The truth about Cupid
Oh, that cute and cuddly Cupid! You see him everywhere, this time of year, all pink-cheeked and chubby, wearing only a diaper (if he wears anything at all) and aiming a lethal arrow straight at your heart!
What's the deal here? Who in their right mind would give a bow and arrow to a baby?
His parents, probably. Some think his mother was Aphrodite, the goddess of love, and her husband, Hephaestus, the god of fire and metalworking. On the other hand, Aphrodite was unfaithful, so his dad might have been Ares, the god of war. Either way, it was a dangerous combination, at least for humans.
Cupid, which means desire, was his Latin name. Sometimes he was called Amor, love. Before that, the ancient Greeks called him Eros, and he was responsible for lust, love, and sex. He was worshipped as a fertility god. His name is the root of the word erotic.
In his earliest appearances, he was a primeval deity, embodying not only the force of erotic love, but also the creative urge of ever-flowing nature, the first-born Light that is responsible for the coming into being and ordering of all things in the cosmos.
Later on, he became Aphrodite's attendant, harnessing the overwhelming force of love and directing it into mortals. (Ouch!) Of course he was fickle. Sometimes he was playful, causing trouble for gods and men alike; other times, he refused even the pleas of his mother and the other gods to mess with human lives. He was also unscrupulous, mischievous, and charismatic.
This schizophrenic creature was suitably armed with two kinds of arrows: one was golden, with dove feathers, and caused instant love; the other was lead, with owl feathers, and caused indifference.
So it seems perfectly reasonable that the earliest portraits we have of him show Eros to be an adolescent boy, the age of shifting, raging hormones. Much like Peter Pan, he refused to grow up. Not only that—whimsical being that he is—he actually grew backwards. As time went on, he began to appear more and more often, in paintings of the classical period, as a child.
Finally, his sense of humor must have completely gotten the better of him. He went as far as he could go and still stick it to people with his trusty little bow and arrows, and he became a baby, the darling little cherub with fluffy wings that you see winking at you from heart-shaped valentines everywhere. Just an adorable sprite!
Just don't turn your back on him.