Eros
Eros is a transliteration of the Greek word meaning "sexual love". It is also the name of the classical Greek God of love, who was (in some versions) the son of Aphrodite and either Ares or Hephaestus. In other, earlier, versions of Greek mythology, Eros is seen as a primeval deity who emerged from the primordial Chaos. The god Eros was equated to the Roman Cupid (whose name means "desire"), and the mythological figure is most often known by the Roman name in modern popular culture. An alternate name for Cupid is Amor ("love").
The word "eros" is the root of erotic. Today the term is sometimes used to mean anything having to do with sex or sexuality; and sometimes in the more specific sense of "sexual love".
Characteristics
Eros/Cupid/Amor is typically depicted as a pretty little boy with a bow and arrows, although classic Greek images of Eros most often show him as a teenager just entering into full manhood. The image of Cupid as a young boy or an infant is due to Roman sources, and became conventional in medieval and Renaissance art, a convention that has persisted into modern times.
Eros/Cupid/Amor is often given wings, too. However it should be noted that he is a (pagan) God and not an angel, even if he may look similar to putti (often wrongly called cherubs when used to depict child angels) in many sculptures and paintings. Indeed the traditional western imagery for putti is derived from Roman depictions of Cupid.
Cupid, after a painting by Raphael.
William-Adolphe Bouguereau, study for A Young Girl Defending Herself Against Eros.
Joseph-Marie Vien, The Cupid Seller (1763).
Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825), Cupid and Psyche (1817).
Henri Camille Danger (1857-1937), Aphrodite and Eros (1917).
Statue of Cupid in the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney, 2008. Front view.
Statue of Cupid in the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney, 2008. Rear view.
Occasionally there are many Eros/Amor figures found in one work of art. These are called Erotes or Amorini, or in later cases simply putti.
The motif of Punished Cupid
Eros/Cupid/Amor is an often mischievous boy and so the motif of him getting punished has come about. His punishment is often corporal (his bare bottom inviting such), and sometimes involves taking away or breaking his bow and arrows.
The person who punishes him is typically his mother (the Goddess Aphrodite in the case of Greek art, and Venus in the case of Roman art). Occasionally a male God assumes the role of the chastiser too: for example, Bartolomeo Manfredi painted a work Mars chastising Cupid, and the 19th century cartoonist Wilhelm Busch picked up the subject in his picture story Silen. The motif of Punished Cupid goes back to Antiquity (see e.g. the Pompeijan fresco below), and had a revival in Renaissance art.
The motif is related to (and often shown in combination with) the motif of Cupid Disarmed (French: "L'Amour Desarme") in which cupid's bow and arrows are taken away from him.
The reason why Cupid is punished can generally be assumed to be that he disobliged the person who punishes him by making him or her fall in love with someone else (via shooting his arrow). The message is that falling in love is not always a welcome thing. For example, in Mars chastising Cupid, Cupid has made the God of War fall in love with Venus, the Goddess of love. This is obviously unnatural, and could unman Mars and make him soft and vulnerable. In retaliation, he is beating Cupid. But Cupid can be interpreted as the inner feminine nature of Mars. Thus, he castigates himself for having fallen in love with Venus, which could represent any and all of the feminine side of life.
In some images, Venus chastises Cupid with roses.
Nemesis leads punished Amor, bound on hands and feet, to Venus. Detail from a fresco in Pompeji (c. AD 30).
Venus chastising Cupid. Engraving after Francesco Mazzola, called Parmigianino (c. 1550)
Venus spanking Eros, etching from the end of the 16th century.
Giovanni Luigi Valesio, Cupid Punished by Venus (17th century).
Punished cupid (unknown artist)
L'Amour Chatie par sa Mère by E. L. S.
Spanking Cupid, painting by an unknown artist.
"Venus Punishing Profane Love, from the Lascivie" by Agostino Carracci (Italian artist, 1557-1602).
Silen chastises Amor (Wilhelm Busch, 1878).
Diana taking away Amor's bow, painting by Pompeo Girolamo Batoni (1708-1787)
Cupid Chastised - Sculpture by Gustav Eberlein (1847-1926)
L'amour Blesse (Love Hurts) by Jules Joseph Lefebvre (1836-1911)
See also
- More information is available at [ Wikipedia:Eros ]
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