Eros ist in
der griechischen Mythologie der Gott der Liebe.
Ihm
entspricht in der römischen Mythologie Amor, oft auch Cupido oder
Cupidus genannt.
Nach Hesiod
entstand er zusammen mit Tartaros, Gaia, Erebos und Nyx aus dem
Chaos. Später galt er als Sohn der Aphrodite (röm. Venus) und des
Ares (röm. Mars); seine Geliebte ist die Psyche (siehe auch Amor
und Psyche). Psyche gebar Eros eine Tochter, Voluptas (die
Lust).
In der Kunst
wird er meist mit Pfeil und Bogen dargestellt; mit seinen Pfeilen
entzündet er die Liebe bei den Getroffenen. Der Sage nach besitzt
er neben den goldenen Pfeilen der Liebe auch eiserne Pfeile, die
den Hass erzeugen.
Eros galt in
der späteren griechischen Mythologie als Sohn der Aphrodite (röm.
Venus) und des Ares (röm. Mars); dies stellte jedoch ein klares
Paradoxon dar, da Eros gleichzeitig als Vater von Uranos galt, der
der Urgroßvater von Ares (röm. Mars) ist.
Dieses
Paradoxon klärt sich, wenn von einem Kreislauf, einer Reinkarnation
der Götter ausgegangen wird.
Quelle:
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eros_(Mythologie)
Eros or Aros in Greek
mythology, was the primordial god of lust, love, and
intercourse.
he was also
worshipped as a fertility deity. His Roman counterpart was Cupid,
"desire", also known as Amor, "love". In some myths, he was the son
of the deities Aphrodite and Ares, but according to Plato's
Symposium he was conceived by Poros (Plenty) and Penia (Poverty) at
Aphrodite's birthday. This explains the different aspects of love.
Like Dionysus, he was sometimes referred to as Eleutherios, "the
liberator".
According to
tradition which was made by Eratosthenes, Eros was principally the
patron of male love, while Aphrodite ruled the love between men and
women. His statue could be found in the palaestrae or wrestling
schools, one of the principal venues for men to associate with
their beloveds, and it was to him that the Spartans sacrificed
before battle. Meleager records this role in a poem preserved in
the Greek Anthology: "a woman, hurls the fire that maddens men for
women; but Eros himself sways the passion for males." (Mousa
Paidiké, 86)
Throughout
Greek thought, there appear to be two sides to the conception of
Eros; in the first, he is a primeval deity who embodies not only
the force of erotic love but also the creative urge of ever-flowing
nature, the firstborn Light for the coming into being and ordering
of all things in the cosmos. In Hesiod's Theogony, the most famous
Greek creation myth, Eros sprang forth from the primordial Chaos
together with Gaea, the Earth, and Tartarus, the underworld;
according to Aristophanes' play The Birds, he burgeons forth from
an egg laid by Night conceived with Darkness. In the Eleusinian
Mysteries, he was worshiped as Protogonus', the
first-born.
Alternately,
later in antiquity, Eros was the son of Aphrodite and either Ares
(most commonly), Hermes or Hephaestus, or of Porus and Penia, or
sometimes of Iris and Zephyrus; this Eros was an attendant to
Aphrodite, harnessing the primordial force of love and directing it
into mortals. Worship of Eros was uncommon in early Greece, but
eventually became widespread. He was fervently worshiped by a
fertility cult in Thespiae, and played an important role in the
Eleusinian Mysteries. In Athens, he shared a very popular cult with
Aphrodite, and the fourth day of every month was sacred to
him.
Eros, very
angry at the lovely Apollo for making fun of his archery skills,
caused him to fall in love with the nymph Daphne, daughter of
Ladon, who had scorned him. Daphne prayed to her father, the river
god Peneus to help her escape Apollo and was changed into a laurel
tree, which became sacred to Apollo.
The story of
Eros and Psyche has a longstanding tradition as a folktale of the
ancient Greco-Roman world long before it was put to print; first
seen in Apuleius' Latin novel, The Golden Ass, this is apparent and
an interesting intermingling of character roles. The novel itself
is picaresque Roman style, yet Psyche and Aphrodite retain their
Greek parts. It is only Eros whose role hails from his part in the
Roman pantheon.
The story is
told as a digression and structural parallel to the main storyline
of Apuleius' novel. It tells of the struggle for love and trust
between Eros and Psyche, whose name is difficult to appropriately
translate as it transcends both the Greek and Latin language, but
can be taken to mean "soul", "mind" or rather both. Aphrodite is
jealous of the beauty of mortal Psyche, as men are leaving her
altars barren to worship a mere human woman instead, and so
commands her son Eros to cause Psyche to fall in love with the
ugliest creature on earth. Eros falls in love with Psyche himself
and spirits her away to his home. Their fragile peace is ruined by
a visit of Psyche's jealous sisters, who cause Psyche to betray the
trust of her husband. Wounded, Eros departs from his wife and
Psyche wanders the earth, looking for her lost love.
In Apuleius's
The Golden Ass Psyche bears Eros a daughter, Hedone, whose name
means "sex."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eros
Happy
caching!