Cupid love

Every year on Feb. 14, Valentine’s Day is marked by shades of pink, flowers, chocolates, romantic movies and wine — and images of a magical baby boy who flies around shooting arrows at people. But despite his infant form, that baby, widely known these days as Cupid, began his mythological life as a man who had more power than any god. “In the [Greek] literary sources we have, he’s depicted as just unconquerable,” Richard Martin, a classics professor at Stanford University, tells TIME. “So, whatever he wants to happen, happens — and he causes disaster.” The original Cupid was more of a heartthrob than a cherub. Traced back to 700 BC, this character of legend was called Eros, Martin explains: the Greek word for desire. In the Archaic period, Eros — the son of Aphrodite, the goddess of love — would play with the hearts of mortals and gods to cause mayhem. Depicted as a young man in his late teens, he was considered both handsome and threatening, as he would use his power to make people fall in love. [Eros] invincible in battle, [Eros] who falls upon men’s property, you who spend the night upon the soft cheeks of a girl, and travel over the sea and through the huts of dwellers in the wild! None among the immortals can escape, you, nor any among mortal men, and he who has you is mad. In Hippolytus, a 5th century BCE play by Euripides, the frightening notion that Eros could force the wrong people into love is highlighted. “I pray that love may never come to me / With murderous i...

• Cupid and Psyche is a Roman myth written in the 2nd century CE, based on similar, much older folktales from Europe and Asia. • The story is part of Africanus' comic novel "The Golden Ass." • The tale involves the love relationship between a mortal and a god, and it is a rarity in classical literature, in that it has a happy ending. • Elements of Cupid and Psyche are found in Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream," as well as the fairy tales "Beauty and the Beast" and "Cinderella." The Story of Cupid and Psyche Pscyhe leans over to get a closer look at her surprisingly handsome husband. "Cupid and Psyche." Found in the Collection of Accademia di San Luca. Heritage Images / Getty Images According to the earliest version of the tale, Psyche is a stunningly beautiful princess, the youngest and most beautiful of three sisters, so lovely that people begin worshiping her rather than the goddess Venus (Aphrodite in Greek mythology). In jealousy and rage, Venus persuades her son the infant god Cupid to make Psyche fall in love with a monster. Psyche discovers that she is revered as a goddess but never sought for human love. Her father seeks a solution from Apollo, who tells him to expose her on a mountaintop where she will be devoured by a monster. In obedience, Psyche goes to the mountain, but instead of being devoured she wakes to find herself in a gorgeous palace and ministered to by unseen servants in the daytime, and joined by an unseen bridegroom in the nights. Against h...

How Cupid and Psyche Met Psyche was worshiped for her beauty in her homeland. This drove Aphrodite mad, so she sent a plague and let it be known that the only way the land could get back to normal was to sacrifice Psyche. The king, who was Psyche's father, tied Psyche up and left her to her death at the hands of some presumed fearsome monster. You may note that this isn't the first time in Greek mythology that this happened. The great Greek hero Cupid was a god, and, as beautiful as he was, he did not want his mortal wife to see his form. Psyche's sister didn't know he was a god, although they may have suspected it. However, they did know that Psyche's life was much happier than theirs. Knowing their sister well, they preyed on her insecurities and persuaded Psyche that her husband was a hideous monster. • Sort a huge mount of barley, millet, poppy seeds, lentils, and beans. Ants (pismires) help her sort the grains within the time allotted. • Gather a hank of the wool of the shining golden sheep. A reed tells her how to accomplish this task without being killed by the vicious animals. • Fill a crystal vessel with the water of the spring that feeds the Styx and Cocytus. An eagle helps her out. • Aphrodite asked Psyche to bring her back a box of Persephone's beauty cream. Reunion and Happy Ending to the Myth of Cupid and Psyche At this point, divine intervention was called for if the story were to have an ending that made anyone really happy. With Zeus' connivance, Cupid bro...

Author • Joel Christensen Professor of Classical Studies, Brandeis University Disclosure statement Joel Christensen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment. Partners The Conversation UK receives funding from these organisations View the full list Languages • • English Each Valentine’s Day, when I see images of the chubby winged god Cupid taking aim with his bow and arrow at his unsuspecting victims, I take refuge in my training as In Roman culture, Cupid was the child of the goddess Venus, popularly known today as the goddess of love, and Mars, the god of war. But for ancient audiences, as myths and texts show, she was really the patron deity of “sexual intercourse” and “procreation.” The name Cupid, which comes from the This history isn’t often reflected in the modern-day Valentine celebrations. The Feast of Saint Valentine started out as a celebration of The winged cupid was a favorite of artists and authors in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, but he was more than just a symbol of love to them. A painting of Eros from 470 B.C.– 450 B.C. The Greek Eros often appears in early Greek iconography along with There were younger, more playful versions of Eros, however. Art depictions from the fifth century B.C. show By the time of the Roman Empire, however, the image of chubby Earlier Greek myths also made it...

As But how much do you really know about this liaison of love? Keep reading to learn more about Cupid, then dive into our explainers on Why is Cupid a baby? Heritage Images/Getty Images The Valentine Cupid you can easily call to mind is an interpretation of Eros, the Greek god of love. He appeared as a handsome youth in early art and poetry, but by the Hellenistic period—which spanned from 323 B.C.E. to 31 B.C.E.—he’d morphed into the chubby winged child that we know and love today. “Representing Eros as a child, and subordinate to his mother, is a way of containing or limiting the power that love was thought to have over us,” says Catherine Connors, PhD, a classics professor at the University of Washington. So what does Eros have to do with Cupid? A lot, actually. The Romans reinterpreted many Greek myths, and Eros is no exception. Once he was adopted by Roman culture, he was renamed Cupid, which stems from the word for “desire.” While his name may have changed, the Romans kept Cupid’s more recent Greek incarnation of the less threatening, chubby-cheeked child. Modern representations often conflate Eros and Cupid in the version of the Valentine’s Day Cupid that screams “ Who is Cupid the god? According to Roman mythology, Cupid was a god born of Mercury, the messenger of the gods, and Venus, the goddess of love. Armed with a bow and arrows (they’re on your His Greek counterpart has a murkier background. Some early stories claim Eros was a primeval god believed to be the s...