Who Was Cupid?
In Roman mythology, Cupid (Latin Cupido) is the god of erotic love. He is equated with the Greek God Eros and another one of his Latin names Amor. There are differing stories about his parentage. Cicero provides three different lineages: son of Mercury (Hermes) and Diana (Artemis), son of Mercury and Venus (Aphrodite), and son of Mars (Ares in Greek mythology) and Venus. Plato mentions two of these, and Hesiod’s Theogony, the most ancient Greek theoography, says that Cupid was created coevally with Chaos and the earth. Throughout ancient mythological writing, there appear to be either two Cupids or two sides to the figure of Cupid. One is the son of Jupiter (Zeus) and Venus. He is a lively youth who delights in pranks and spreading love. The other is a son of Nyx and Erebus, known for riotous debauchery. Cupid’s cult was closely associated with that of Venus, with Cupid being worshipped as devotedly as she. Additionally, Cupid’s power was supposed to be even greater than his mother’s,
