Eros

Many people don’t know what or how people fall in love. The answer

lies in Eros or Cupid, the god of love in Greek Mythology. Mythology is a

group of stories that explain a natural phenomenon or something in life. The

purpose of mythology is to state issues in life and to have a way to connect

everyone to the past. In Greek Mythology, Eros or Cupid was the reason for

love.

Eros/Cupid explains how people fall in love or even how it came

upon. Eros/Cupid is the god of love, passion, and sexual desire. He is the

son of Aphrodite, the goddess of love, and Aries, the god of war. He got

married to Psyche and had children Volupta and Nyx. Eros/Cupid has many

powers. He has the power to bring love to both gods and mortals. He also

has the power to shoot love and hatred arrows. His love

arrows were golden with dove feathers and his hatred arrows were made out

of lead with owl feathers.

Eros/Cupid appears to be a small, naked, winged boy. He was also

seen as a full, grown, man because there was a curse that Aphrodite’s 2nd son

would make Eros/Cupid older. He was also blindfolded because they

believed love is blind. Eros/Cupid was believed that he was born from a

silver egg. He honored on January 22 for Eros Day.

Unlike other gods and goddesses, Eros has a wacky story. The story

is called Eros/Cupid and Psyche. It all started one day when Aphrodite is

mad at Psyche. She goes and tells her son Eros to make her fall in love with

an ugly creature. He arranged for Psyche to be abandoned by her parents on

a hilltop. But when Eros sees Psyche, he falls in love with her but tells her

not to see his face. Eros visits her only at night. Psyche is told that

Eros is a monster. She listens to them and goes to Cupid. She lights a

candle to see his face and realizes he is a handsome man. But she gets

scared and drops hot oil on his shoulders. Eros wakes up and gets mad. He

then gets up and flies away. Psyche then prayed to every god to give Eros

back but everyone was afraid of Aphrodite. Psyche went to Aphrodite. She

gave her 3 tasks. The hardest one was the last one. It was to give a box to

Proserpine in the underworld. Psyche gets anxious and opens it. She drops

into deadly sleep. Eros found her lifeless and took her. He put the sleep

back into the box and forgave her. The gods made Psyche immortal seeing

their love. Eros’ and Psyche’s story explains how love can come from when

desire (Eros) starts to fancy a person’s soul (Psyche) rather than a body.

Eros/Cupid relates to a holiday known for love. The holiday is known

as St. Valentine’s Day. St. Valentine’s Day originated in the Middle Ages

of the Roman Empire. The history is quite logical. Emperor Claudius II had

decided to ban marriage for young men to make a stronger military base.