Can Cupid Fall in Love? The Close Relationship of Love with Psychology

Today we will examine one of the most delightful stories in Greek Mythology. Perhaps the most popular God takes the lead in this story: Cupid. A young boy walks around with his bow and arrows that make people fall in love. So, Cupid, can he fall in love?

Let’s get to know Eros first. Eros is the son of Ares, the God of War, and Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love. In Roman mythology, he is known as Cupid. Cupid comes from the Latin word “Cupido” meaning “passionate desire”. Eros is the God of desire, erotic love, attraction, and affection, in short.

The Woman Who Makes Aphrodite Jealous

Psyche, one of the three daughters of the king of Miletus, has a truly incredible beauty. So much so that even the Goddess Aphrodite was jealous of her. People start to put Psyche in a superhuman position and forget to worship the Goddess Aphrodite. Aphrodite, who is very angry that someone was taking her place, calls her son Eros to her side and makes a cruel request. He wants Eros to make Psyche fall in love with the ugliest person in the world. This task is not very difficult for Eros. He takes his bow and arrow and goes to Psyche. It’s an ordinary job for him. But he meets someone who is not like everyone else. Intoxicated with the beauty of the girl, Eros loses his focus just as he is about to throw the arrow and accidentally shoots himself. (Who knows, maybe when he saw such a beautiful girl, he deliberately shot himself thinking, “I wonder if the arrows that work for everyone, would work for me too? When will I try if I don’t try it now?”) Eros was shot with his own arrow. Now he is in love with this girl. The girl loves him back as well.

How close is it to our culture? When we fall in love with someone at first sight, we sometimes choose the verb “I’ve been love-struck.” This actually comes from the fact that Eros fell in love by striking himself with his arrow. In fact, the literal translation of the Spanish word “flechazo”, which describes love at first sight, is “to be shot with an arrow”.

Anyway, let’s get back to our story. After Eros sees the girl, he refuses to fulfill Aphrodite’s wish. He makes the girl fall into a sweet sleep and brings her to a magnificent palace. Pysche lives happily with Eros in this palace for a long time. But there is an interesting situation. Eros would come to the palace in the pitch dark at night and leave before sunrise. So Pysche could never see the face of Eros. It was truly blind love. Still, Pysche was happy nonetheless. That was all Eros wanted. He didn’t want hİS face to be seen. The person who knew love best, in theory, had some difficulties in practice. What he forgot was that human beings are curious creatures.

You suddenly start to have a curiosity about someone, a terrible curiosity…

Indeed, Psyche had never seen the face of the man she fell in love with, not even once. Perhaps it was this state of obscurity that fueled love. When we fall in love with someone, we wonder about her/his. We want to know everything about her/his. 

Psyche was also a victim of this natural process. She was just curious about him. Wanting to at least see the face of Eros, the girl gets out of bed one night while Cupid is sleeping, lights a candle and holds it up to the boy’s face. As soon as she sees him, Psyche falls in love all over again. This man is the most handsome man she has ever seen in her life. Then, at that moment, a melted drop from the candle in the girl’s hand drips onto Eros. Awakened by a dripping hot candle, Eros is disappointed when he sees the girl staring at him. All his confidence was shaken. There was only one thing he wanted from the girl, and the girl with a sense of curiosity crossed this red line.

At that moment, Eros is shattered into millions of pieces. “Oh, I trusted you!” responds. He no longer hears what comes out of his mouth. He tells the girl that he was originally sent to punish her, but later “accidentally” fell in love with her. “I have lost faith in this relationship, Psyche!” he says and leaves the girl on the spot. With disappointment, he spreads his wings and flies out of the window and disappears.

I Would Do Anything For Love!

The girl searches for the man she fell in love with for a long time. She regrets it deeply, but now it is futile. No matter how much Eros loves her, He does not show himself to the girl that he cannot trust again. Finding the last resort to go to Eros’ mother Aphrodite and beg her, Psyche says she will do anything for the boy. Deeply happy at this pathetic state of the beautiful girl, Aphrodite gives Psyche many difficult tasks that she is sure Psyche cannot accomplish.

It is almost as if these tasks are more difficult than the other, Psyche, who goes by saying “I would do anything for love!”, has full faith that she will achieve the impossible. Anyone who sees the beautiful girl helps her. Even the God Zeus believes in the love of this girl and helps her. These tasks are as follows.

The first task is to extract the grains of wheat from the grain mixture. We can think of it as a different version of looking for a needle in a haystack. With the help of the ants, Psyche completes this task. In the second task, she shears the wool of golden sheep with the help of a shepherd. The last mission is the most dangerous. Because Aphrodite now knows one of the most difficult feelings to resist. The exam, in which the girl also failed … In this task, she has to retrieve a make-up box from Persephone, the wife of Hades. However, she is warned that she should never open this makeup box, no matter what. This is the red line. Pysche completes the first phase of the task. She takes the makeup box. However, she gives in to her curiosity and opens the box. The sleep of death comes out of the box. She collapses to the ground as soon as she opens the box.

Many Fish in the Sea

Meanwhile, what is Eros doing? Nothing. He lives in pain. It’s like Thor in Avengers: Endgame, he has cut off his ties with the world. The depression of Eros, who has trust problems, affects the whole world negatively. Feelings of love, affection, fun and happiness in the world gradually decrease. It is replaced by a feeling of boredom and restlessness. He knew he could make anyone fall in love with him with a single arrow. But if there was no sense of trust, was there any meaning to love? Unfortunately, he didn’t have a trust arrow in his arsenal.

Let’s open a little parenthesis here. Pothos is Cupid’s best friend. Sexual Longing God.

Zeus becomes aware of both Eros’ depression and Psyche’s impossible missions for love. But Zeus went to Eros. Instead of saying, “Never mind that girl, there are plenty of fishes in the sea”, Zeus speaks wisely and says “Things happen. Look what this girl is going through for her love for you?” Eros, taking the advice of Zeus, goes to the sleeping beauty Psyche. He wakes him up and brings her to Mount Olympus, where the Gods live. Zeus grants Psyche immortality. And Eros and Psyche live happily ever after.

Is Eros a Chubby Cheeked Boy or a Young Man?

You must have come across Eros’ drawings. He is often portrayed as a little boy. In the past, on the contrary, he was depicted as a handsome young man. Eros’ depictions have taken the form of “a chubby sweet little boy” since the Renaissance period. Maybe it’s because love is closely related to being childish. It also makes the person hit by the arrow become a child. This is why even great people who fall in love act childishly around the ones they love. 

What Is Born Mortal and Becomes Immortal: Spirit

By the way, does the word Psyche sound familiar to you? The origin of words such as Psychology, Psychologist and Psychiatry comes from this beautiful girl.

Let’s try to make some more connections. Psychology is also called the science of psyche. Let’s break the word into parts. The suffix -logy means “studies in any field”. Returning to our example, we can define this part directly as science. So Psycho, or Psyche in its original form in mythology, means soul.

Now that we know the story of Psyche, we can speculate about her connection with the spirit. Psyche was born as a mortal. However, later Zeus made her immortal. Thus, the soul attained immortality despite being born in a mortal body.

Indeed, in the history of humanity, there have been many valuable scientists interested in psychology. If you are interested in the subject, we recommend you take a look at our article “If I Subtract Myself From Myself, Will It be Zero? Psychology and Spiritualism“

Also, if you like these kinds of mythological stories and etymological connections, we are sure that our article “A Dangerous Consequence of Flying High: Icarus and Many Related Stories” will be of interest to you!

Below you can find the resources we used for this article. However, many different versions of mythological stories emerge over time. Therefore, it would be healthier to take this as one of the stories instead of thinking of it as a piece of certain information.

References and Further Reading

+Greekacom. (n.d.). Myth of eros and psyche – greek myths: Greeka. Greekacom. Retrieved February 13, 2022, from https://www.greeka.com/greece-myths/eros-psyche/

Wikimedia Foundation. (2022, February 10). Psychology. Wikipedia. Retrieved February 13, 2022, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychology

Wikimedia Foundation. (2022, February 11). Cupid and Psyche. Wikipedia. Retrieved February 13, 2022, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cupid_and_Psyche

Images not cited are used through Canva Pro with a royalty payment.

The proofreading has been done by Asu Pelin Akköse and Mete Esencan.