Anteros سيمون حلبي

At the south-western side of the Circus, moved after World War II from its original position in the centre, stands the Shaftesbury Monument Memorial Fountain, erected in 1892-1893 to commemorate the philanthropic works of Lord Shaftesbury, who was a famous Victorian politician and philanthropist.

The sculptor Alfred Gilbert had already sculpted a statue of Anteros, and when commissioned for the Shaftesbury Memorial Fountain, chose to reproduce the same subject, who as 'The God of Selfless Love' was deemed to suitably represent the philanthropic 7th Earl of Shaftesbury. Gilbert described Anteros as portraying 'reflective and mature love, as opposed to Eros or Cupid, the frivolous tyrant.
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Simon Halabi (Arabic,سيمون حلبي) is a Syrian-born businessman based in the United Kingdom.

His wealth derived initially from his family - his father was a successful businessman in Syria and backed his son in his early ventures
Embarking on a series of speculative property ventures, he amassed a sizeable fortune himself. In the Sunday Times Rich List 2007 he was ranked 14th richest person in Britain, while the Forbes list of global billionaires listed him at #194, with an estimated net worth of $4.3billion.

Although he remained an intensely private man, he was fond of conspicuous consumption, owning a large fleet of luxury cars including Bentleys and Rolls Royce Phantoms, as well as a 130ft yacht.
Downfall
In late 2007 the sports gym chain Esporta, which he had purchased for £460m, was forced into administration, costing Halabi at least £120m of his own money, as well as damaging his relationship with his main creditors Societe Generale.

January 2008 saw the former tycoon forced to sell his one third stake in the flagship Shard of Glass development in London for £30m - a stake that had been valued at over £130m just six months earlier.

Later that year, the Mentmore Towers project, which Halabi had purchased in 1997, with a view to turning into a six star hotel, ran into problems.
The grade II listed building was mothballed, with essential maintenance work remaining undone as the project architects sued Halabi for unpaid fees.
During summer 2008 English Heritage ranked three of Halibi's assets as "Buildings at Risk" showing their concern about the future for the important listed buildings concerned, and their maintenance.

In June 2009, his group of property companies defaulted on $1.9billion of bonds.
The debts in question had been secured on nine London properties, which had fallen in value by up to 50% since the start of the credit crunch, leaving them in negative equity

On 21 August 2009 insolvency specialists MCR were appointed as liquidators of Buckingham Securities Holdings, Halabi's principal client advisory vehicle, reported The Daily Telegraph.

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[SuperGreatSphinx]

Anteros is the subject of the Shaftesbury Memorial in Piccadilly Circus, London, where he symbolises the selfless philanthropic love of the Earl of Shaftesbury for the poor. The memorial is sometimes given the name The Angel of Christian Charity and is popularly mistaken for Eros.

[SuperGreatSphinx]

Describing the nature of the emotion, Plato asserts that it is the result of the great love for another person. The lover, inspired by beauty, is filled with divine love and "filling the soul of the loved one with love in return." As a result, the loved one falls in love with the lover, though the love is only spoken of as friendship. They experience pain when the two are apart, and relief when they are together, the mirror image of the lover's feelings, is anteros, or "counter-love."

[SuperGreatSphinx]

An altar to this god was put up by the metics in Athens in commemoration of the spurned love of the metic Timagoras who was rejected by the Athenian Meles. Upon hearing Timagoras' declaration of love for him, the young man mockingly ordered him to throw himself down from the top of a tall rock. Seeing Timagoras dead, Meles repented and threw himself down from the same rock.

[SuperGreatSphinx]

Anteros, with Eros, was one of a host of winged love gods called Erotes, the ever-youthful winged gods of love, usually depicted as winged boys in the company of Aphrodite or her attendant goddesses.

[SuperGreatSphinx]

Anteros was the son of Ares and Aphrodite in Greek mythology, given to his brother Eros, who was lonely, as a playmate, the rationale being that love must be answered if it is to prosper. Alternatively, he was said to have arisen from the mutual love between Poseidon and Nerites. Physically, he is depicted as similar to Eros in every way, but with long hair and plumed butterfly wings. He has been described also as armed with either a golden club or arrows of lead.

[SuperGreatSphinx]

In Greek mythology, Anteros (Greek: Ἀντέρως, Antérōs) was the god of requited love, literally "love returned" or "counter-love" and also the punisher of those who scorn love and the advances of others, or the avenger of unrequited love.