In the vast Hellenic pantheon few gods have enjoyed such an indelible status as Cupid, the Roman god of love and eroticism. With his mythic bow and quiver, the nude youth has assumed an iconic personage in popular culture; seldom with such pertinence have pagan religious icons transcended the lacunae between antiquity and the contemporary. Borrowing on Greek religious traditions, the Romans worshiped Cupid as an important deity alongside the cult of Venus—that venerated goddess of love and beauty. Like many deities, Cupid’s lineage is disputed and pluralistic, owing to the diverse and often contradictory mythology that evolved from the Mediterranean’s rich oral traditions. Nonetheless, Cupid endures in Western civilization as the very avatar of romance, elucidating the mystery of sex that was for the Romans as perplexing and mystical as it is today. With his mischievous bow and puckish guise, Cupid illuminates the ethereal joys and harrowing depressions of love—that universal and eternal condition that both liberates and enslaves the human race. In this magnificent representation from the 2nd century A.D.—a period Edward Gibbons called the most happy and prosperous age in human history—the god is crafted as an idyllic nude youth with flowing locks and the distinctive, angelic wings betrothed by Olympus. With meticulous detail, the ancient sculptor has carved this devotional icon in brilliant white marble—that eternal and elegant medium so emblematic of the classical age. Resting upon a rectangular podium, Cupid assumes a relaxed yet discernibly erotic pose. Echoing the iconic form of the contrapposto, Cupid leans upon his iconic quiver—his countenance confident yet curious, as if witnessing the lascivious manifestations in a hapless victim of his potent bow. Standing over two-feet tall, this superb relic of classical artistry and Hellenic mythology serves as a bold but profoundly beautiful testament to the eternal and ethereal mystery that is love. - (X.0532)

Antiquities
Ancient Roman