In Greek mythology, Eros was the god of love and desire, often shown with a bow and arrows.
Eros appears in different forms across Greek tradition. In early cosmological poetry, he is a primordial force connected with attraction and the generation of life. In later mythology and art, he becomes the youthful son of Aphrodite, goddess of love, and is frequently portrayed as a winged boy carrying a bow.
His arrows could inspire desire, and later stories distinguish between arrows that awaken love and those that repel it. The Roman equivalent of Eros is Cupid, whose name comes from the Latin cupido, meaning desire.
Eros is sometimes incorrectly treated as simply the Greek version of Cupid in every early source. The youthful, mischievous archer is a later development of a much older and more abstract divine power.