Eros fire.” (Nonnus, "Dionysiaca" 48. 470 ff – a Greek epic of the 5th century AD) The story of Eros and Psyche has a longstanding tradition as a folktale of the ancient Greco-Roman world long before it was committed to literature in Apuleius' Latin novel, "The Golden Ass". The novel itself is written in a picaresque Roman style, yet Psyche retains her Greek name. Eros and Aphrodite are called by their Latin names (Cupid and Venus), and Cupid is depicted as a young adult, rather than a child. The story tells of the struggle for love and trust between Eros and
Ancient Greek eros the primordial deity, the first god, older than all the others. Ancient Greek philosophers were also interested in the conception of eros, which became a central issue in their analyses. In particular, Plato devoted two of his dialogues, "Phaedrus" and "Symposium", to the philosophical dimensions of love, and in particular pederastic love. In "Phaedrus", the best eros of a man for a boy is said to be a form of divine madness that is a gift from the gods, and that its proper expression is rewarded by the gods in the afterlife; the "Symposium" details the method by which love