Cupid

Overview

Cupid (or Amor) was the Roman name for Eros, the god of love. He was the son of Venus, goddess of beauty and sexual desire, and was usually represented as a winged boy or even a baby wielding a bow and arrow. Because Cupid could make any person or god fall madly in love, he came to be seen as a powerful being.

Like the Greek Eros, Cupid had a limited mythology. He was not typically worshipped independently by the Romans, though he did become an extremely popular subject in art and literature. Apuleius, for example, relayed the famous story of Cupid and Psyche in his Golden Ass. The image of Cupid with his infamous bow and arrows remains a prominent fixture in modern popular culture.^[1]