Anteros

File:Eros and Antieros, Marble relief, Knossos, 2nd century AD, AMH, 145406.jpg, Crete.]]

Anteros was the son of Ares and Aphrodite in Greek mythology, given as a playmate to his brother Eros, who was lonely – the rationale being that love must be answered if it is to prosper. Alternatively, he was said to have arisen from the mutual love between Poseidon and Nerites.Aelian, On Animals, 14. 28 Physically, he is depicted as similar to Eros in every way, but with long hair and plumed butterfly wings.{{cn|date=March 2025}} He has been described also as armed with either a golden club or arrows of lead.{{cn|date=March 2025}}

Anteros, with Eros, was usually depicted as winged boys in the company of Aphrodite or her attendant goddesses. According to Porphyrius, Aphrodite once complained to Themis that Eros remained a perpetual child, so Themis advised her to give him a brother. Aphrodite then gave birth to Anteros, and whenever he was near Eros, Eros grew. But if Anteros was away, Eros shrank back to his previous, smaller size.{{cite book | page = [https://archive.org/details/cu31924029135651/page/n269/mode/2up 266] | last1 = Dwight | first1 = Mary Ann | last2 = Dickson White | first2 = Andrew | title = Grecian and Roman mythology | location = New York | publisher = Putnam | date = 1849 | url = http://archive.org/details/cu31924029135651}}

An altar to Anteros was put up by the metics in Athens in commemoration of the spurned love of the metic {{ill|Timagoras|qid=Q114319165}}, who was rejected by the Athenian Meles. Upon hearing Timagoras' declaration of love for him, the young man mockingly ordered him to throw himself down from the top of a tall rock. Seeing Timagoras dead, Meles repented and threw himself down from the same rock.Pausanias, Description of Greece, 1.30.1.

Describing the nature of the emotion, Plato asserts that it is the result of the great love for another person. The lover, inspired by beauty, is filled with divine love and "filling the soul of the loved one with love in return." As a result, the loved one falls in love with the lover, though the love is only spoken of as friendship. They experience pain when the two are apart, and relief when they are together, the mirror image of the lover's feelings, is anteros, or "counter-love".Phaedrus, 255.

Anteros is the subject of the Shaftesbury Memorial Fountain in Piccadilly Circus, London, where he symbolises the selfless philanthropic love of the Earl of Shaftesbury for the poor. The memorial is sometimes given the name The Angel of Christian Charity and is popularly mistaken for Eros.{{cite book |first1=John |last1=Lloyd |first2=John |last2=Mitchinson |year=2006 |title=The Book of General Ignorance |location=London |publisher=Faber |isbn=9780571233687 |quote=Because of the bow and the nudity... everybody assumed it was Eros, the Greek god of love.}}

{{reflist|25em}}

• Graf, Fritz, "Anteros", in Brill's New Pauly: Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World. Antiquity, Volume 1, A – Ari, edited by Hubert Cancik and Helmuth Schneider, Brill, 2002. {{ISBN|9004122583}}.

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Category:Greek love and lust gods

Category:Children of Aphrodite

Category:Children of Ares

Category:LGBTQ themes in Greek mythology

Category:Children of Poseidon

Category:Avian humanoids

Category:Personifications in Greek mythology

Category:Olympian deities

Category:Deeds of Eros