. Psyche’s jealous sisters convinced her that her husband was actually a monster, telling her to take a lamp and a knife to bed. Psyche did so, only to learn that her husband was a beautiful god. Her mistrust caused Eros to leave her, but she eventually won him back by completing a series of difficult tasks put to her by Aphrodite.
World History
