Eros~ God of Love & Passion

A Prayer to Eros
(by Merlyn)

Oh beautiful God of Love and Lust
Eros, Cupid
Thou dost make me Wanton...
Make me stupid
For the want and the wish
for any dish
that thou dost take aim at for me
Prithee my Lord...
Aim thy arrow well
Neither donkey nor ass
Craft a love for love for me
Make him handsome
Make him true
I beg ye often, I beg of you....

There are mixed stories for the beginnings for Eros:

Eros was a Primordial God of Creation. In the beginning, there was Chaos, there was Gaia (Earth) and there was the Abyss and there was Love.
I like this idea. It satisfies somehow....seems right. Symbolically that's about right.

There is also this Myth of his creation: Eros was the son of Aphrodite (Love) and Ares (War).
And man oh man, that makes sense too! (If you've ever been in love...you know it walks a fine line between love and hate...the bigger the love, the wilder the emotions on both sides).

Oh and Eros is the Greek name for Cupid. The silly little Cherub who has his quiver full of wandering arrows. He sometimes aims true, and sometimes misses. Ah love.
As Nicholas Cage's character Ronny Cammereri in "Moonstruck" says:

"I love you. Not like they told you love is, and I didn't know this either, but love don't make things nice - it ruins everything. It breaks your heart. It makes things a mess. We aren't here to make things perfect. The snowflakes are perfect. The stars are perfect. Not us. Not us! We are here to ruin ourselves and to break our hearts and love the wrong people and *die*. The storybooks are *bullshit*. Now I want you to come upstairs with me and *get* in my bed!"

And that's just about right.

I have always adored Eros in all his forms, be they the Innocent Love of Cupid's Valentines when we were 8 and opened those mysterious white folded envelopes to reveal "I think you are Sweet, Be My Valentine"....

to the Lovesick Arrow stabbed wounded Heart throbbing for your love to write....

to the Sexual Erotic Love of Wanton Pleasure and Fulfilment ...a crescendo of desire!

Yes I adore Eros in all his forms.

So did Psyche. She was a heroic human woman whose beauty made Aphrodite jealous. She told her son, Eros to go "shoot an arrow at her to fall in love with a horribly UGLY creature". And he went dutifully to do so....but when he saw her, HE, EROS, fell in love with HER!
(who shot who with what arrow?? :)
They run off together. Eros and Pysche.

The only deal is that Eros tells her that he will come to her in Darkness so that she would not die when he is revealed to her. She goes along with this for awhile...but then one night, she longs to see her LOVE. So she shines candlelight on him and admires his ultra beautiful form.

He is exquisite. She knew it inside her heart and she trembled to see him.

He awakens when a drop of wax from her trembling falls on him and burns him. He flies away, injured that she doubted him, and has seen his true form!

She mourns his loss....she wanders aimlessly. (How lost we are without Love...)

Finally Aphrodite sets some "Herculean" type tasks for her to complete in order to find Eros again....

This WOMAN had a HERO journey!

She only had 4 "Simple" things to do:

*Sorting out barley, seeds, millet and beans from a HUGE pile. Thankfully, ants helped her.*Attain some Golden Fleece from aggressive rams who would kill her.
*Fill a vase of water from the River Styx
*Bring back some lotion from Persephone who lived with Hades.

Oh isn't it the truth?

Don't WE have to sort out the chaffe and the good when in love? Don't we compartmentalize and do our likes and dislikes and pros and cons with our love and loved ones?

Don't we also have to wait sometimes till the beasts of the field go to sleep and we pluck the golden fleece from the reeds, taking what is good, what is ours without being killed and losing our power?

Don't we also have to face our fears of death while in love? Don't we have to face being lost in love while also drinking deeply from it?
and Don't we also have to go to Hell and back to really get the balm and salve we need from Love in order to find it?

INDEED the trials our own psyches have to go thru to find love....

Oh yes Eros and Psyche DID marry!!

They had a child named Voluptas ....you may know her as PLEASURE :)

And they lived Happily, Lustily, and Lovingly EVER AFTER.

THE END.


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