Cupid

With Valentine’s Day upon us, I thought it would be best to find out a little bit more about Cupid. Today we associated Cupid with Valentine’s Day as a fat child who shoots people with his arrows causing people to fall in love. Well, not much has really changed.

Cupid

In Roman mythology Cupid is the son of Venus, the goddess of love and beauty. Cupid is known for causing people to fall in love but he himself also fell in love. Cupid fell in love with a mortal named Psyche. Cupid married Psyche but Cupid’s jealous mother, Venus, would not allow Psyche to look at Cupid (not sure how Psyche fell in love without actually looking at Cupid).

Cupid and Psyche

One day Psyche could not resist and looked upon Cupid. As a punishment, Venus made Psyche perform three tasks each more difficult than the last. On Psyche’s third task she was required to visit the underworld in order to steal some of the beauty from Pluto’s wife. She was given a box to bring with her and told not to open it. Sadly, curiosity got the better of her, again, and she died from opening the box. Cupid found Psyche and shot an arrow through her heart to resurrect her. The gods, along with Venus, were so moved by Psyche and Cupid’s love that they made Psyche an immortal goddess.   

This Valentine’s Day if you see Cupid with his bow and arrow, he may be trying to spread love to you. On the other hand, it might just be a crazy fat guy in a cupid outfit.