Philotes

Philotes was the personification of affection, love and friendship in Greek mythology. She is a daughter of Nyx, the goddess of Night, and one of the minor spirits that Hesiod lists in the Theogony beside Deceit, Old Age and Strife. The Greek word philotes means affection or friendship, and also the closeness of lovers.

Parents and Siblings of Philotes

Hesiod says that Night bore a long list of children “lying with none of the gods”, so Philotes has no father. They are Moros (Doom), the black Ker, Thanatos (Death), Hypnos (Sleep), the tribe of Dreams, Momus (Blame), painful Oizys (Misery), the Hesperides, the Moirai and the pitiless Keres, and Nemesis. After Nemesis, Night bore Apate (Deceit), Philotes (Affection), baneful Geras (Old Age), and strong-hearted Eris (Strife) (Hesiod, Theogony 211–225). Hesiod gives no story about Philotes beyond her place in this list. Her siblings Apate and Geras stand next to her in the text, and Eris is the mother of Toil, Forgetfulness, Famine and the Quarrels (Theogony 226–232).

The Word Philotes

Outside this passage of the Theogony, philotes is an ordinary word and not the name of a goddess. In Homer it means love or affection between persons. When Hera plans to deceive Zeus, she asks Aphrodite: “Give me now love and desire, with which you overcome all the immortals and mortal men” (Iliad 14.198–199). Hesiod also uses the word for the union of lovers: Night conceives her first children by Erebus, “joined with him in love” (philotes) (Theogony 125), and Callirrhoe bears Geryon to Chrysaor after being “joined in the love of golden Aphrodite” (Theogony 979–981).

The Latin mythographer Hyginus, in the preface to his Fabulae, lists Amicitia (“Friendship”) among the children of Night and Erebus; this Latin name is the nearest Roman equivalent of Philotes.

Philotes Sources

Hesiod, Theogony 125, 211–232, 979–981; Homer, Iliad 14.198–199; Hyginus, Fabulae, Preface.

See Also: Nyx, Apate, Geras, Eris, Nemesis, Aphrodite, Hera