{
  "id": "eros",
  "type": "entity",
  "name": "Eros",
  "summary": "Love, in Hesiod the fourth thing to come to be — after Chaos, Earth and Tartarus — \"fairest among the deathless gods\", who unnerves the limbs of gods and men; he attends Aphrodite from the moment of her birth. Pausanias records the rival view that made him the youngest god and Aphrodite's son. The Roman Cupid is his counterpart.",
  "locale": "en",
  "tags": [
    "greek",
    "deities",
    "primordials",
    "love"
  ],
  "relations": [
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "chaos"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "gaia"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "aphrodite"
    },
    {
      "rel": "equivalent_of",
      "target": "cupid"
    },
    {
      "rel": "defined_by",
      "target": "primordial-deity"
    },
    {
      "rel": "attested_in",
      "target": "theogony"
    },
    {
      "rel": "discussed_in",
      "target": "love-goddesses-compared"
    }
  ],
  "questions": [
    "Who is Eros in Greek mythology?",
    "Who are the parents of Eros?",
    "Is Eros the son of Aphrodite?",
    "Is Eros one of the oldest gods?",
    "Is Eros the same as Cupid?",
    "Where was Eros worshipped?"
  ],
  "claims": [
    {
      "id": "c1",
      "text": "Hesiod gives Eros no parents: he is the fourth of the first beings, after Chaos, Earth and Tartarus — \"Eros (Love), fairest among the deathless gods, who unnerves the limbs and overcomes the mind and wise counsels of all gods and all men within them\" (Theog. 116–122).",
      "sources": [
        "hesiod-theogony"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.95
    },
    {
      "id": "c2",
      "text": "When Aphrodite comes ashore at Cyprus, \"with her went Eros, and comely Desire followed her at her birth at the first and as she went into the assembly of the gods\" (Theog. 201–202) — a companion, not a son.",
      "sources": [
        "hesiod-theogony"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.93
    },
    {
      "id": "c3",
      "text": "Pausanias sets the genealogies side by side: \"Most men consider Love to be the youngest of the gods and the son of Aphrodite\", but Olen's hymn to Eileithyia made her his mother, and Hesiod \"writes … that Chaos was born first, and after Chaos, Earth, Tartarus and Love\" (Paus. 9.27.2). The oldest-god and youngest-god views coexist.",
      "sources": [
        "pausanias-description"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.92
    },
    {
      "id": "c4",
      "text": "His oldest cult was at Thespiae, where \"the Thespians have from the beginning honored Love most\" with \"a very ancient image of him, an unwrought stone\"; later statues by Praxiteles and Lysippus were carried off to Rome by Gaius and Nero (Paus. 9.27.1–4).",
      "sources": [
        "pausanias-description"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.9
    }
  ],
  "takeaways": [
    "Hesiod's Eros is primordial and parentless, fourth after Chaos, Earth and Tartarus (Theog. 116–122).",
    "The Aphrodite's-son version is what \"most men\" believed in Pausanias's day; Hesiod is the witness for the older Eros (Paus. 9.27.2).",
    "In Hesiod he walks beside Aphrodite at her birth — companion, not child (Theog. 201–202)."
  ],
  "faqs": [
    {
      "q": "Who are the parents of Eros?",
      "claim": "c1"
    },
    {
      "q": "Is Eros the son of Aphrodite?",
      "claim": "c3"
    },
    {
      "q": "Is Eros one of the oldest gods?",
      "claim": "c1"
    },
    {
      "q": "Where was Eros worshipped?",
      "claim": "c4"
    }
  ],
  "evidence_tier": "primary",
  "evidence": {
    "level": "theoretical",
    "source_types": [
      "paper"
    ]
  },
  "moat_flag": false,
  "winning_edge": "Answers \"oldest god or Aphrodite's boy?\" with the two witnesses that disagree, quoted, instead of picking the familiar one.",
  "confidence": 0.92,
  "last_verified": "2026-09-03",
  "media": [],
  "x": {
    "myth": {
      "pantheon": "greek",
      "kind": "primordial",
      "group": "primordial",
      "domains": [
        "love",
        "desire"
      ],
      "wikidata": "Q121973"
    }
  },
  "canonical_url": "https://mythosdata.dev/k/eros",
  "api_url": "https://mythosdata.dev/api/k/eros.json",
  "jsonld": {
    "@context": "https://schema.org",
    "name": "Eros",
    "description": "Love, in Hesiod the fourth thing to come to be — after Chaos, Earth and Tartarus — \"fairest among the deathless gods\", who unnerves the limbs of gods and men; he attends Aphrodite from the moment of her birth. Pausanias records the rival view that made him the youngest god and Aphrodite's son. The Roman Cupid is his counterpart.",
    "url": "https://mythosdata.dev/k/eros",
    "license": "https://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-4.0.html",
    "dateModified": "2026-09-03",
    "citation": [
      {
        "@type": "CreativeWork",
        "name": "Hesiod, Theogony — tr. Hugh G. Evelyn-White (Loeb, 1914), Perseus TEI edition",
        "url": "https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-greekLit/blob/master/data/tlg0020/tlg001/tlg0020.tlg001.perseus-eng2.xml"
      },
      {
        "@type": "CreativeWork",
        "name": "Pausanias, Description of Greece — tr. W. H. S. Jones (Loeb, 1918–1935), Perseus TEI edition",
        "url": "https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-greekLit/blob/master/data/tlg0525/tlg001/tlg0525.tlg001.perseus-eng2.xml"
      }
    ],
    "@type": "Article",
    "headline": "Eros"
  }
}