The Erotes

So there was several Greek gods called the Erotes. They were the Greek Gods of love, passions, and desire.

They amount of Erotes were varied depending on the source, some say that all the Erotes were just different versions of manifestations of the God Eros. While some of these gods were created purely for literature and have no real or any mythology of their own. They are depicted as chubby babies or youths with wings or as young handsome men, except for one because of a reason later stated. They were also the Cupids or Amores.

One Erote was called ANTEROS. The God of requited love and the avenger of the those unrequited. His family include his parents, Ares and Aphrodite, his sibling:Eros, Himeros, Phobos, Deimos and Harmonia. His origin was that he  was given or created as a sort of playmate to his brother Eros, who was lonely. He was often depicted opposite of Eros on Aphrodite’s scales of love. He had long hair and plumed butterfly wings.

Another Erotes the God Eros. He is the ancient god of love and the agent of natural procreation. Eros was the primordial god of procreation. He had no parents, and was one of the first beings created, formed at the creation of everything. He was also equivalent to Thesis (Creation) and Physis, (Nature).

There was also another Eros. He was said to either be a completely different God or another version of the previous ancient God. The version I choose to follow is where he a completely different entity. He was the god of love and sexual desire. His mother was Aphrodite. He had a twin, Himeros. Some classical writers say the twins were born immediately after Aphrodite was born. He had a wife name Psyche, with whom he married under very unusual circumstances. She never say his face, and when she finally did, he fled. Afterwards she had to complete a series of trials in order to gain Aphrodites approval and gain back the man she loved. He was the most mischievous of the Erotes. He randomly shot out love-inducing darts from his golden bow. He was often painted or written to be blindfolded, hence the saying that love is blind. One of my favorite quotes in reference to that is the shakespeare line they says “Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind” His symbols were the bow and arrow. Eros sacred animal was a Hare.