Pulcinella

see also: Punch and Judy. The best known story involving Cupid is the tale of Cupid and Psyche. Pulcinella (restaurant) is also an Italian restaurant in London. He is often depicted as carrying two sets of arrows: one set gold-headed, which inspire love, and the other lead-headed, which inspire hatred. Pulcinella is also the mascot of the Pulcinella Awards, annual awards for excellence in animation, presented at the Cartoons on the Bay Festival in Positano, Italy. In later literature, Cupid is frequently invoked as fickle, playful, and perverse. Pulcinella features in an eponymous ballet by Igor Stravinsky; see Pulcinella (ballet). In epic poetry, he is less often invoked, but he does appear in Virgil's Aeneid changed into the shape of Ascanius inspiring Dido's love.

He often wears a black mask and long white coat, and has loose and straggly hair. Cupid figures prominently in ariel poetry, lyrics, and, of course, Elegiac love and metamorphic poetry. In Latin, this was a pullus gallinaceus, which led to the word "Pulliciniello" and "Pulcinella", related to the Italian pulcino or chick. He is also shown wearing a helmet and carrying a buckler (perhaps in reference to Virgil's Omnia vincit amor or as political satire on wars for love or love as war). His main characteristic, from which he acquired his name, is his extremely long nose, which resembles a beak. He is often depicted with his mother (in graphic arts, this is nearly always Venus), playing a horn. Pulcinella, often called Punch in English, is a classical character that originated in the Commedia dell'arte of the 17th century and became a stock character in Neapolitan puppetry. On gems and other surviving pieces, he is usually shown amusing himself with childhood play, sometimes driving a hoop, throwing darts, catching a butterfly, or flirting with a nymph.

The traditional Christian depiction of a cherub is based on him. In painting and sculpture, Cupid is portrayed as a nude winged boy armed with a bow and a quiver of arrows. Some of the cults of Cupid suggested that Cupid (as son of Night and Hell, perhaps) mated with Chaos to produce men and gods alike, so the gods were the offspring of love. Additionally, his power was supposed even greater than his mother's, since he had dominion over the dead in Hades, Olympus.

Cupid's cult was closely associated with Venus', and he was worshipped as seriously as she. The other is a son of Nyx and Erebus, and he is known for riotous debauchery. He is a lively youth who delights in pranks and spreading love. One is the son of Jupiter (Zeus) and Venus.

Throughout ancient mythological writing, there appear to be either two Cupids or two sides to the figure of Cupid. Plato mentions two of these, and Hesiod's Theogony, the most ancient Greek theoography, says that Cupid was created coevally with Chaos and the earth. Cicero provides three different lineages: son of Mercury (Hermes) and Diana (Artemis), son of Mercury and Venus (Aphrodite), and son of Mars (Ares in Greek mythology) and Venus. There are differing stories about his parentage.

. He is also called Amor, Latin for love. He is equated with the Greek God Eros and one of his Latin names is Eros. In Roman mythology, Cupid is the god of erotic love.