EROS, the Greek god of love, from which the Romans derive their Cupid (cupido, de sire). In this sense Eros is a fiction of later day poets. Hesiod is the first to mention Eros, whom he asserts to be the fairest of the gods who rules over the minds and the councils of gods and men. It was he who brought order and hartnony out of chaos. In this cosmogonic sense he is used by many of the early wnters. In Orphic poetry and in Plato he is conceived of as the oldest and most powerful of all the gods. In some instances he is described as the son of Kronos and Ge, and in others he is of independent origin. The Eros of the later poets, which is familiar to us, is conceived as a son of Aphrodite (Venus) and Herrnes; or of Venus and Zeus; or of Zephyrus and Iris; or of Aphrodite and Ares (Mars). He is de picted as a wanton mischievous boy, no longer the god of harmony, but of sensual love. He is represented with wings, bows and arrows, etc See CUPID.
A creature called Awrimos was generally connected with Eros, first as opposed to Eros and fighting against him, and later as the aveng ing Eros who punished those who did not re turn the love of others.
Arnong the places distinguished for the wor ship of Eros, Thespim in Bceotia stands fore most, where his worship was very ancient. Here a festival was celebrated in honor of the god. At Sparta, Samos, Parion and at Athens, where he had an altar at the entrance of the Academy, the god was also worshipped. At Mezora he stood with Himeros and Pothos in the temple of Aphrodite. His statue was rep resented at first by a crude stone,, which de veloped into the perfect beauty of the boy-figure by Praxitcles, now in the Capitoline Museum, and undoubtedly the source of all the later rep resentation of Eros as a chubby boy. Among the things sacred to Eros and accompanying him arc the rose, wild beasts, the hare, the cock and the ram. See PSYCHE.