The Roman God Cupid
The Roman god Cupid is a relatively minor deity among their pantheon of gods and goddesses, having no temples or shrines of his own. In classical mythology, he is the god of desire, love, and erotic attraction, a role he shares with his Greek counterpart, Eros.
In ancient times, he was most commonly depicted as a slender young man or boy with wings, but there are also examples of the winged, cherubic, and baby-like Cupid that is so common today.
Cupid's wings are meant to represent the flighty and fickle aspects of love. He is also portrayed as wielding a bow and arrows with very special powers: any human or even god who is struck by one of Cupid’s arrows becomes overcome with love and desire, making him the perfect catalyst for a number of myths. Sometimes, he is depicted wearing a blindfold to symbolize that love is often blind.
Origins
In Greek mythology, Eros was a primordial being that was not born to any other god, illustrating how the ancient Greeks looked at love and sexual desire. By contrast, the Roman Cupid is almost always described as a son of Venus, the Roman goddess of love, beauty, and sex.
Cupid’s father changes depending on the source, with some Romans writing that he was the son of Venus’ husband Vulcan, the Roman god of fire, and others claiming he is the product of an affair with Mars, the Roman god of war. Still other Roman sources have completely different accounts, including those involving multiple Cupids.
Cupid & Psyche
In an unnamed ancient kingdom, there lived a young woman named Psyche who was the daughter of the king and incredibly beautiful. Some people, including her family, believed that she was the goddess Venus reborn and began to worship her in place of Venus. This angered the goddess, so she sent her son Cupid after Psyche, telling him to shoot her with his enchanted arrows when she would be certain to fall in love with someone hideous. However, while he was waiting, Cupid pricked himself with one of his own arrows, immediately fell in love with Psyche, and resolved to disobey his mother.
Around this time, Psyche’s father gets a message from an oracle of Apollo that she will give birth to a horrible creature. So, he decides to chain her up on a rocky cliff until a sea monster comes and devours her. Cupid, with the help of Zephyrus, the West Wind, freed Psyche and spirited her away to a hiding place. Cupid began to visit Psyche in the dark on a nightly basis, but insisted that she never look at his face, fearing that her mortal mind could not take it.
Psyche’s jealous sisters aroused doubt in her, so one night she decided to light a lamp and look upon his face. Startled by Cupid’s beauty, she accidentally spilled oil from the lamp on him, causing him to be seriously injured. Cupid ran away and, in the scuffle, Psyche was pricked by one of his arrows and fell in love with him.
With Cupid being laid up with an injury, his mother Venus began to torment Psyche. The goddess tortured and insulted the mortal girl mercilessly. She agreed to free Psyche if she would perform several difficult trials, including journeying into the Underworld.
Eventually, Cupid recovered and intervened against his mother. He went to Zeus and struck a bargain: Zeus would bless Cupid and Psyche’s union and make her a goddess, freeing her from Venus’ service, and Cupid would use his arrows to help Zeus acquire lovers in exchange. This ended Psyche’s suffering and the two were married in Olympos before the entire pantheon of gods and goddesses.
Lesser Myths
While the story of his marriage to Psyche is Cupid’s main mythological story, there are a few other minor ones.
In the myth of Cupid and the bees, he tries to steal honey from a beehive and is predictably stung many times. He complains to his mother, Venus, that such a small creature shouldn’t deliver such a painful sting. In response, Venus laughs and points out the irony, since Cupid himself is so small and yet delivers the painful sting of love.
In another myth, the god Apollo, who is also an archer, boasts about being more skilled than Cupid. In retaliation, Cupid shoots Apollo and makes him fall in love with a nymph named Daphnae. Unable to convince Apollo to cease his advances, Daphnae desperately turns to her father, the river god Peneus, for aid. Peneus turns her into a tree so that she can finally escape Apollo’s unwanted attempts at courtship.
Cupid in the Renaissance Period
Over a thousand years after the fall of the Roman Empire, interest in Greek and Roman mythology was reignited during the Renaissance. One figure that was used quite frequently was the cherubic Roman god Cupid, who was often used to symbolize romantic love. He appears in works by legendary painters and sculptors such as Michelangelo.
When viewed with a historical eye, this inclusion of a pagan god of love among heavily Christian imagery and symbolism is striking. In fact, to many within the Christian worldview, the god Cupid was a demon of fornicaton who was meant to represent the sin of lust.
