It’s true! The Greek God Eros returns this year to bring all of us, especially those who are in the market, a little extra love into our lives and, if we are to be more specific, intimate love.

If you’re wondering what I am talking about, it is actually rather simple. Take this year’s date, 2013 and mirror it… what do you have? Eros. And who is Eros? The Greek God of sexual and powerful love, of course.

Yes, the gods are truly smiling down on us this year and Eros is bestowing us all with the gift of passion, and nothing is better than a gift shared.

Eros, also known as Cupid in Roman Mythology, is where the term erotic derives from and is also from where concepts ‘life energy’ can be traced back to. Some myths say that he is one of the oldest gods born from Chaos but others say the child of others. His appearance varies from myth to story, but more recognizably, Eros is depicted as a slim, lithe, handsome male that carries a bow and arrow and who is sometimes blindfolded. The reason for the blindfold is where the old saying ‘love is blind’ comes from, a sentence that Shakespeare is cited as the creator for, when he used it in his play ‘The Merchant of Venice’.

So, it’s true, depending on what it is you are looking to gain from this year, in terms of love, the gods are most certainly in your favour.

But, the connotations of passionate and erotic love were not celebrated quite like they are today. Once regarded as a madness, erotic love was seen as a sickness that left men and women lusting after sex uncontrollably and giving into their desires and longings without a seconds thought. This madness became personified by Eros, the son of Aphrodite (Greek Goddess of Love) and Ares (Greek God of War), who struck the hearts of gods and mortals with his golden tipped arrows, a symbol that is still used to represent passionate love today. Now, however, the concepts of passion and erotic love are seen as less taboo and are somewhat relished in today’s society, where expectations of ‘falling head over heels in love’ is considered a must.

When he aimed an arrow at hearts, what we have to remember is that Eros wasn’t only playing with passion. His bow also fired arrows with fletchings of owl feathers which rendered a person indifferent and unable to love; this issomething that Eros would amuse himself with, by shooting one person with the love arrow and another with the indifference arrow, making sure that they met. If you are worried about 2013 bringing out these kind of consequences just make sure you don’t live in or around woodland areas. Simple, I guess.

So, if you have your eyes set on someone, don’t assume that they are the one for you… this is the year of Eros and his playful ways might just influence whom you meet and when it will happen…. And how. So, don’t go looking for it, you never know when the arrow of Eros will strike.