According to Hesiod's Theogony, Limos is the offspring of Eris (Strife), with no father named. As a child of Eris, she represents one of the many harmful things that might be thought to result from discord and strife, taking her place alongside other personified afflictions in that brood.

The grammatical gender of the Greek word is ambiguous, so ancient sources treat Limos as either male or female. Iconographic depictions reflect this uncertainty: a statue at Byzantium presented Limos as male, while a painting at Sparta showed the figure as a woman.

In Hesiod's Works and Days, Limos appears as the direct antithesis of Demeter, the goddess of grain. Hesiod contrasts the two: Demeter loves the hard-working man, filling his granary with the means of life, whereas Limos hates him and is ever the companion of the man who does not work.

The iambic poet Semonides (c. 7th century BC) describes Limos as a hostile housemate and an enemy of the gods, casting the figure as a being able to enter and dwell within one's home.

Depictions of Limos varied with the figure's uncertain sex. At Byzantium there stood a statue of Limos rendered as male. At the temple of Apollo in Sparta, a painting portrayed Limos in the form of a woman, pale and emaciated, with her hands tied behind her back.

Limos was one of seven abstractions respected and possibly deified at Sparta, alongside Fear, Modesty, Sleep, Death, Laughter, and Love. These personifications were all associated with physical states of the body, or with psychological states that have physical manifestations.

The Roman goddess Fames is the direct counterpart and translation of Limos.