In non-mythological scenes he is found almost as frequently, especially in toilet scenes,[495] or what we may regard as “scenes of courting”; but on the later vases these exhibit little or no action, and are not worth considering in detail, with a few exceptions. Thus we see Eros in marriage processions,[496] in musical scenes,[497] and at banquets[498]; at a sacrifice to a term[499]; watching girls play the game of _morra_[500] (“How many fingers do I hold up?”); swinging them, or being danced on their feet[501]; in scenes of fruit- and incense-gathering[502]; or pouring wine into a krater.[503] He appears with Agon (see p. 89) training in the palaestra.[504] He pursues a youth or a girl,[505] embraces a girl,[506] or is carried by her pick-a-back[507]; offers a hare to a youth,[508] or drives a youth with a whip from an altar[509]; and in one instance is about to chastise with a slipper two youths who are playing with a top and hoop[510]; these two latter scenes may be regarded as implying the power of Eros over youth. He is also seen shooting an arrow at a woman,[511] an idea characteristic of Anacreontic and Alexandrine poetry. Another scene which recalls the wall-paintings of the Hellenistic Age is on a vase in the British Museum, representing two Erotes being weighed in scales.[512]
As a single figure he pursues a hare or kills a snake[513]; crouches before a plant[514]; is represented armed with shield and spear[515]; or places a sash or wreath on a tripod.[516] He is borne in a chariot by horses or swans,[517] or rides on a horse, deer, dog, or swan.[518] He is also seen playing various games, such as the _kottabos_ or _morra_,[519] see-sawing or playing knucklebones,[520] or with a ball or hoop or toy-boat.[521] Or he plays the flute or lyre[522]; or plays with animals, such as a deer, dove, swan[523]; or finally (on Apulian vases) with a toy which resembles a wheel, and was probably used for magic purposes, as several passages of literature indicate.[524]
[Illustration: FIG. 118. EROS WITH KOTTABOS-STAND (BRIT. MUS.).]
Lastly, we must give a survey of the frequent representations of Eros flying through the air carrying some attribute, which are so universal on the Italian vases, though some of the earliest types also represent him in this manner. Thus he carries a hare, or dove or other bird[525]; fruit (such as grapes or pomegranates), flowers, and branches[526]; wreaths, dishes of fruit, baskets, vases of various forms, and a spit of meat[527]; thyrsi, tambourines, lyres, torches, incense-burners, strigils, and ladders[528]; fans, parasols, mirrors, toilet-boxes, strings of beads, and sashes, or balls.[529]