Eros (in the Roman tradition Amor / Cupid) — one of the fundamental primordial entities of the cosmos.
His name is traditionally rendered as "Love" or "Desire", yet these are overly mundane notions that distort his true magnitude. More precisely: Eros is the impulse toward union, a cosmic catalytic force, a universal law compelling disparate elements to gravitate toward one another and merge into novel forms.
«Fairest among the deathless gods,
Limb-Unstringer (Lysimeles), who of all the gods and mortal men
Subdues the soul within the breast and overcomes wise counsel.»
— Hesiod, Theogony
Later Greek thought transposed the archaic myth of creative Eros into the lexicon of philosophy:
- In Empedocles (5th century BCE): Eros appears under the guise of Philia (Love / Attraction) — the fundamental gravitational force drawing the elements of the cosmos together, set against Neikos (Strife / Repulsion) which fractures Order back into Chaos;
- In Aristotle (4th century BCE): Eros becomes a teleological yearning: passive matter experiences an "innate Eros" as a hunger for Form, striving toward the Prime Mover and thereby structuring the ordered Cosmos.
Cosmogonic Function
Without Eros, the cosmos would have remained static. If Chaos provides the volume and Gaia the physical matter, Eros grants them the impulse toward action and coalescence:
While the forces of the Protogenoi (the primal, primordial deities) remained mere incorporeal qualities and states of space, the world awaited its time.
The driving force of change becomes Eros — the instrument of the coming metamorphosis. Under his invisible influence, Gaia — the living, burning flesh of the young earth — creates the first chthonic deities:
Without the intervention of Eros, the primordial entities would have lingered as isolated elements. He acts as the prime "engine" of cosmogony, unlocking the possibility for the emergence of all subsequent generations of gods.
Alternative Traditions and Interpretations
Orphism
[Embed unavailable: Orphism]
Plato's Symposium
[Embed unavailable: "Symposium"]
Alcman and Simonides (Lyric Poets)
Eros is the son of Nyx and Erebus, meaning he is not primeval, but born. While this seemingly contradicts Hesiod, if Night and Darkness are tangible aspects of Chaos, the birth of Eros from them is entirely natural and represents merely an alternative narrative device.
The Roman Era
The Roman tradition strips Eros of his status as a primeval cosmogonic principle. In the mythographer Hyginus (in the preface to the Fabulae), Amor is born of the union between Nox and Erebus. Thus, from a fundamental law of cosmic attraction, he is reduced to an offspring of Darkness and Night — conceptually aligning with the version of Alcman and Simonides, but within a rigorous Latin genealogical taxonomy.
Cupid and Psyche
In the later era, Eros becomes fully anthropomorphized, evolving into the winged boy with bow and arrows. It was within this tradition (2nd century CE, in Apuleius’s The Golden Ass) that the famed allegorical tale was born concerning the union of Eros (Love) and Psyche (the Soul), who underwent mortal ordeals to attain immortality.
#TODO Add a side-myth about this
The Archaic Cult at Thespiae
The most compelling testimony to the incorporeal nature of Primordial Eros survived in the Boeotian city of Thespiae (at the foot of Mount Helicon). There existed an ancient sacred cult of Eros, documented by the historian Pausanias.
In his sanctuary, the primary devotional icon was an unworked, natural piece of rock (argos lithos) — the tangible embodiment of an invisible cosmic power.
The Retinue of the Erotes
When the singular cosmic Eros fractured during the Hellenistic era into personified facets of human emotion, there emerged in mythology the retinue of the Erotes (Erotes) — winged deities of passion:
- Anteros (Anteros): the god of requited, reciprocal love, and the avenger of those whose love is spurned;
- Himeros (Himeros): the personification of ardent, impetuous desire and physical longing in the present moment (celebrated by Hesiod as an attendant of Aphrodite);
- Pothos (Pothos): the embodiment of yearning, nostalgia, and longing for an absent or unattainable ideal.
Subsequent Role in the Cosmos
Primordial Eros virtually vanishes from mythological narratives as an autonomous actor following the opening acts of cosmogony — he dissolves into the cosmos, becoming its underlying principle. All subsequent life in the Universe, gods and mortal beings alike, bear this power within themselves and act through its impulse.
In Aerythea, the theme of Eros will become fundamental :)