MYTHOLOGICAL STORIES

• Peacock's Gift to Krishna
• How The Ketaki Fell From Grace
• The Dissatisfied Devotee
• The Man Who Couldn't Die
• The Story of Lord Ganesha
• Green Missile
• The Sun-Goddess of Korea
• The God of Love
• The Dowry
• Solar Deities
• The Gift of Fire
• Coconut Tree's Origin
• The Two Bachelors
• Why Snakes Have Forked Tongues
• Summer Madness
• Kubera's Feast
• Ganpati Swoops Down

The God of Love

Eros was the son of Aphrodite, goddess of love, and was always at her side to assist her in her matchmaking endeavours.
He was a blond and playful winged youth, armed with a golden bow and arrows. Whoever he shot at immediately fell in love.
One day Aphrodite, jealous of the beauty of the earthly princess, Psyche, ordered her son to make the princess fall in love with the ugliest man on earth. Eros set out to do his mother's bidding, but when he saw Psyche fell in love with her himself.
He began to visit her every night, but afraid of his mother's wrath, always remained in the shadows, to conceal his identity.
One night while he was asleep, Psyche lit an oil lamp in order to get a look at his face. But her hand trembled and a drop of hot oil fell on the god, awakening him. Angry and frightened, he made himself invisible and went away, never to return.
But the two pined for each other and eventually Zeus, the king of gods, intervened to bring them together again. Psyche was taken to Mount Olympus, the abode of the gods, and there she became revered as the personification of the human soul.
Later, when the Romans imported Greek gods into their pantheon, Eros became Cupid and though he remained the god of love he was not given as much importance as the Greeks had given Eros.
Cupid was usually shown blindfolded, perhaps to indicate that he chose his victims at random.
In later art Cupid was shown as a small cherubic winged boy armed with a bow and arrow.