Mythology Paper

Although I had visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art before, I had never really taken the time to really look at the statues that they had displayed. I knew that this time around I had to take my time and I had to make sure I paid attention to art that the museum had to offer. What I was mainly looking for was some type of statue or art that alluded to what I had learned in mythology class. As I walked around I encountered at bronze statue of Eros sleeping. Cupid, Eros name, which most people call him, is a little boy and he is sleeping. I began to think about information about Eros that I already knew and what I wanted to find out. Eros is part of many myths not just one. These myths were made by the Greeks to give explains why everyday things were the way they were. Eros is the son of two gods, Aphrodite and Ares. He is the Greek god of love. Depending on the myth, Eros could be seen as a young boy who shoots arrows are people to make them fall in love or a beautiful full grown man. His attributes are obviously his arrows and quiver. Although Eros is the son of Aphrodite, in other myths he is known as a primordial god, which means he has no parents. According to Hesiod, he is one of the first gods after Gaia, Chaos and Tartarus. This means that Eros is one of the oldest gods. Although Hesiod mentions Eros, Homer does not. Parmenides does mention Eros as one of the first gods to come into existence. In the Orphic and Eleusinian Mysteries Eros is portrayed as one of the early gods but instead he is seen as a child and not primordial. In this statue, Eros is portrayed as young boy with wings. He is usually portrayed this way and is ready to shoot arrows at mortals or gods so that they fall in love. He had to types of arrows golden with dove feathers which make people fall in love and leaden arrows which had owl feathers and caused people to feel indifferent about each other. One poet named Sappho, wrote that Eros was bitter sweet to the people he would