Eros

Eros , in Greek religion and mythology, god of love. He was the personification of love in all its manifestations, including physical passion at its strongest, tender, romantic love, and playful, sportive love. According to some legends he was one of the oldest of the gods, born from Chaos and personifying creative power and harmony. In most legends he was the son of Aphrodite and Ares and was represented as a winged youth armed with bow and arrows. In Greek poetry Eros was often a willful and unsympathetic god, carelessly dispensing the frenzies and agonies of love. At Thespiae and at Athens he was worshiped as a god of fertility. In Hellenistic and Roman myth, he was represented as a naked, winged child, the son and companion of Venus. To the Romans he was Cupid, or Amor. Eros was sometimes attended by his brother, Anteros, who was said to be the avenger of unrequited love or the opposer of love. See also Psyche .

Eros In Greek mythology, god of love, equivalent to the Roman god Cupid. Depicted as a winged boy carrying a bow and arrows, and often blindfold, he was the youngest and most mischievous of the gods. He married Psyche.

Eros in Greek mythology, the god of love, son of Aphrodite; his Roman equivalent is Cupid. The name comes via Latin from Greek, literally ‘sexual love’.

A winged statue of Eros over the fountain in Piccadilly Circus, London, made by Sir Alfred Gilbert (1854–1934), was erected as a memorial to the philanthropist the Earl of Shaftesbury, and unveiled in 1893.