Anteros, Himeros and Pothos: the brothers of Eros and the forms of desire

The Greeks had many words for desire, and some of them became deities. Alongside Eros there thus formed a small group of winged figures, the Erotes, each linked to a particular aspect of the experience of love: Himeros, present and urgent desire; Pothos, longing for someone far away; Anteros, love returned or, according to other interpretations, the avenger of rejected love.

Himeros and Pothos

Himeros already appears in Hesiod's Theogony, where he dwells beside the Muses and the Graces and, together with Eros, accompanies Aphrodite from her very birth. His name denotes a desire directed at what is before one's eyes. Pothos, on the other hand, is desire for what is missing: Plato, in the Cratylus, distinguishes the two terms in just this way, explaining that pothos is directed at someone who is elsewhere.

Pausanias, who travelled through Greece in the second century AD, reports that at Megara, in the temple of Aphrodite, there were statues of Eros, Himeros and Pothos carved by Scopas, the great sculptor of the fourth century BC. Pliny the Elder also records that Scopas made statues of Venus and Pothos that were worshipped on Samothrace with the most solemn rites. A statue type of Pothos, young and languid, is known to us from Roman copies.

Anteros, love returned

Anteros is the most complex figure. The name can mean love in return, that is, love answering love, but also counter-love, the force that punishes those who scorn the feelings of others. According to a tradition reported by Pausanias, there was in Athens an altar dedicated to Anteros, set up by the foreigners resident in the city, the metics, in memory of a tragic event.

The story tells that an Athenian named Meles rejected the love of the metic Timagoras and, to test him, ordered him to climb the rock and throw himself off. Timagoras obeyed and died; Meles, seized by remorse, threw himself down from the same spot. From then on Anteros was honoured as the god who avenges offended love. Pausanias also describes a relief in the gymnasium at Elis in which Eros and Anteros compete for a palm branch.

From the Erotes to the cupids

In the Hellenistic age the number of Erotes grew without fixed limits. Poets and artists multiplied the little winged loves, who play, hunt, fish, carry garlands or accompany Aphrodite's retinue. Already on some Attic vases personifications such as Hedylogos, sweet talk, appear, and the troop was sometimes joined by Hymenaeus, the god of weddings, whose genealogy varies greatly according to the sources.

These figures enjoyed enormous success in the Roman world. At Pompeii, in the House of the Vettii, a famous frieze shows cupids and little Psychai busy with everyday trades: goldsmiths, perfumers, fullers, wine sellers. On Roman sarcophagi winged cupids accompany the dead and evoke the sweetness of the life that has been lost. From them descend the putti of Renaissance and Baroque art.

The distinction between Eros, Himeros, Pothos and Anteros shows the subtlety with which the Greeks observed love. The desire that kindles, the longing for the absent and reciprocity were for them not a single emotion but different forces, each with its own name, its own image and sometimes its own altar.