Eros
In Hesiod's cosmogony, Eros was not a cherub but a primordial force — the desire that compels all things to come together and create.
The Meaning of Eros
Eros as a cosmic principle is radically different from the playful winged boy of later art. In Hesiod's Theogony, Eros emerges at the very beginning of creation alongside Chaos, Gaia, and Tartarus — one of the four original forces of the universe. He is the impulse that drives all beings toward union: without Eros, Gaia would never have lain with Ouranos, the Titans would never have been born, and creation would have stalled at its first generation. Empedocles later developed this into a philosophical principle, naming Love (Philia) and Strife (Neikos) as the two cosmic forces that alternately unite and separate the four elements. Plato transformed Eros again in the Symposium, where Diotima teaches Socrates that erotic desire, properly directed, leads the soul upward from physical beauty to beauty of character to beauty of knowledge to the Form of Beauty itself — making Eros the engine of philosophy.
Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth. See our full guide to English words from Greek mythology.
Explore Further
Eros
🌀 primordialPrimordial force of desire and creation
In Hesiod's Theogony, Eros was one of the first beings to emerge from Chaos — a primordial force of attraction that drove all creation.
Chaos
💭 conceptThe primordial void before creation
The first thing to exist — a vast, formless void from which all of creation emerged. Chaos was not disorder but the gap, the yawning emptiness that preceded everything.
Eros
💭 conceptPrimordial god of love and desire
In the oldest myths, Eros was a primordial force — one of the first beings to emerge from Chaos, the power that draws all things together. Later reimagined as Aphrodite's mischievous son.
Nous
💭 conceptPhilosophy and Mind
The Greek concept of pure intellect or mind, the highest faculty of the soul and the organizing principle of the cosmos.
Thesis
🌀 primordialcreation, cosmic ordering
A primordial goddess of creation in Orphic cosmogony, representing the active principle of placement and ordering that gave structure to the cosmos.
Demiurge
💭 conceptphilosophy, cosmology
The craftsman-creator of the universe in Platonic cosmology — a divine craftsman who fashions the material world using eternal Forms as models.
Neoplatonism
💭 conceptPhilosophy
A late antique philosophical system teaching that all reality emanates from a transcendent, ineffable One
Kosmos
💭 conceptphilosophy, cosmology
Order, ornament, and the universe — the Greek word that named the world as an ordered whole and gave English the word cosmos.
Erotic
💭 conceptDesire, sensuality, romantic passion
Relating to sexual love or desire, from Eros, the god of love and attraction.
Logos
💭 conceptWord, reason, and the rational principle of the cosmos
The multifaceted Greek concept meaning word, speech, reason, account, and the rational principle governing the universe.
Hermeticism
💭 conceptPhilosophy
A syncretic philosophical and spiritual tradition attributed to the legendary sage Hermes Trismegistus
Pythagoreanism
💭 conceptPhilosophy
A philosophical and religious movement founded by Pythagoras centred on mathematics, harmony, and the soul