Cupid is usually represented as a winged infant, naked, armed with a bow
and quiver full of arrows. On gems and all other pieces of antiquity, he is
represented as amusing himself with childish diversions. Sometimes, like a
conqueror, he marches triumphantly with a helmet on his head, a spear on
his shoulder, and a buckler on his arm, intimating that even Mars himself
owns the superiority of love.
"To Love, the soft and blooming child,
I touch the harp in descant wild;
To Love, the babe of Cyprian bowers,
The boy who breathes and blushes flowers,
To Love, for heaven and earth adore him,
And gods and mortals bow before him!"