![]() ![]() In Latin literature, Cupid is usually treated as the son of Venus without reference to a father. The Greek travel writer Pausanias, he notes, contradicts himself by saying at one point that Eros welcomed Aphrodite into the world, and at another that Eros was the son of Aphrodite and the youngest of the gods. The influential Renaissance mythographer Natale Conti began his chapter on Cupid/Eros by declaring that the Greeks themselves were unsure about his parentage: Heaven and Earth, Ares and Aphrodite, Night and Ether, or Strife and Zephyr. Īt the same time, the Eros who was pictured as a boy or slim youth was regarded as the child of a divine couple, the identity of whom varied by source. Before the existence of gender dichotomy, Eros functioned by causing entities to separate from themselves that which they already contained. In Hesiod's Theogony, only Chaos and Gaia (Earth) are older. He was among the primordial gods who came into existence asexually after his generation, deities were begotten through male-female unions. In the Greek tradition, Eros had a dual, contradictory genealogy. The Romans reinterpreted myths and concepts pertaining to the Greek Eros for Cupid in their own literature and art, and medieval and Renaissance mythographers conflate the two freely. ![]() Origins and birth Ĭupid Carving His Bow (1620s) by François Duquesnoy, Bode Museum, Berlin Old Irish accobor 'desire', Sanskrit prá-kupita- 'trembling, quaking', Old Church Slavonic kypĕti 'to simmer, boil'). The latter ultimately stems from the Proto-Indo-European verbal stem *kup-(e)i- ('to tremble, desire' cf. The name Cupīdō ('passionate desire') is a derivative of Latin cupiō, cupĕre ('to desire'), itself from Proto-Italic *kup-i-, which may reflect *kup-ei- ('to desire' cf. Cupid's powers are similar, though not identical, to Kamadeva, the Hindu god of human love. In contemporary popular culture, Cupid is shown drawing his bow to inspire romantic love, often as an icon of Valentine's Day. In the Renaissance, a renewed interest in classical philosophy endowed him with complex allegorical meanings. In the 15th century, the iconography of Cupid starts to become indistinguishable from the putto.Ĭupid continued to be a popular figure in the Middle Ages, when under Christian influence he often had a dual nature as Heavenly and Earthly love. Cupids are a frequent motif of both Roman art and later Western art of the classical tradition. In art, Cupid often appears in multiples as the Amores / ə ˈ m ɔː r iː z/ (in the later terminology of art history, Italian amorini), the equivalent of the Greek Erotes. Although other extended stories are not told about him, his tradition is rich in poetic themes and visual scenarios, such as "Love conquers all" and the retaliatory punishment or torture of Cupid. He is a main character only in the tale of Cupid and Psyche, when wounded by his own weapons, he experiences the ordeal of love. In myths, Cupid is a minor character who serves mostly to set the plot in motion. ![]() During this time, his iconography acquired the bow and arrow that represent his source of power: a person, or even a deity, who is shot by Cupid's arrow is filled with uncontrollable desire. Īlthough Eros is generally portrayed as a slender winged youth in Classical Greek art, during the Hellenistic period, he was increasingly portrayed as a chubby boy. He is also known as Amor / ˈ æ m ər/ (Latin: Amor, "love"). He is often portrayed as the son of the love goddess Venus and the god of war Mars. In classical mythology, Cupid / ˈ k j uː p ɪ d/ ( Latin: Cupīdō, meaning "passionate desire") is the god of desire, erotic love, attraction and affection. ![]()
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