Eros

Eros, in astronomy

Eros, in astronomy: see asteroid.

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Eros, in Greek religion and mythology

Eros (ēr`ŏs, ĕr`–), in Greek religion and mythology, god of love. He was the personification of love in all its manifestations, including physical passion at its strongest, tender, romantic love, and playful, sportive love. According to some legends he was one of the oldest of the gods, born from Chaos and personifying creative power and harmony. In most legends he was the son of Aphrodite and Ares and was represented as a winged youth armed with bow and arrows. In Greek poetry Eros was often a willful and unsympathetic god, carelessly dispensing the frenzies and agonies of love. At Thespiae and at Athens he was worshiped as a god of fertility. In Hellenistic and Roman myth, he was represented as a naked, winged child, the son and companion of Venus. To the Romans he was Cupid, or Amor. Eros was sometimes attended by his brother, Anteros, who was said to be the avenger of unrequited love or the opposer of love. See also Psyche.

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Eros

Greek god of love. Though Hesiod declared him one of the primeval gods born of Chaos, he was later said to be the son of Aphrodite. His Roman counterpart was Cupid. Eros was depicted as a beautiful winged youth carrying a bow and a quiver of arrows. In later literature and art he became increasingly younger, ending as an infant. His cult centre was at Thespiae, but he also shared a sanctuary with Aphrodite at Athens.

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Eros

First asteroid found to travel mainly inside the orbit of Mars and the first to be landed on by a spacecraft. Discovered in 1898 and named for the Greek god of love, Eros is an elongated body about 20.5 mi (33 km) in its greatest dimension. It can approach to within 14 million mi (22 million km) of Earth. In 2000 the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR Shoemaker) spacecraft orbited Eros, collecting a full year of data, and in 2001 it set down gently on Eros's surface.

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Eros [′e‚räs]

(astronomy)

The first asteroid to be orbited and landed on by a spacecrafts in 2000-2001; the elongated object's maximum diameter is about 19.6 miles (31.6 kilometers); its closest approach to the earth is at about 14 × 10⁶miles (22.5 × 10⁶kilometers).

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Eros

Antony’s freed slave; kills himself rather than harm Antony. [Br. Lit.: Antony and Cleopatra]

See : Loyalty

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Eros

(Rom. Cupid) god of love; whence, word erotic. [Gk. Myth.: Zimmerman, 76]

See : Passion, Sensual

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Eros

(asteroid 433), an asteroid discovered in 1898 by the amateur astronomer G. Witt in Berlin. Eros belongs to the terrestrial group of asteroids, which closely approach the earth in their motion about the sun. Eros’ period of revolution around the sun is 1.76 years; its semimajor axis is 1.46 astronomical units, its eccentricity is 0.22, and its inclination to the plane of the ecliptic is 10.8°. At aphelion, Eros travels beyond the orbit of Mars. Its perihelion exceeds the semimajor axis of the earth’s orbit by only 0.14 astronomical unit. Closest approaches to the earth (favorable oppositions) occur at 37-year intervals and have been observed in 1894, 1930–31, and 1967–68.

The closeness of Eros to the earth has made it a convenient object for determining the parallax of the sun. In 1950 the American astronomer E. Rabe, processing observations of Eros conducted in the period 1926–45, obtained a value of 8.79835 ± 0.00058” for the value of the solar parallax, which was close to the then accepted value of 8.80”. The calculations were later repeated for observations conducted in the period 1926–65, and the new value of the parallax—8.79417” ± 0.00018” (Rabe, Francis)—completely agreed with radar determinations.

Eros is a relatively bright asteroid: its brightness at opposition ranges from 6.7 to 11.3 stellar magnitudes, depending on the distance from the earth and the orientation of the asteroid. It was the first asteroid for which periodic variations of brightness were detected (1901). The maximum variation of brightness is 1.5 stellar magnitudes, and its period is 5 hr 16 min. Investigation of the brightness curve, which has two maxima and two minima per period, led astronomers to the conclusion that Eros is a rotating oblate body. This was later confirmed by direct observations. Observations of occultations of stars by Eros (Eros was the first asteroid for which this phenomenon was observed) have made it possible to determine that the contour of the visible edge of Eros has an irregular form, resembling a dumbbell with diameters of 21 and 13 km.

REFERENCE

Malye planety. A collection edited by N. S. Samoilova-Iakhontova. Moscow, 1973.

IU. V. BATRAKOV

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Eros

in Greek mythology, the god of love and the personification of sexual desire, which ensures the continuation of life on earth. According to the Theogony of Hesiod, Eros was the son of Chaos. Other versions of the myth state that he was the son of either Aphrodite and Hermes or Artemis and Ares. In mythology, Eros was portrayed as a playful youth with golden wings. He carried a bow, quiver, and arrows. Even the gods were vulnerable to Eros’s arrows, which never missed their mark, arousing amorous passion in whomever they struck. In a figurative sense, “Eros” means love; from it are derived the terms “eroticism,” “erotica,” and “erotic poetry.” The counterparts of Eros in Roman mythology are Amor and Cupid.