How Cupid became associated with Valentines Day
Cupid makes an appearance each year on Valentine's Day. He is usually portrayed as a chubby infant boy, naked and winged, carrying a bow and a quiver full of arrows. This is an enduring image, which features regularly on Valentine cards, and is frequently used for Valentine's Day displays and promotional content.
It is interesting to discover more about the origins of this little figure, and to ascertain why Cupid has became associated with Valentine's Day.Cupid the god
Cupid is theRoman god of love. He is the equivalent of Eros in Greek mythology. Like Eros, Cupid is associated with sexual desire, even his name comes from the Latin word for desire, cupido.The god of love possesses a set of golden arrows (or darts) which have the ability to cause mortals to fall in love when struck in the heart.
Cupid’s mother was the Roman goddess Venus. According to the myth, recounted by a female character in the"Golden Ass" by Apuleius, Venus had became profoundly jealous of a young mortal woman, Psyche, who was being venerated for her beauty. Cupid was instructed by his mother to make Psyche fall in love with some vile creature, but Cupid himself fell in love with her. Venus sought to stop their union, so she set her beautiful young rival some highly dangerous tasks, the last of which resulted in Psyche falling into a death-like sleep. Psyche was rescued from this state by Cupid, who then pleaded with the god Jupiter to grant Psyche immortality.This own romantic love story ends with Cupid and Psyche being united in love for all eternity, and Cupid has since become emblematic of romantic love.
Depictions of Cupid in art
Just as the figure of Eros was used to depict desire in the art of ancient Greece, Cupid was featured in Roman art as the personification of love.
When Italian painters in the fifteenth century chose classical subjects for their religious and allegorical paintings, Cupid started to make his appearance in the form of aputto. Putti were small angelic winged figures who were often featured in European art of the Renaissance and Baroque periods. Originally the appearance of a putto in a religious painting would represent the presence of God. In a mythological setting a putto is a symbol of love.The little winged figure of Cupid with his arrows has featured in many paintings and sculptures over the centuries, and also in the decorative arts. This endearing image was frequently reproduced and became part of popular culture. It is therefore not surprising that Cupid, as a symbol of love, should have become associated with Valentine's Day.
Valentine's Day
The Roman love festival of Lupercalia, held annually in February was well known for its pagan eroticism. This pagan celebration was replaced in Christian times, on the fourteenth day of February, by the feast day of St. Valentine, as a religious celebration of spiritual love. During the Middle Ages the feast of St. Valentine came to be associated more with courtly and romantic love, and soValentine's Day continues to be celebratedas a day for lovers.
The cheeky little figure of Cupid is instantly recognisable. His ability to shoot an arrow of desire into a human heart, and his own romantic love story, make him the perfect personification of romantic love. That is how Cupid came to be associated with Valentine's Day.
