Eros and Anteros. Eros and Anteros. According to some mythog-raphers, Anteros (literally, “answering love”) was the son of Ares (Mars) and Aphrodite (Venus) and the younger brother of Eros (Cupid). A minor figure, he is variously and ambiguously described as both an avenger of slighted love and a symbol of reciprocal affection. Similarly, he is sometimes seen as an ally, sometimes an antagonist, of his elder brother. In the Renaissance, Eros and Anteros also came to symbolize sacred and profane love, a theme related to the notion of the “two Venuses,” celestial and earthly.



Classical Sources. Cicero, De natura dear urn, 3.23.59ff. Pausanias, Description of Greece 1.30, 6.23.3—5.



Further Reference. R. V. Merrill, “Eros and Anteros,” Speculum 19 (1944): 265—84.