MythosData

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Eros

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.

Why this wins its question: Answers "oldest god or Aphrodite's boy?" with the two witnesses that disagree, quoted, instead of picking the familiar one.

Key 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).

Claims

Every assertion below is bound to registered sources and carries its own confidence. Weight them; do not treat the page as uniformly authoritative.

  1. 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).

    confidence 0.95Hesiod, Theogony — tr. Hugh G. Evelyn-White (Loeb, 1914), Perseus TEI edition · primary

  2. 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.

    confidence 0.93Hesiod, Theogony — tr. Hugh G. Evelyn-White (Loeb, 1914), Perseus TEI edition · primary

  3. 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.

    confidence 0.92Pausanias, Description of Greece — tr. W. H. S. Jones (Loeb, 1918–1935), Perseus TEI edition · primary

  4. 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).

    confidence 0.9Pausanias, Description of Greece — tr. W. H. S. Jones (Loeb, 1918–1935), Perseus TEI edition · primary

Questions answered

Who are the parents of Eros?
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). source
Is Eros the son of Aphrodite?
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. source
Is Eros one of the oldest gods?
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). source
Where was Eros worshipped?
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). source