The Myth Behind the Man
The religions of ancient Greece and Rome are extinct. The so-called divinities of Olympus have not a single worshipper among living men. They belong now not to the department of theology, but to those of literature and taste. There they still hold their place, and will continue to hold it, for they are too closely connected with the finest productions of poetry and art, both ancient and modern, to pass into oblivion.
Yet, one god, a minor god in Olympus, persist in remaining present in modern society. This god remains one of the favorite symbols of love and St. Valentine's Day. His name is Cupid. Knowledge of his name, his winged form and his bow and arrows are commonplace.
Cupid (Eros in Greek), the mischievous and winged god of love, was the son of Venus (Aphrodite in Greek). He was her constant companion; and, armed with bow and arrows, he shot the arrows of desire into the bosoms of both gods and men.
Wrongly, he is preceived to be angel-like. This is due to the Christianization of a number of Roman and Greek myths during the third and fourth century A.D. Cupid was not always childlike. After the birth of his brother Anteros, he rapidly grew to become a winged man. He later married Psyche and they produced a child named Pleasure. Secondly, Cupid's personality was anything but angelic. He was quite mischievous and many of his deeds resulted in tragic endings for his victims.
1) His mother: VENUS (Aphrodite in Greek)
Venus, the goddess of love and beauty, was the daughter of Jupiter and Dione. (In Homer's
'Iliad' Aphrodite is said to be the daughter of Zeus and Dione, a Titan goddess.) Others say
that Venus sprang , full-grown, from the foam of the sea near the island Cythera. (Aphros is
Greek for \foam.\) From there Zephyrus, the west wind, carried her gently on a shell to
Cyprus, which was always regarded as her real home. There she was received and attired by
the Seasons, and then led to the assembly of the gods.
All were charmed with her beauty, and each one demanded her for his wife. Jupiter gave her
to Vulcan, the lame and ugly god of the forge, in gratitude for the service he had rendered in
forging thunderbolts. So the most beautiful of the goddesses became the wife of the most
ill-favoured of gods. This good-natured craftsman built her a splendid palace on Cyprus.
Venus soon left him for Mars, the handsome god of war. One of their children was Cupid, the
winged god of love.
Always eager to help lovers in distress, she was equally quick to punish those who resisted
the call of love. Cupid shot golden arrows into the hearts of those his mother wanted to unite
in marriage. Venus possessed an embroidered girdle called Cestus, which had the power of
inspiring love and made its wearer irresistible, and she sometimes loaned it to others. Her
favourite birds were swans and doves, and the plants sacred to her were the rose and the
myrtle.
Aphrodite was worshiped chiefly as the goddess of human love. She was also widely
venerated as a nature goddess. Because she came from the sea, sailors prayed to her to calm
the wind and the waves. The poets of Greece and Rome never tired of singing the praises of
the love goddess. Their sculptors carved countless figures of her. The most celebrated
statue of Aphrodite in ancient times was that carved by Praxiteles at Cnidus, on the coast of
Asia Minor. This has never been found by archaeologists. The most famous one that remains
today is the beautiful 'Venus de Milo', now in the Louvre in Paris. In the 'Iliad' Aphrodite is
called the Cyprian or Cytherea. She is also referred to as Dionaea, after her mother, or even
Dione. Other names for her are Aphrogenia, Anadyomene, and Astarte. It is often written
Ashtoreth, particularly in Bible references to Philistine idols. The name may have been
derived from that of the Assyrian goddess Ishtar.
2) His father: MARS (Ares in Greek)
Mars, the god of war, was the son of Jupiter and Juno. Second in importance only to Jupiter
among the Roman gods, Mars was the god of war. Believed to be the father of Romulus, the
legendary founder of Rome, Mars was worshiped with great honor. In early times he was a
god of nature and fertility as well as of war. March, the month when winter ended when
farmers could plant their crops and soldiers return to the battlefield was named for him. The
Romans identified their god of war with the Greek god Ares. The Greeks, however, looked
on Ares as a quarrelsome god who sent war and pestilence and delighted in destruction. Ares
was not widely worshiped by the Greeks, though the Areopagus, the sacred hill of Athens,
was named for him. The fourth planet from the sun, next after the Earth, was named for Mars
because its reddish color made people think of anger or blood.
3) His brother: ANTEROS
There was a deity named Anteros, who was sometimes represented as the avenger of
slighted love, and sometimes as the symbol of reciprocal affection. The following legend is
told of him: Venus, complaining to Themis that her son Eros continued always a child, was told by her that
it was because he was solitary, and that if he had a brother he would grow apace. Anteros was
soon afterwards born, and Cupid immediately was seen to increase rapidly in size and
strength.
