— Ch. 1 · Primordial Origins And Cosmogony —
Eros.
~5 min read · Ch. 1 of 6
Hesiod's Theogony, written around 700 BC, lists Eros as the fourth god to emerge from Chaos. He appeared after Gaia and Tartarus, establishing love as a fundamental force of creation rather than a later addition to the divine order. Parmenides, writing circa 400 BC, took this concept further by declaring Eros the very first god to exist. His fragment 13 states that she devised Erōs before all other deities. Aristophanes presented a different cosmogony in his comedy The Birds, performed in 414 BC. In this parody, blackwinged Night laid an egg in the bosom of Erebus. From this egg sprang graceful Eros with glittering golden wings. This version identifies him as Protogonos, meaning first-born, who mated with dark Chaos to create humanity. Orphic texts describe Eros as Phanes, the illuminated one, who passed his scepter of power to Nyx. Zeus eventually swallowed Phanes to absorb these powers of creation. Thus, early Greek thought viewed Eros not merely as a lover but as the architect of the universe itself.
Evolution Of Divine Lineage
Later myths shifted the identity of Eros from cosmic entity to son of Aphrodite. Simonides, a lyric poet active between the sixth and fifth centuries BC, considered him the child of both Aphrodite and Ares. By the third century BCE, epic writers like those behind the Argonautica referred to him simply as Venus's son. Ovid described a scene where Venus's son kissed her while his quiver dangled down. An arrow grazed her breast without her noticing at first. The wound proved deeper than it seemed, making her enraptured by Adonis. Nonnus wrote the Dionysiaca in the fifth century CE, depicting Eros driving Dionysus mad for the girl Aura. He struck the god with a love arrow before flying lightly to Olympus. These later accounts stripped away the primordial grandeur found in Hesiod or Parmenides. They replaced the creator figure with a mischievous youth who intervened in the affairs of gods and mortals. His role became complementary, often appearing alongside his mother rather than standing alone as a primary force.