Eros is the god of love and the illegitimate son of Aphrodite and the god of war Ares, raised by his kind foster father Hephaestus and always serving as the personal messenger of his domineering mother. He was supposed to carry out yet another of Aphrodite's commands — to descend to earth and punish a mortal princess by making her fall in love with a monster — but for the first time in his life, he defied his mother's will.