Eros and the nature of ‘interest’

Abstract

In Greek archaic literature and philosophy, Eros, the god of love and desire, has numerous origin stories, which lead to different understandings of his nature (Thornton, 2018). In Hesiod, Eros was a primordial god, the fourth to come into existence, trailing on the heels of Chaos, Gaia (the earth), and Tartarus (the abyss). In other tales, he was born of the illicit coupling of Aphrodite and Ares. Beyond these, adaptations of the myth (including Roman ones) are as numerous and heterogenous as the forms that love can take. It was with Plato, however, that Eros became a figure of political economy. In the Symposium, a new version unfolded in a dialog between Socrates and Diotima of Mantinea. Therein, the infant Eros was conceived during another unblessed union; this time a tryst between the goddess of Poverty (Penia) and that of Wealth or Resource (Plutos). With this parentage, love and desire became allegorically wed to the problem of material lack and abundance.