From Divinity to Baby: The Infantilization of Cupid
By Sophia Zhang
Editor-in-Chief
Cupid has become the mascot of Valentine’s Day, occupying a significant place in popular culture as the innocent infant with the bow and magical arrows that can make people fall in love. However, the child we have now come to associate with the name Cupid was once a powerful god that the Greeks worshipped. The evolution of the deity and his transfiguration into an infant boy reflects the mental frameworks of the changing populations throughout history.
Eros was the son of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of Love. In Greek mythos, Eros could make any being, mortal or divine, feel lust, desire, love, and infatuation with a strike of his arrow, a power from which he did not shy away. He caused mayhem and chaos by toying with people’s hearts based on his mood. The contrast between his power, which represented what should have been the epitome of interpersonal connection, clashed with his unpredictable and troublesome personality. In his hands, love was a weapon that could be granted or taken away at his whim.
While he certainly had a youthful glow, Eros was not a baby. Depictions of the god emphasized his beauty and manliness, often portraying him naked with massive, heavy wings sprouting from his back. The representations of him and the stories of him all painted him as a god to be feared, one who could condemn humans to a fate of unrequited, tragical love, to which there would have been no way of escaping.
In the 4th century BCE, there was a conscious move toward infantilization in an attempt to strip him of his terrifying powers. He became increasingly associated with his mother, Venus (Aphrodite in Greek myth), with new renditions of him as his mother’s devoted subservient. In a time of extreme gender disparities, when women were not even considered in the general consciousness, the implication that he could not be a real threat to mortals because he was controlled by a woman reassured people. This was no longer a powerful being whose will could change the course of a person’s life but rather a boy controlled by his mother.
When the Romans conquered Greece, they incorporated many of the same gods into their mythology because they idolized Greek civilization. Eros was renamed Cupid, and they kept the recent depictions of him as a child. For them, he was a cherubic boy who lived to fulfill his mother’s wishes. Centuries later, during the Renaissance, illustrations of Cupid as an innocent full-faced child with wings and a bow became prevalent, especially with Caravaggio’s Cupid, completed in 1602.
Naturally, when Valentine’s Day became more widespread, the child with the power to make people fall in love became associated with the holiday. With the postal system becoming more accessible throughout the 19th century, people could afford to send each other greeting cards. Greeting card manufacturers further popularized and democratized the image of Cupid as the mischievous, love-creating baby.