Eros

Two main strands are attested. In early cosmogonic accounts (e.g., Hesiodic and Orphic-influenced traditions) Eros is among the first divine principles to emerge at the dawn of creation and functions as a primordial generative force that participates in the ordering and procreation of being. Orphic materials and related summaries identify this creative principle with or under names such as Protogonos/Phanes and Erikepaios, indicating conceptual overlap between Eros and those theophanic figures. In later mythic tradition Eros is presented as a younger deity associated with the family of Aphrodite (various poets also give alternate parentages such as Ares in some lyric sources), who operates within the Olympian and cultic world to instigate erotic attraction.

Descriptions vary by period. Early literary and artistic sources often depict Eros as a sexually potent young adult male embodying erotic power. Later popular and artistic traditions portray him as a winged figure carrying a bow and arrows; by the Roman and post-classical eras his image frequently shifts to a juvenile, mischievous boy (the Cupid/Putto type). Across these depictions the consistent iconographic elements are wings and the bow-and-arrow attribute used to induce desire.

Eros causes love and sexual desire in gods and mortals, commonly by means of his signature bow and arrows. Mythic texts and summaries attribute to him the capacity to incite passion even among immortals and to act as a catalyst in bonds and unions; in many narratives he serves at Aphrodite's command or in her company. In his primordial role Eros functions as a creative principle responsible for generation and the origination of other beings in early cosmogony. While many myths treat him as mischievous or capricious, the principal power across sources is his ability to bring desire into being.