25 Facts About Cupid

In classical mythology, Cupid is the god of desire, erotic love, attraction and affection.

Cupid is often portrayed as the son of the love goddess Venus and the god of war Mars.

In myths, Cupid is a minor character who serves mostly to set the plot in motion.

Cupid is a main character only in the tale of Cupid and Psyche, when wounded by his own weapons, he experiences the ordeal of love.

Cupid 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.

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In contemporary popular culture, Cupid is shown drawing his bow to inspire romantic love, often as an icon of Valentine's Day.

Cupid's powers are similar, though not identical, to Kamadeva, the Hindu god of human love.

Cupid was among the primordial gods who came into existence asexually; after his generation, deities were begotten through male-female unions.

In Latin literature, Cupid is usually treated as the son of Venus without reference to a father.

Cupid is winged, allegedly because lovers are flighty and likely to change their minds, and boyish because love is irrational.

Cupid is sometimes depicted blindfolded and described as blind, not so much in the sense of sightless—since the sight of the beloved can be a spur to love—as blinkered and arbitrary.

In Botticelli's Allegory of Spring, known by its Italian title La Primavera, Cupid is shown blindfolded while shooting his arrow, positioned above the central figure of Venus.

Cupid carries two kinds of arrows, or darts, one with a sharp golden point, and the other with a blunt tip of lead.

Variation is found in The Kingis Quair, a 15th-century poem attributed to James I of Scotland, in which Cupid has three arrows: gold, for a gentle "smiting" that is easily cured; the more compelling silver; and steel, for a love-wound that never heals.

Cupid sleeping became a symbol of absent or languishing love in Renaissance poetry and art, including a Sleeping Cupid by Michelangelo that is lost.

Caravaggio's sleeping Cupid was reconceived in fresco by Giovanni da San Giovanni, and the subject recurred throughout Roman and Italian work of the period.

Ancient Roman Cupid was a god who embodied desire, but he had no temples or religious practices independent of other Roman deities such as Venus, whom he often accompanies as a side figure in cult statues.

Cupid's gives safe harbor to Aeneas and his band of refugees from Troy, only to be abandoned by him as he fulfills his destiny to found Rome.

Cupid was the enemy of chastity, and the poet Ovid opposes him to Diana, the virgin goddess of the hunt who likewise carries a bow but who hates Cupid's passion-provoking arrows.

Cupid is at odds with Apollo, the archer-brother of Diana and patron of poetic inspiration whose love affairs almost always end disastrously.

Cupid becomes enamored of Psyche, and arranges for her to be taken to his palace.

Cupid's succeeds, but on the way back can't resist opening the box in the hope of benefitting from it herself, whereupon she falls into a torpid sleep.

Cupid finds her in this state, and revives her by returning the sleep to the box.

On gems and other surviving pieces, Cupid is usually shown amusing himself with adult play, sometimes driving a hoop, throwing darts, catching a butterfly, or flirting with a nymph.

Cupid is shown wearing a helmet and carrying a buckler, perhaps in reference to Virgil's Omnia vincit amor or as political satire on wars for love, or love as war.

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