Eros, Greek God of Passion and Lust

Often described as a son of Aphrodite by her lover Ares, the god of war, Eros was a Greek god of lust and primal sexual desire. In fact, the word erotic comes from his name. He is personified in all kinds of love and lust — heterosexual and homosexual — and was worshiped at the center of a fertility cult that honored both Eros and Aphrodite together.

Eros in Mythology

There does seem to be some question about Eros’ parentage.

In later Greek myth he is indicated to be Aphrodite’s son, but Hesiod portrays him as merely her servant or attendant. Some stories say Eros is the child of Iris and Zephyrus, and early sources, such as Aristophanes, say he is the offspring of Nix and Erebus, which would make him quite an old god indeed.

During the classical Roman period, Eros evolved into Cupid, and became portrayed as the chubby cherub that still remains as a popular image today. He is typically shown blindfolded — because, after all, love is blind — and carrying a bow, with which he shot arrows at his intended targets. As Cupid, he is often invoked as a god of pure love during Valentine’s Day, but in his original form, Eros was mostly about lust and passion.

Early History and Worship

Eros was honored in a general way across much of the ancient Greek world, but there were also specific temples and cults dedicated to his worship, particularly in the southern and central cities. The Greek writer Callistratus described a statue of Eros that appeared in the temple at Thespeia, the earliest known, and most popular cult site. Callistratus’ summary is extremely poetic…and borders on the erotic.

“The Eros, the workmanship of Praxiteles, was Eros himself, a boy in the bloom of youth with wings and bow. Bronze gave expression to him, and as though giving expression to Eros as a great and dominating god, it was itself subdued by Eros; for it could not endure to be only bronze, but it became Eros just as he was. You might have seen the bronze losing its hardness and becoming marvelously delicate in the direction of plumpness and, to put the matter briefly, the material proving equal to fulfilling all the obligations that were laid upon it. It was supple but without effeminacy; and while it had the proper color of bronze, it looked bright and fresh; and though it was quite devoid of actual motion, it was ready to display motion; for though it was fixed solidly on a pedestal, it deceived one into thinking that it possessed the power to fly… As I gazed on this work of art, the belief came over me that Daidalos had indeed wrought a dancing group in motion and had bestowed sensation upon gold, while Praxiteles had all but put intelligence into his image of Eros and had so contrived that it should cleave the air with its wings.

As a god of lust and passion – and fertility as well – Eros played a major role in courtship. Offerings were made at his temples, in the form of plants and flowers, vessels filled with sacred oils and wine, beautifully crafted jewelry, and sacrifices.

Eros didn’t have too many boundaries when it came to making people fall in love, and was considered the protector of same-sex love as well as hetero relationships.

Festivals and Celebrations

In the city of Athens, Eros was honored side by side at the acropolis with Aphrodite, starting around the fifth century B.C.E. Every spring, a festival took place honoring Eros – after all, spring is the season of fertility, so what better time to celebrate a god of passion and lust? The Erotidia happened in March or April, and was an event full of sporting events, games, and art.

Interestingly, scholars seem to disagree on whether or not Eros was a god who functioned independently of others, or whether he always appeared complementary to Aphrodite. It is possible that Eros did not appear as an autonomous deity of fecundity and reproduction, but instead as the fertility aspect of Aphrodite’s worship.

Modern Worship of Eros

There are still some Hellenic polytheists who honor Eros in their worship today. Appropriate offerings to Eros include fruits like the apple or grapes, or flowers that are representative of love, such as roses. You can also include a bow and arrow, or symbols of them, on your altar. If you’re honoring Eros as a deity of fertility, rather than primarily of lust, consider fertility symbols like rabbits and eggs.

Author

Patti Wigington, Paganism/Wicca Expert
Article published on & owned by About.com

Deity Closely Associated With The Day of Lupercalia – Faunus

In ancient Roman religion and myth, Faunus was the horned god of the forest, plains and fields; when he made cattle fertile he was called Inuus. He came to be equated in literature with the Greek god Pan.

Faunus was one of the oldest Roman deities, known as the di indigetes. According to the epic poet Virgil, he was a legendary king of the Latins who came with his people from Arcadia. His shade was consulted as a god of prophecy under the name of Fatuus, with oracles in the sacred grove of Tibur, around the well Albunea, and on the Aventine Hill in ancient Rome itself.

Marcus Terentius Varro asserted that the oracular responses were given in Saturnian verse. Faunus revealed the future in dreams and voices that were communicated to those who came to sleep in his precincts, lying on the fleeces of sacrificed lambs. W. Warde Fowler suggested that Faunus is identical with Favonius, one of the Roman wind gods (compare the Anemoi).

In fable Faunus appears as an old king of Latium, grandson of Saturnus, son of Picus, and father of Latinus by the nymph Marica (who was also sometimes Faunus’ mother). After his death he is raised to the position of a tutelary deity of the land, for his many services to agriculture and cattle-breeding.

A goddess of like attributes, called Fauna and Fatua, was associated in his worship. She was regarded as his daughter, wife, or sister. The female deity Bona Dea was often equated with Fauna.

As Pan was accompanied by the Paniskoi, or little Pans, so the existence of many Fauni was assumed besides the chief Faunus. Fauns are place-spirits (genii) of untamed woodland. Educated, Hellenizing Romans connected their fauns with the Greek satyrs, who were wild and orgiastic drunken followers of Dionysus, with a distinct origin.

With the increasing Hellenization of literate upper-class Roman culture in the 3rd and 2nd–centuries BC, the Romans tried to equate their own deities with one of the Greeks’, applying in reverse the Greeks’ own interpretatio graeca. Faunus was naturally equated with the god Pan, who was a pastoral god of shepherds who was said to reside in Arcadia. Pan had always been depicted with horns and as such many depictions of Faunus also began to display this trait. However, the two deities were also considered separate by many, for instance, the epic poet Virgil, in his Aeneid, made mention of both Faunus and Pan independently.

The Christian writer Justin Martyr identified him as Lupercus (“he who wards off the wolf”), the protector of cattle, following Livy, who named his aspect of Inuus as the god who was originally worshiped at the Lupercalia, celebrated on the anniversary of the founding of his temple, February 15, when his priests (Luperci) wore goat-skins and hit onlookers with goat-skin belts.

Two festivals, called Faunalia, were celebrated in his honour—one on the 13th of February, in the temple of Faunus on the island in the Tiber, the other on the 5th of December, when the peasants brought him rustic offerings and amused themselves with dancing.

A euhemeristic account made Faunus a Latin king, son of Picus and Canens. He was then revered as the god Fatuus after his death, worshipped in a sacred forest outside what is now Tivoli, but had been known since Etruscan times as Tibur, the seat of the Tiburtine Sibyl. His numinous presence was recognized by wolf skins, with wreaths and goblets.

In Nonnos’ Dionysiaca, Faunus/Phaunos accompanied Dionysus when the god campaigned in India.

Faunus was worshipped across the Roman Empire for many centuries. An example of this was a set of thirty-two 4th-century spoons found near Thetford in England in 1979. They had been engraved with the name “Faunus”, and each also had a different epithet after the god’s name. The spoons also bore Christian symbols, and it has been suggested that these were initially Christian but later taken and devoted to Faunus by pagans. The 4th century was a time of large scale Christianisation, and the discovery provides us with evidence that even during the decline of traditional Roman religion, the god Faunus was still worshipped.

In Gaul, Faunus was identified with the Celtic Dusios.

Source:
Wikipedia

Hermes

Fast Facts About the Olympians – Hermes

Name: Greek – Hermes; Roman – Mercury

Family
Parents: Zeus and Maia

Siblings: All the children of Zeus are his siblings, but Hermes has a special younger-brotherly relationship with Apollo.

Mates: Agraulos, Akalle, Antianeira, Alkidameia, Aphrodite, Aptale, Carmentis, Chthonophyle, Creusa, Daeira, Erytheia, Eupolemeia, Khione, Iphthime, Libya, Okyrrhoe, Penelopeia, Phylodameia, Polymele, Rhene, Sose, Theoboula, Thronia,

Children: Angelia, Eleusis, Hermaphroditos, Oreiades, Palaistra, Pan, Agreus, Nomios, Priapos, Pherespondos, Lykos, Pronomos, Abderos, Aithalides, Arabos, Autolycus, Bounos, Daphnis, Ekhion, Eleusis, Euandros, Eudoros, Eurestos, Eurytos, Kaikos, Kephalos, Keryx, Kydon, Libys, Myrtilos, Norax, Orion, Pharis, Phaunos, Polybos, Saon,

Role of Hermes
For Humans:
Hermes is the god of eloquence, commerce, cunning, the inventor of the alphabet, numbers, astronomy, music, the art of fighting, gymnastics, the cultivation of the olive tree, measures, weights, and more, he sends refreshing sleep, conducts dreams, is the herdsman of the dead, the protector of travelers, the giver of wealth and luck, the protector of sacrificial animals, and patron of gymnastic games, among other things.

For Gods:
Hermes is credited with inventing divine worship and sacrifice. Hermes is the herald of the gods.
Canonical Olympian? Yes, Hermes is a canonical Olympian.

Author

N.S. Gill, Ancient/Classical History Expert
Article published on & owned by About.com

Deities Associated With Tuesday

Mars, Roman God of War

Mars was the Roman god of war, and is one of the most commonly worshiped deities in ancient Rome. Because of the nature of Roman society, nearly every healthy patrician male had some connection to the military, so it is logical that Mars was highly revered throughout the Empire.

Early History and Worship
In early incarnations, Mars was a fertility god, and a protector of cattle. As time went on, his role as an earth god expanded to include death and the underworld, and finally battle and war.

He is known as the father of twins Romulus and Remus, by the Vestal virgin Rhea Silvia. As the father of the men who later founded the city, Roman citizens often referred to themselves as “sons of Mars.”
Before going into battle, Roman soldiers often gathered at the temple of Mars Ultor (the avenger) on the Forum Augustus. The military also had a special training center dedicated to Mars, called the Campus Martius, where soldiers drilled and studied.

Festivals and Celebrations
The month of March is named in his honor, and several festivals each year were dedicated to Mars. Each year the Feriae Marti was held, beginning on the Kalends of March and continuing until the 24th.

Dancing priests, called the Salii, performed elaborate rituals over and over again, and a sacred fast took place for the last nine days. The dance of the Salii was complex, and involved a lot of jumping, spinning and chanting. On March 25, the celebration of Mars ended and the fast was broken at the celebration of the Hilaria, in which all the priests partook in an elaborate feast.

During the Suovetaurilia, held every five years, bulls, pigs and sheep were sacrificed in Mars’ honor.
This was part of an elaborate fertility ritual, designed to bring prosperity to the harvest. Cato the Elder wrote that as the sacrifice was made, the following invocation was called out:

“Father Mars, I pray and beseech thee
that thou be gracious and merciful to me,
my house, and my household;
to which intent I have bidden this suovetaurilia
to be led around my land, my ground, my farm;
that thou keep away, ward off, and remove sickness, seen and unseen,
barrenness and destruction, ruin and unseasonable influence;
and that thou permit my harvests, my grain, my vineyards,
and my plantations to flourish and to come to good issue,
preserve in health my shepherds and my flocks, and
give good health and strength to me, my house, and my household.
To this intent, to the intent of purifying my farm,
my land, my ground, and of making an expiation, as I have said,
deign to accept the offering of these suckling victims;
Father Mars, to the same intent deign to accept
the offering of these suckling offering.

Mars the Warrior
As a warrior god, Mars is typically depicted in full battle gear, including a helmet, spear and shield. He is represented by the wolf, and is sometimes accompanied by two spirits known as Timor and Fuga, who personify fear and flight, as his enemies flee before him on the battlefield.

Early Roman writers associated Mars with not only warrior prowess, but virility and power. Because of this, he sometimes is tied to the planting season and agricultural bounty. It is possible that Cato’s invocation above connects the more wild and frenzied aspects of Mars with the need to tame, control and defend the agricultural environment.

In Greek legend, Mars is known as Ares, but was never as popular with the Greeks as he was with the Romans.

Author
Patti Wigington, Paganism/Wicca Expert
Article published on & owned by About.com