If you think of Cupid, you probably think of a baby with wings and a bow with arrows that have a heart-shaped tip. Currently Cupid is the most famous symbol of Valentine’s symbols and everyone would know how to describe him as the winged boy. But what is Cupid’s story, and why does it have to do with Valentine’s Day?
The story of Cupid, the figure of February 14
- This winged child is considered a naughty child with arrows that mean desires and emotions of love, and what this winged child does is point those arrows at both Gods and humans, causing them to fall deeply in love. Cupid has always formed an important part in the celebrations of love when two lovers have loved each other.
- But long before society embraced this image to represent Cupid, the Romans already knew Cupid as Eros, the god of love. For the Greeks he was the young son of Aphrodite -the goddess of love and beauty-, but for the Romans he was associated with the fact that his mother was Venus.
- There is an interesting story about Cupid and his mortal girlfriend Psyche in Roman mythology. Venus was jealous of Psyche’s beauty and ordered Cupid to punish her but he fell in love with her but he was not reciprocated by her and he punished her by being left with nothing.
- Venus wanted to destroy her and gave her difficult tasks to perform when she arrived at the temple of Venus. Her last task was to take a box to the underworld but she was not supposed to open it, but her curiosity got the better of her and she opened it, so she found herself in a deathly lethargy. Cupid found her lifeless on the ground and put her dream in the box. Cupid and Venus forgave her and moved by Cupid’s love for Psyche they turned her into a goddess.