Mythology Book

60

A

pollo was among the

greatest of the gods, his

prestige unimpeachable,

his person radiant with all the

splendor of the sun. By contrast,

Eros personified sexual desire

in all its indignity and neediness.

Like an overgrown infant, he was

a caprious troublemaker who

acted on his every whim.

Apollo was the god of archery

and a skilled archer. His silver

bow was as much a symbol of

power as a weapon, the arrows

rarely used. Eros also had a bow

and arrows, which he used

regularly to make his conquests.

His sharp, gold-tipped darts made

the target they struck fall in love

immediately. He had a second set

of arrows, too. Their heads were

blunt and tipped with lead, and

they killed affection in anyone they

hit. The weapons made Eros giddy

with power.

Gods at odds

Seeing Eros strutting around,

Apollo could not help sneering.

Fresh from his glorious triumph

over the monstrous Python—killed

by a thousand arrows from his

quiver—Apollo laughed to see this

infant-at-arms give himself such

IN BRIEF

THEME

Desire and transformation

SOURCES

Description of Greece,

Pausanias, ca. 150 ce;

Metamorphoses, Ovid, 8 ce.

SETTING

Thessaly or the Peloponnese,

Greece.

KEY FIGURES

Apollo God of the sun,

archery, magic, music,

and more.

Eros The young god of desire;

a troublemaker.

Daphne A beautiful nymph

dedicated to chastity; the

daughter of Peneus.

Peneus A river god; father

of Daphne.

grand airs. Apollo believed that

such an impudent boy was not fit to

carry bow and arrows—and he said

as much to the young Eros.

Puffed up with petulant rage,

the boy yelled back that he would

get even; he would make the sun

god sorry that he had shown such

scorn. The passions his gold-tipped

arrows aroused could prevail over

the most powerful of individuals.

Even Apollo was not immune, as

the sun god was soon to learn.

Eros takes revenge

Depending upon the account, the

spat took place by the River Peneus

on the Plain of Thessaly, in central

Greece, or by the river Ladon in the

ONE LOVED; THE

OTHER FLED THE

NAME OF LOVE

APOLLO AND DAPHNE

You don’t know who

you’re fleeing from,

thoughtless nymph.

Metamorphoses

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ANCIENT GREECE 61

Daphne recoils from Apollo in this

mid-18th-century painting by Italian

artist Giovanni Battista Tiepolo. Eros

hides and Peneus watches on as the

nymph is transformed into a laurel tree.

See also: The Olympian gods 24–31 ■ Apollo and the Oracle of Delphi 58–59 ■

Venus and Adonis 88–89 ■ Cupid and Psyche 112–13

Peloponnese, in southern Greece.

Eros spotted Daphne, a beautiful,

virginal Naiad (a water nymph) and

daughter of the river god—named

by Ovid as Peneus—upon the

banks of her father’s stream. Eros

took aim and pierced Daphne with

a lead-tipped bolt. Spinning around,

he shot another arrow, this time

with a golden tip, which pierced

Apollo. The sun god hardly had

time to register the pain: seeing

Daphne, he was instantly smitten

with desire.

Daphne, however, had been

hit just as hard by Eros’s leaden

dart. Seeing Apollo, even in all

his beauty, she recoiled. As he

approached her with vows of eternal

love, she turned and fled. Pursued

by Apollo, she cried out to her father

as she ran, and just as Apollo

caught and grabbed Daphne and

held her in his arms, Peneus

answered her pleas and turned

his daughter into a laurel tree.

Apollo, his desire still burning,

declared that even though Daphne

could not be his bride, he would

claim the laurel as his own. From

then on, laurel leaves would always

adorn his hair, his lyre, and

quiver. Laurel wreaths would be

used to honor victorious generals in

triumphal processions and,

matching Apollo’s immortality and

ever-lustrous hair, laurel leaves

would never fade. The laurel tree

then inclined its branches as

if nodding in agreement. ■

Eros

Usually a relatively minor

character in the stories of

Greek mythology, Eros was

the son of Aphrodite, the

goddess of love. Eros also

represented love—but, more

specifically, he personified

“erotic,” sexual desire. Often

portrayed as a slender and

bratty boy, he could be touchy

and quick to take offense, as

he was when Apollo teased

him. He could also be

immature, thoughtless, and

capricious, even perverse; the

revenge he inflicts on Apollo

has the cruelest of

consequences for Daphne.

Eros was sometimes depicted

with a blindfold to show his

lack of discrimination—lust

typically does not exercise

much logic or judgment.

Eros is perhaps better

known today by his Roman

name, Cupid. Depictions of

the god gradually changed

from the slender youth of

Greek tradition to the pudgy,

cherubic toddler familiar from

Western classical art and

modern Valentine’s Day cards.

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