Pothos (mythology)

In Greek mythology, Pothos () is the personification of erotic desire. He is one of deities who accompanies Aphrodite, alongside Eros and Himeros.

Greek literature

According to Jan Bažant, the use of "desire" in a fragment of Archilochus (7th century BC) may refer to the personification of the word. Pothos first appears clearly personified in Aeschylus (6th to 5th centuries BC), where he and Peitho are described as children and attendent of Aphrodite. In Sophocles (5th century BC), he appears to be the personification of the yearning for someone who is not present. Euripides's Bacchae (5th century BC) associates him with Dionysus, as a god pertaining to ecstasy and pleasure. In his Symposium, Plato (5th to 4th centuries BC) describes him as the child of Eros. In the Dionysiaca of Nonnus (6th century AD), Pothos is described as the son of Zephyrus and Iris.

Pothos does not appear in any mythological stories.

Ancient art

In the temple of Aphrodite at Megara, there was a sculpture that represented Pothos together with Eros and Himeros which has been credited to Scopas.

Other references

According to Henning Börm, an "association of death" is indicated by the use of the Pothos flower to adorn graves in ancient times. In Syrian sources, he is described as the offspring of Cronus and Astarte.

Notes

References

• Bažant, Jan, "Pothos", in Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC). VII.1: Oidipous – Theseus, Zurich and Munich, Artemis Verlag, 1994. . Internet Archive.
• Grimal, Pierre, The Dictionary of Classical Mythology, Malden, Oxford, and Carlton, Blackwell Publishing, 1986. . Internet Archive.
• Hanfmann, George M. A., John Richard Thornhill Pollard, and Karim Arafatin, "Eros", in Oxford Classical Dictionary, edited by Tim Whitmarsh, New York, Oxford University Press, 2015. .
• Hard, Robin, The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: Based on H.J. Rose's "Handbook of Greek Mythology", London and New York, Routledge, 2004. . .

Further reading

• "Pothos", in Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft, Band XXII, Halbband 1, Stuttgart, J. B. Metzler, 1953. Wikisource.