| Cupid is the mischievous, juvenile, winged child, | | | | gods and men alike and so gods became the |
| who shots the heart of his victims with his | | | | brood of love. |
| arrows and making them fall deeply in love. In | | | | Cupid has been portrayed in various facets in art |
| ancient Greece, he was known as Eros the young | | | | and literature. In Caravaggio's Amor Vincit Omni |
| son of Aphrodite, the goddess of love and | | | | painting and sculpture, Cupid is portrayed as a |
| beauty. According to the Roman mythology, | | | | nude winged boy armed with a bow and quiver of |
| Cupid was the son of Lord Venus. Venus was | | | | arrows. The conventional Christian illustration of a |
| supposed to be envious of Psyche and ordered | | | | Cherub is footed on him. On trinkets and other |
| her son Cupid to punish the mortal maiden. But | | | | extant pieces, he is usually made known amusing |
| Cupid fell in love with Psyche and they end up in a | | | | himself with childhood play, sometimes driving a |
| bitter partition after Psyche committed the fault | | | | hoop, throwing flits, catching a butterfly, or flirting |
| of throwing a glance at the god of love. Their | | | | with a nymph. He is often portrayed with his |
| lovely castle and garden vanished with him and | | | | mother as playing a horn. He is also shown |
| Psyche found her unaided in an open field. | | | | wearing a helmet and hauling a buckler. Cupid is |
| Distressed Psyche landed in the temple of Lord | | | | commenced vastly in Ariel poetry, lyrics and of |
| Venus for help and malicious Venus instead of | | | | course Ovid's love and metamorphic poetry. Cupid |
| providing a helping hand, bombarded her with a | | | | is not frequently beckoned on epic poetry but he |
| series of treacherous and fatal tasks. Her last | | | | has an existence in Virgil's Aeneid changed into the |
| task was to carry a small box to Proserpine, wife | | | | shape of Ascanius rousing Dido's love. In later |
| of Pluto and was told to get some beauty of | | | | literature, Cupid is cited more often than not as |
| Proserpine and put it inside the box. Slowly | | | | mischievous, erratic and perverse. Cupid is often |
| locating each of her steps through the | | | | depicted as carrying two sets of arrows among |
| overflowing perilous path to her destination, | | | | which one set is gold-headed which inspire love |
| Psyche was lured to open the box where she | | | | and the other set is lead-headed which motivate |
| found poisonous sleep. Cupid found her lifeless on | | | | revulsion. |
| the ground. He assembled the sleep from her | | | | There are some legends which involve Cupid but |
| body and put it back in the box. Psyche's intense | | | | the best known saga on Cupid is the tale of Cupid |
| love and devotion for Cupid rubbed out all the | | | | and Psyche, first attested in Apuleius' picaresque |
| envy and anger of gods and therefore made her | | | | novel and The Golden Ass, written in the second |
| a goddess. | | | | century. Cupid's personality was anything but |
| Cupid's cult was strongly allied with Venus and he | | | | virtuous. He was reasonably playful and many of |
| was worshipped as acutely as Venus. Cupid was | | | | his deeds resulted in tragic ending of his victims. |
| known to have more power than his mother. He | | | | Cupid possesses the traditional supremacy of the |
| had command over the dead in Hades, the | | | | Olympic Gods such as superhuman power, |
| creatures of the sea and the gods in Olympus. | | | | fortitude and permanence. Cupid can grow wings |
| Some of the religious groups of Cupid suggested | | | | at will and fly, carrying the weight of others. He is |
| that Cupid got united with Chaos and created | | | | very proud of his skills as God of Love. |