Cupid vs. Eros 

By: Clay Lorigan 

By the time February rolls around, everyone gets excited for a very unique holiday, Valentine’s Day. As this romantic holiday approaches, it’s important to know the mythology and symbolism behind the two most popular figures; Cupid and Eros. While they both represent cultural interpretations of a similar concept, they’re both still unique in their own ways.  

Cupid is the Roman god of love, in all its varieties. He is the son of Mercury, the messenger god, and Venus, the goddess of love. He is often pictured as a winged infant carrying a bow and quiver of arrows. These arrows, when shot at a couple, inspire love or passion in every victim. While some literature views him as careless, most don’t put him in a terrible light. At most, some say he’s mischievous in his match making. 

Eros is the Greek god of love, desire, and passion. He is the son of Ares, god of war, and Aphrodite, goddess of love. Although he was the god of love, he was also a god of fertility. He is most often depicted as a beautiful youth carrying a bow and arrow, similar to Cupid. In another similarity to Cupid, Eros threw arrows at people’s hearts to make them fall in love.  

Since they are both counterparts of each other, they don’t have many differences, in their stories at least. In worship, Eros was worshiped alongside Aphrodite as she gained popularity and even later gained his own cult. However, Cupid didn’t receive any official worship at a temple or any other religious practices in the Roman pantheon. Another common misconception about the two is that they both use golden arrows to make people fall in love and desire and lead arrows to provide heartbreak and hatred. This seems to only be a thing Cupid did. However, in mythology, it does say that Eros has two types of arrows. Sources say there are gold and fire.  

When Vic Major, an ADT student, was asked on if he knew anything about Eros or Cupid, he said, “I don’t really know anything besides that Cupid is a little baby cherub with a bow and arrow.” He was also asked if he had a favorite myth about either of them and replied with, “No, I do not.” Noah Wysocki, another ADT student, was also questioned if he knew anything about Cupid or Eros and he replied like Vic. “Yeah, he’s a baby with wings and shoots people with his arrows and makes people fall in love.” When asked if he had a favorite myth, he also replied with, “No.” 

Even though myths aren’t as popular as they used to be, some of them carry on into our current holidays. They may not stay the same, but we still tell them as a nice tradition year after year.