Pothos
Pothos was the god of yearning, longing, and desire for the absent — one of the Erotes (love spirits) who accompanied Aphrodite.
The Myth of Pothos
Pothos personified the aching longing for someone absent — not the heat of erotic desire (Eros) or the bond of friendship (Philia) but the painful yearning for the beloved who is far away. He was one of the Erotes, winged companions of Aphrodite, alongside Eros and Himeros. The sculptor Scopas created a famous statue of Pothos at the temple of Aphrodite in Megara near Corinth. Pothos was particularly associated with the longing of sailors far from home — the same ache that drove Odysseus to weep daily on Calypso's island, desperate to return to Ithaca and Penelope. His concept captured what the Greeks understood deeply: that desire and suffering are inseparable.
Symbols
Fun Fact
The genus Pothos (tropical plants including the common pothos houseplant) was named after this god of yearning.
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
Himeros
⚡ godDesire and longing
God of immediate desire and passionate longing, companion of Aphrodite from her birth
Cupid
⚡ godLove, desire, attraction
Roman god of erotic love and desire, son of Venus, equivalent to the Greek Eros
Aphrodite
⚡ godGoddess of love, beauty, desire
Goddess of love and beauty, born from the sea foam. Aphrodite's power to inspire desire was so great that even the gods were not immune.
Aphrodite
⚡ godGoddess of love, desire, and beauty
The goddess born from sea-foam whose power over desire could override the will of gods and mortals alike.
Eros
⚡ godGod of love and desire
The Olympian Eros was the mischievous winged god of love — son of Aphrodite, whose golden arrows caused irresistible desire and whose lead arrows caused revulsion.
Penia
⚡ godPoverty, need, want
The daimon of poverty and deprivation who drove mortals to industry through necessity
Erato
⚡ godLyric and love poetry
Muse of lyric and erotic poetry who inspires romantic verse and song
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.
Eros and Psyche
💭 conceptNarrative
The love story between the god of desire and a mortal princess that became an allegory of the soul's journey
Poseidon
⚡ godGod of the sea, earthquakes, and horses
Poseidon was the god of the sea and earthquakes whose moods determined whether sailors lived or died — and whose grudge against Odysseus drove the Odyssey.
Hades
⚡ godKing of the dead
The ruler of the Underworld who received the dead, guarded by Cerberus and feared so deeply that Greeks avoided speaking his name.
Apollo
⚡ godGod of light, music, prophecy, and plague
Apollo was the most complex Olympian — god of light, music, poetry, prophecy, healing, plague, and rational thought, the divine embodiment of Greek civilisation.