Eros

=__**Eros**__=

=Introduction=

Eros is the god beauty and all sorts of love; this include sexual love, physical love, spiritual love, heterosexual love, homosexual love etc. He is described as being the most beautiful and handsome, the most loved and the most loving. And because of this, his statues were placed in gymnasiums where naked men excercise naked and grope at each other and pin each other to the ground, feeling the opponents hot breath on his neck... well, basically, his statues were placed in gymnasiums because most athletes were regarding as beautiful.

Although this may seem weird, but the Greeks regarded the pursuit of many things that are considered beautiful to be a manly action. That's why having a boy as a lover because he has a "beautiful" body is not considered as bad. This is a reason why he is also attributed to homosexual love.

=Birth=

There are many versions regarding the birth of Eros.

In some versions, it is said that he is one of the oldest gods. It says that Eros was born from Chaos together with others/other things such as Gaea and Tartarus.

But in another version, he is said to be born from an egg laid by Nyx. He was conceived from Erebus.

The other version states that Eros was the son of Aphrodite and Ares. But sometimes, it is also said that the father is Hermes, Hephaestus, Porus, or Penia.

One of the less common version state that Eros is the son of Iris and Zphyrus. But because of this, the role of Eros to Aphrodite has become the role of a servant/attendant.

=Description=

Eros is sometimes depicted as a young winged boy. On his back are arrows and his boy. There are two types of arrows. The golden ones with dove feathers arouse love. The leaden arrows with owl feathers attached would cause indifference.

This shows that Eros is both nice and cruel. You could simply call it bittersweet. It is said that he would be mischievous and wound the hearts of all. Just for the fun of it.

=Story= Eros is always at Aphrodite's side, assisting her in her affairs. One day, Aphrodite became jealous of the beauty of a mortal. Her name was Psyche. Being green with envy, Aphrodite asked Eros to use his arrows and make Psyche fall in love with the ugliest and most hideous man on earth. As expected, Eros agreed and went off to find Psyche. But when he saw her, he instantly fell in love with her. He would visit her every night but he wouldn't allow her to see him. To make sure, he told Psyche not to light up her chamber. After some time, Psyche's family started saying that perhaps her lover didn't want her to see him because he is a monster. So the next time Eros visited, she, out of curiosity, lit the lamp and saw that her lover was Eros. Being stunned by his beauty and ripped eight-pack abs, she didn't realize that a drop of hot oil had fallen on Eros. Suddenly, he woke up and fled because she disobeyed him. Psyche was sad and distraught and spent her time wandering the earth searching for her lover. Zeus took notice of this and reunited them and allowed them to marry.



Words which use EROS Erotic - unnecessary to explain further "Playing cupid" - (roman name) acting like a matchmaker =Bibliography=

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eros http://gogreece.about.com/od/greekmythology/a/eros.htm http://www.pantheon.org/articles/e/eros.html# http://www.godchecker.com/pantheon/greek-mythology.php?deity=EROS http://www.in2greece.com/english/historymyth/mythology/names/eros.htm http://en.allexperts.com/q/Mythology-658/Greek-God-Eros.htm http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Who_is_Eros http://ngocthuygallery.com/admin/Classicism/417px-William-Adolphe_Bouguereau_%281825-1905%29_-_A_Young_Girl_Defending_Herself_Against_Eros_%281880%29.jpg http://hazel8500.files.wordpress.com/2007/06/eros5126.jpg http://www.ritualsofhealing.com/Portals/1282/images/eros.jpg http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20071003193318AAD42aY