Cupid: The Unofficial Mascot of Valentine’s Day

It’s the season of the year again for hearts, red flowers, sweets and chocolates, dates, and romantic gestures. Of course, who could set aside the Valentine’s Day figure that is so popular—CUPID. Depicted as a cherub infant carrying a bow and arrows, targeting and shooting people to fall in love or hate each other. Well, it is how we perceived him, but who really Cupid is?

In Greek Mythology, he is known as the handsome god of love, Eros. He is a primordial god, the first generation of deities but later on Eros had been associated with Aphrodite as his mother and Ares as his father. Yeah, as a non-Greek individual, I find it confusing and a bit of complicated when I read that Zeus and Hermes could also be Eros’ fathers. I regret now that I did not took seriously my World Literature class back in college.

Cupid has two arrows, gold and leaden. Gold to arouse the desire and love, and leaden to drive the desire away. One to cause and other to repel. Eros had been playing the hearts of both mortals and gods using his arrows. The most famous of it was when he struck Apollo with a golden arrow and fell in love with a nymph named Daphne, but Eros struck Daphne with a leaden arrow. Just imagine the pain of Apollo for he will never get the love he desires from Daphne. Oh Eros!

His mother Aphrodite, the god of love and beauty had been jealous of the beautiful mortal Psyche. Drunk by her desire to be the fairest among all mortals and immortals, he asked his son Eros to struck Psyche with a golden arrow and make her fall in love with a monster. Eros was captivated with Psyche’s beauty and grace. He married her but she could never see his face, but one night while Eros was asleep, she managed to get a peek on what does her lover looks like. Eros got mad and fled. She looked for him and asked for Aphrodite’s help. As we all know Aphrodite despised her and gave her tasks to make her life miserable while on search for her husband. Well, I think momster-in-law also existed in mythology (hahaha). Eros found Psyche unconscious, he brought her to the world of immortals and introduced her as his lover and wife. She became immortal and lived in Mt. Olympus together with her momster-in-law, but later on they reconciled when Psyche and Eros had a child, Hedone.

Cupid/ Eros is not really an infant. I think people way back ages had only visualized Cupid as an infant because of his playfulness with his golden and leaden arrow. His childlike attitude made him look like that.

The profit- driven companies had sensationalized Cupid during Valentine’s Day along with the heart shape, flowers and chocolates. This is the reason why I don’t celebrate it. Everyday is a chance of showing our gratitude and love for special people in our life. Everyday is a day of love and appreciation.

Big thanks to my lovely and generous sponsors @Jijisaur @Miyuki1991 and @Rezanur . Your sponsorship means a lot to me, thanks for trusting.

Sources:

https://www.thoughtco.com/cupid-and-psyche-117895

https://www.history.com/.amp/news/who-is-cupid

http://mrssymbols.blogspot.com/2011/02/cupids-leaden-arrows.html?m=1