Eros (ἔρως) Amongst the most ancient traditions in the Greek mysteries, Eros was known as Phanes, a progenitor deity.
Eros literally means “love.” It can also mean “life force.” At that time, Eros represented the creative power of divinity.
Yet as you know, anytime humanity gets a hold of something, we degenerate it. We have done it with every religion in the world. The depiction of Eros gradually degenerated.
“… in order to understand the ancients properly we must distinguish three Erotes: viz. [1] the Eros of the ancient cosmogonies, [2] the Eros of the philosophers and mysteries, who bears great resemblance to the first, and [3] the Eros whom we meet with in the epigrammatic and erotic poets, whose witty and playful descriptions of the god, however, can scarcely be considered as a part of the ancient religious belief of the Greeks.” —Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology
In its original conception, which is the closest to the reality, Eros represents the solar light of Phanes that descends through the tree of life and gives rise to everything that exists. That light eventually appears in your physical body as your hormones. The hormones in your endocrine system are carriers of the light of Phanes. They are pushing for action, but because of the condition of our mind we convert that action into the pursuit of pleasure and the causes of pain, because the pursuit of pleasure inevitably results in suffering. That is basic Buddhism, basic religion. The cause of suffering is desire. That is the first truth that the buddha taught. It is the basic ethic of every religion in the world.