Aphrodite and Eros - the portrayal of these two gods and the depiction of their active intervention have a significant impact on the plots of numerous classical tragedies. Focussing on a selection of dramas from Aeschylus to Seneca as well as on related texts from early Greek epics to Theocritus, Ovid and Nonnus, the author demonstrates how the images of these two multifaceted gods have been transmitted and altered, at the same time that certain characteristics have been preserved.