<P> In art, Cupid often appears in multiples as the Amores, or amorini in the later terminology of art history, the equivalent of the Greek erotes . Cupids are a frequent motif of both Roman art and later Western art of the classical tradition . In the 15th century, the iconography of Cupid starts to become indistinguishable from the putto . </P> <P> Cupid continued to be a popular figure in the Middle Ages, when under Christian influence he often had a dual nature as Heavenly and Earthly love . In the Renaissance, a renewed interest in classical philosophy endowed him with complex allegorical meanings . In contemporary popular culture, Cupid is shown drawing his bow to inspire romantic love, often as an icon of Valentine's Day . </P> <P> The Romans reinterpreted myths and concepts pertaining to the Greek Eros for Cupid in their own literature and art, and medieval and Renaissance mythographers conflate the two freely . In the Greek tradition, Eros had a dual, contradictory genealogy . He was among the primordial gods who came into existence asexually; after his generation, deities were begotten through male - female unions . In Hesiod's Theogony, only Chaos and Gaia (Earth) are older . Before the existence of gender dichotomy, Eros functioned by causing entities to separate from themselves that which they already contained . </P> <P> At the same time, the Eros who was pictured as a boy or slim youth was regarded as the child of a divine couple, the identity of whom varied by source . The influential Renaissance mythographer Natale Conti began his chapter on Cupid / Eros by declaring that the Greeks themselves were unsure about his parentage: Heaven and Earth, Ares and Aphrodite, Night and Ether, or Strife and Zephyr . The Greek travel writer Pausanias, he notes, contradicts himself by saying at one point that Eros welcomed Aphrodite into the world, and at another that Eros was the son of Aphrodite and the youngest of the gods . </P>

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