Cupid is the winged god of love and desire, known to many as the mascot of Valentine’s Day. He is a deity associated with erotic love, and his arrows are said to stir passion and make people fall madly in love.
In ancient Greece, the arrows that he shot were believed to pierce one’s heart and cause passion to erupt inside them. This was a popular myth amongst the Greeks and Romans, who both feared that a person who had been shot with Cupid’s arrow would become so consumed by love that they could no longer resist the temptation of being swept up in his love-making spell.
He is also a deity in the myths of Egypt, where his arrows are often seen depicted on tombs. In some cases, he was even a personification of love and the love goddess Venus.
The story of Cupid and Psyche, a beautiful mortal girl, has been retold in many forms since the time of the Roman writer Apuleius, who wrote about the sexy pair in his Neoplatonic novel Omnia vincit amor. Originally written as a poem, the tale has been retold in drama and opera.
Psyche, who is thought to be the daughter of King Ptolemy IX and a Greek princess, is a beautiful and nymphlike beauty who is loved by many. Her fame rivals that of Venus, who is the goddess of love and beauty. However, her envious sisters resent her for having children with a man who is not their husband.
After she falls in love with Cupid, she is given a number of quests to complete. Each time she succeeds, he gives her divine help in the form of a box with a precious object inside it.
For her last task, she is sent back to the underworld to retrieve a sliver of Proserpina’s beauty that was once trapped in her tomb. She eventually finds it and is revived by Cupid.
A 1,700-year-old gold ring with a stone showing Cupid carrying a torch has been discovered near Tangley, England. It was found by a metal detectorist who reported it to the Portable Antiquities Scheme, Live Science reports.
The ring shows an adolescent, naked cupid ring holding a torch and is engraved with spiral designs that contain bead-shaped spheres. The ring was made around the fourth century AD, according to archaeologists who studied it.
It is fashioned from tungsten carbide, a material that is 10 times harder than 18-karat gold and hypoallergenic. It is also anti-scratch and has a very good durability, so you can wear it for years to come without any worries.
In modern reinterpretation, Cupid can be found in jewelry and other art forms. He can be portrayed in various ways, including as a chubby boy wearing a bow and arrow.
He is usually portrayed as a nude youth, though some images of him show him in adult form. He is sometimes paired with his mother, Venus, and often playing a horn, possibly in reference to the song “Omnia vincit amor,” or as a satire on wars for love.