Cupid Zero - What's In A Name? - Steemit Name Challenge
Cupid Zero
What's In A Name?
Nomen est omen
What's in a name? Nomen est omen, a proverb that means the name of a thing is a sign of its qualities, is attributed to the Roman playwright Plautus. In his play Persa, a slave tells his owner purchase an expensive female slave named 'Lucris' (Profits), saying "Nōmen atque ōmen quantīvīs iam est pretī" ("The name and the omen are worth any price").
The idea that a name represented the essence of a thing used to be a critical consideration when naming children. It was widely believed the meaning of a child's name would influence its development and ultimately its success in life. Choosing a name didn't used to be about what sounded "cool" or what would stop a child from being bullied in school, it was about setting a destiny for the child.
The etymological root of a name often provided the core consideration of parents naming their children, yet today many people are entirely unaware of the logos of their own names. I consider this a shame! Finding out what your name means sets you apart from others in a way that a name, stripped to its mere phonetic qualities, simply cannot.
image source - This guy's parents were serious about fighting evil!
I always have my students tell me their name and its meaning. If they don't know it, I tell them or we look it up. It is also a great mnemonic device. In my classes this year I have, among others, an Astrid (The Star), Benjamin (Favorite Son), Chiara (Famous), Diana (The Divine), Eve (Life), Fabian (Bean Grower), Gerhard (Brave with a Spear), Hilde (Protector), Indira (India), Jakob (Supplanter), Katarina (The Pure), Luis (Famous in Battle), Marco (Warlike), Nicolas (Victorious People), Olga (Holy Girl), Patrick (Nobleman), Rachel (Ewe), Sarah (Princess), Thomas (A Twin), Ute (Battle Girl), Vincent (Conqueror) and Wilhelm (The Protector) - sorry, no Qs, Xs, Ys or Zs this year!
Looking around on Steemit, people I enjoy reading whose names I can deciper include @dwinblood, 'Deva' meaning 'divine boy', @stevescoins, 'Steve' meaning 'crown', @soo.chong163, 'Soo' meaning 'long-life', @everittdmickey, 'Everitt' meaning 'Strong' and @richq11, 'Richard' meaning 'Powerful Leader' to name a few. @diabolika, I didn't forget you, but you already told us how you got your name and what it is supposed to mean ;)!
How Cupid Zero Got His Name.
Anyways, to 'Cupid Zero'. Well, the moniker 'Cupid Zero' is the result of a confluence of multiple paths I have been down in my life. Originally I developed the name to take part in a artists' collective that ultimately collapsed before it was truly born known as Die Kunstnutten (The Art Hustlers). It was influenced in no small part by my more than decade-long study of the philosophy of love, love literature and didactic love manuals ranging from Ancient Greece to the present, spanning the orient and the occident, and colored by my own peculiar mishmash of spiritual beliefs I have termed Quantum Neoplatonism.
How I Intend 'Cupid Zero' to Be Understood
image source - The Titanomachy (Cupid plays his part!)
As to the name proper: Cupid, of course, is the Roman god of passionate love, the transcendental personification of both physical desire and spiritual love (not necessarily requited love) in a single entity. Not merely amor purus (love of the spirit) or amor carnis (love of the flesh), Cupid is amor mixtus, the best of both worlds.
It is worth recalling Cupid is equal parts lover and warrior, one of the many children of Venus, the Goddess of Love and Mars, the God of War. He doesn't carry a bow because it's cute. In fact, Cupid's bow was often feared. With a golden arrow he could cause people to fall in love and with a leaden arrow fall out of love. Love, it was said, entered into the soul through the eye. Ouch! Convenient for my self-imposed task as a writer though ;)! This also wonderfully explains why Cupid and Psyche (The Soul) were lovers. But I digress...
While developing the moniker 'Cupid Zero', I was torn between 'Cupid' and 'Eros' (the Greek predecessor of the same entity) and settled on Cupid because it was more widely recognizable. And no, 'Zero' is not derived from that internal debate, though the orthography makes it a tempting connection.
The 'Zero' in Cupid Zero was carefully deliberated, and it is not a negation or absence, as might be suspected by the meaning of 'Zero', which is the absence of quantity, derived from Sanskrit 'empty place, desert, nothingness'.
Rather I appended 'Zero' to 'Cupid' in keeping with the epidemiological concept of 'patient zero' (the person identified as the first carrier of a communicable disease in an outbreak of related cases). Love was and is still is often considered an illness. Thus we still have the common phrase 'to be love-sick'.
There is also the militant meaning of 'ground zero' (The point on the earth's surface directly above or below an exploding nuclear bomb/ A starting point or base for an activity) which goes nicely with the martial aspect of Cupid as the son of Mars.
'Cupid Zero' then, is intended to be understood as a contagious agent that will spread a pandemic of love, that can withstand the slings and arrows of being caught at ground zero and shoot back with his golden arrows. In a way, Cupid Zero is the starting point of my own attempt to change the wider world for the better and to reach beyond the bounds of my everyday life.
This medley of ideas influenced my avatar icon as well, in which we see Cupid shooting an arrow from the heart of a frame shaped like a zero or perhaps an 'O' which serves as the first letter of the iconic omnia vincit amor (love conquers all).
Believes in love? Ready! (Not so) hopeless romantic? Aim!. Willing to fight to see love survive? Loose!
I only found out later, and after I had registered for Steemit, that 'CupidZero' is also the title of a now defunct Swedish erotic magazine from the 1990s that "featured sensual and soft pornographic images of lightly dressed women and men as well as erotic novels, turning to both a heterosexual and bisexual and homosexual readership." Oops. Oh well, considering my earlier research on love and sexuality, it is ironically fitting in its own way. It just makes the name Cupid Zero all the more intriguing. Not going to change it!
And of course I have a ton of user names I would like to get around to registering and using for different purposes, but at this point, I will keep them to myself. I don't want someone else to get them!
So, that was pretty much it for 'Cupid Zero' today, hope you enjoyed the journey!
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Nominations
Uff... nominating people for the challenge... well, I am curious about many of the names I follow in my private feed, including @krnel, @lexiconical, @andrarchy, @holoz0r and @kyriacos. These are all pretty big names though apparently, not sure they have time for the challenge. Will name you guys anyway ;).
If you want to take part in the challenge, the rules are:
①Tell us in a post how you chose the current Steemit username you have. The story behind it.
②If you could change your current username, which name would you choose and why? If you have a possible usernames list, mention it!
③Use the tag #steemitnamechallenge so that the creator of the challenge can track all the posts and check them out
④Nominate 5 people for this challenge
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Shot with a golden arrow,
Cupid Zero
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I consider requests to write on a topic of your choice.
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Don't forget to upvote, follow and resteem! Comments always appreciated.
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so glad I found you on here. Your focus, knowledge and outlook are totally on my wavelength and you always post quality whenever i come to check your blog. you will be huge here once the swarm realizes your capability.
nomen est omen. always. i have collected a gazillion examples for it. it's right in front of our eyes - always. only i fear, dogmatic worldviews have clouded all these areas of inquiry, with people thinking it to be virtuous to throw out all the magical aspects of existence because they have fallen for some major deception.
so your work is invaluable.
Thank you for the feedback, your comment was very encouraging. As to my potential here on Steemit, ui, Dein Wort in Gottes Ohr! I am trying to make a difference in a world drowning in the Spaßgesellschaft. I've been following you for a while, nice to get a comment, thanks!
Deep stuff! It is interesting and funny when we found what our names have become these days, and in your case, a porno mag.
I know, right? I just want to know what the magazine publishers were thinking when they came up with 'Cupid Zero', what exactly did they have in mind with 'zero'? Do I even want to know?
Strange, my imaginative mind worked for a moment...nevermind lol.
Now we really are thinking alike :P
Welcome to Steem Community @cupidzero! As a gentle reminder, please keep your master password safe. The best practise is to use your private posting key to login to Steemit when posting; and the private active key for wallet related transactions.
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My name doesn't need a full post. :P It's made up of two parts, combined, much like your own. It developed out of gaming, as most gamer's online names are:
holo = a shortened version of "holocaust", as in Nuclear Holocaust; the destruction of all life. I am also happy with this shortening to be as in 'hologram', or holographic, playing with the immateriality of light, and the way in which we observe it.
z0r = added to the end of 'holo' as a right of digital passage for an old gaming community I used to be a member of, and acts like a clan tag, almost.
I haven't spoken to any of those people in 10+ years though.
There's the secrets, unlocked.
I'm also really honoured by the fact that I'm considered "a pretty big name" around these parts!
I kind of got the 'Holo' part. It is interesting how many of the name challenges I have read have had something to do with the gaming community, even @diabolika who nominated me. I myself played with the idea of a few old characters' names from tabletop RPGs and MMORPGs I used to play, but Cupid Zero was too good to pass up. Thanks for the reply!