Speaker 1: Well, hello there, you're listening to Let's talk about myths. Baby.
Speaker 1: I feel silly every time I say that, but at
Speaker 1: the same time it's fun. Well, this week we're continuing
Speaker 1: on with my whole time favorite myth, the best thing
Speaker 1: in this world, the most. I don't even know why
Speaker 1: I love it so much. I won't try to give
Speaker 1: you any good reasons, but it's a great myth. Just
Speaker 1: know that, just like last week, in this episode, will
Speaker 1: be quoting the translation of Appelius is the Golden Ass
Speaker 1: that I've read in order to prepare once again. It's
Speaker 1: translated by Sarah Rudin, and it's published by Yale University Press,
Speaker 1: and it's awesome. A good translation can do absolute wonders
Speaker 1: for ancient texts. Trying to read and understand something that
Speaker 1: was written two thousand years ago and then translated sixty
Speaker 1: plus years ago by an old white man is really
Speaker 1: tricky and annoying, and often you don't get the real
Speaker 1: entertainment that's in the story. I'll just say that this
Speaker 1: translation is not an example of that. It's accessible and
Speaker 1: funny and awesome. If you missed last week's episode, give
Speaker 1: it a listen, because this one picks up right where
Speaker 1: it left off. This is part two of the story
Speaker 1: of Cupid and Psyche, my all time favorite myth and
Speaker 1: just magnificent myth. There's the cat agan. This is a
Speaker 1: story that got me integrating mythology in the first place
Speaker 1: I can remember so specifically, this time at elementary school
Speaker 1: where we had to research a myth for one reason
Speaker 1: or another. It's been a hell of a long time.
Speaker 1: I was probably ten, and my mom had this series
Speaker 1: of beautiful children's books, and one of them was a
Speaker 1: collection of myths. In it, I found Cupid and Psyche
Speaker 1: and then proceeded to learn everything I possibly could about
Speaker 1: Greek mythology and all its magnificent wonders. That being said,
Speaker 1: you may have got it from last week, but this
Speaker 1: is the myth where I'm least likely to criticize. In fact,
Speaker 1: Cupid is quite a dick to Psyche, but I've romanticized
Speaker 1: it in my head, and that is what I give
Speaker 1: you now. No one is perfect. So where we left off,
Speaker 1: so I he was a princess in an unnamed Mediterranean city.
Speaker 1: She was considered as beautiful as Venus, otherwise known as Aphrodite.
Speaker 1: But this story is romans who were using Roman names.
Speaker 1: Venus isn't like this. The people were worshiping Psyche and
Speaker 1: Venus has a flair for the dramatic, so she sent
Speaker 1: her son to prick Psyche with his arrow and make
Speaker 1: her fall in love with an outcast monster person. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: Psyche's dad went to the oracle to find out why
Speaker 1: she wasn't finding a husband because patriarchy, and the oracle
Speaker 1: said she would marry a monster and to bring her
Speaker 1: to a cliff for her wedding slash funeral procession, which
Speaker 1: they did. Then the west Wing Zephyr picked her up
Speaker 1: brought her to a meadow where she found a palace.
Speaker 1: In the palace, she has everything she could ever want
Speaker 1: except people. And night her husband comes to her, but
Speaker 1: she can't see what he looks like. They've fallen in
Speaker 1: love because I guess seeing a person are really talking
Speaker 1: to them at all mattered less in ancient Greece. But
Speaker 1: Psyche has seen her sisters, even though it was highly
Speaker 1: recommended that she not see them and don't listen to them,
Speaker 1: because there is someone out to get her and it
Speaker 1: would be made your trouble if you had to reveal
Speaker 1: to her sisters that she was married. To a voice
Speaker 1: in the dark. They would have questions, and those questions
Speaker 1: would have consequences. Psyche does see your sisters, though, and
Speaker 1: she tells a lie. Those sisters pretend to be supportive,
Speaker 1: but they are not, and they're conniving and planning a
Speaker 1: way to screw Psyche over. They're jealous and they don't
Speaker 1: want Psyche to have a happy life. Nice ladies, real
Speaker 1: sister Lee. And with that recap, this is episode eleven,
Speaker 1: Sneaky and Snoopy, The Story of Cupid and Psyche, Part two.
Speaker 1: The night after psyche sisters leave to plan their troublesome tricks,
Speaker 1: Psyche's husband comes to see her again. Once again, he
Speaker 1: warns her of her sisters, but this time he has
Speaker 1: an idea what they're planning. He tells Psyche that they
Speaker 1: will come back with a plan to make her spot
Speaker 1: on him, to convince her that she must see his face,
Speaker 1: but he tells her if she sees his face even once,
Speaker 1: she won't ever be able to see it again. Once again,
Speaker 1: he warns her that there is danger and letting these
Speaker 1: women convince her to distrust him. There is someone wishing
Speaker 1: the worst for Psyche, and it's all the better if
Speaker 1: she stays under the radar. It's all very cryptic, but
Speaker 1: he gets the point across. He leaves her with a
Speaker 1: final warning. He says that if they come back, and
Speaker 1: they will, that she can't answer any questions about him
Speaker 1: at all. She tells her that she will become pregnant
Speaker 1: soon and if she protects their secrets, the child will
Speaker 1: be divine, but if she doesn't, the child will be mortal.
Speaker 1: It's pretty serious warning, but also no explanation of why
Speaker 1: the child would be divine. The fact that's like he
Speaker 1: isn't more curious about who he is is constantly surprising.
Speaker 1: A few days path and start, Psyche starts to notice
Speaker 1: the pregnancy, but one night, when her husband comes to her,
Speaker 1: he's got far more dramatic news. He says they're coming
Speaker 1: the sisters with a murderous plan to basically ruin everything.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of very intense words words used, I
Speaker 1: feel like can't properly convey how serious he's being. He's
Speaker 1: basically telling her that everything in her life depends on
Speaker 1: her not portraying their secrets to her sisters. Everything. She
Speaker 1: tells them that she will keep the secrets and then
Speaker 1: he can trust her that she just wants to see
Speaker 1: her sisters though, so please can they come by again?
Speaker 1: She just needs to see them. She's really very lonely.
Speaker 1: The next day, the sisters arrive at the mountain in
Speaker 1: such a fury that they don't even wait for Zephyr
Speaker 1: to pick them up. Nope, they're super smart and they
Speaker 1: decided to just go for it. They throw themselves off
Speaker 1: the mountain. Zephyr is not psyched. This is not the
Speaker 1: way things work, but he's faithful to Psyche and her husband,
Speaker 1: and so he picks the sisters up as they're falling,
Speaker 1: and he keeps them from falling to their deaths. Probably
Speaker 1: would have been better if he hadn't, but there you go.
Speaker 1: The sister sea Psyche, and they start fawning over her pregnancy.
Speaker 1: Everyone will be so excited, they say, it'll be such
Speaker 1: a good mom. They say, Meanwhile, they're fucking crazy and
Speaker 1: they still haven't told anyone that's like he's alive, and
Speaker 1: have basically spent all this time figuring out how to
Speaker 1: ruin everything anyway. But they don't show this. No, Instead,
Speaker 1: they say about the baby quote if he takes after
Speaker 1: his gorgeous parents, which would only be natural. Well, a
Speaker 1: real Cupid is going to be born. Psyche totally falls
Speaker 1: for all this bullshit and welcomes them in once. Once again,
Speaker 1: she gives them everything. They're treated like queens, until one
Speaker 1: of them feigns as if they haven't already had this
Speaker 1: conversation and starts asking Psyche about her husband. Who is he?
Speaker 1: Who are his family? Psyche forgets her original lie, big mistake,
Speaker 1: and makes up something totally different. He's a merchant, she says,
Speaker 1: he's wealthy, he's old. It's exactly the opposite of what
Speaker 1: she said before. Come on, Psyche. The sisters are sent
Speaker 1: off with Zephyr at the end of the day, and
Speaker 1: once they're away from Psyche they talk about the little oversight.
Speaker 1: They figure, well, if she can't keep it straight who
Speaker 1: he is or what he looks like, then she probably
Speaker 1: hasn't even seen his face. And if she hasn't seen
Speaker 1: his face, that means that she's probably married to a god.
Speaker 1: And if she's married to a god, then she's about
Speaker 1: to give birth to another god. One of them says, quote,
Speaker 1: if she becomes famous as some divine taught mother, the
Speaker 1: first thing I'll do is rigid noose and hang myself. Seriously,
Speaker 1: these checks are awesome. So the head back again next morning,
Speaker 1: and this time they feign is if they have all
Speaker 1: the concern in the world for their sister, and we're
Speaker 1: just worried about you. You're living in a fantasy, but
Speaker 1: we been keeping watch over you, agonizing about this terrible
Speaker 1: situation you're in. They tell Psyche they've found out that
Speaker 1: the husband that comes to her every night and the creepy,
Speaker 1: crazy monster that the oracle predicted she would marry are
Speaker 1: one and the same. That her husband is quote a
Speaker 1: monster serpent with many world coils, slathering its neck, running
Speaker 1: with bloody poison. It's deep mog gaping wide. They tell
Speaker 1: her there are witnesses that hunters and nearby townspeople have
Speaker 1: seen the monster returning to the palace at night. They
Speaker 1: tell her that the monster won't be feeding her and
Speaker 1: fattening her up for much longer. Nope, Next up, he's
Speaker 1: going to devour you and your unborn baby. Now do
Speaker 1: you want that to happen? Or do you want to
Speaker 1: trust your sisters who only want the best for you
Speaker 1: and love you unconditionally. Psyche is too trusting. Guess who
Speaker 1: she goes with this When the narrator describes Psyche as
Speaker 1: quote a simple thing with an intellect, like a tiny,
Speaker 1: delicate bud, which is a thing. She probably forgets all
Speaker 1: her husband's warnings every time he was so specific as
Speaker 1: to tell her exactly what her sisters would try to
Speaker 1: pull on her. No, she forgets it all. Instead, she panics,
Speaker 1: loses her ship and tells her sisters all about how
Speaker 1: she's never seen his face and how when she asks
Speaker 1: about it, he tells her she'll be very sorry one day,
Speaker 1: and obviously that means that he's the monster they think
Speaker 1: he is. Now, of course, like he's freaking out, she
Speaker 1: doesn't know what to do. Her sisters tell her that
Speaker 1: they've thought it through and there's only one way out.
Speaker 1: She couldn't just, you know, leave, No, she has to
Speaker 1: prepare a weapon, find a blade and sharpen it real good.
Speaker 1: Then she has to get an oil lamp light it,
Speaker 1: but cover it so that no light escapes. Then she's
Speaker 1: got to go to bed and wait for him to
Speaker 1: come as he always does. When he arrives, she'll sneak
Speaker 1: over and remove the covering from the lamp, filling the
Speaker 1: room with light. Then she'll take the tiny blade and
Speaker 1: slice the serpent's head clean off, because we're assuming he's
Speaker 1: a serpent. From there, her sisters will be nearby and
Speaker 1: they'll take Psyche and all her things away safely and
Speaker 1: marry her off to a human, you know, because she
Speaker 1: can't not be married. All good, easy peasy, totally the
Speaker 1: right solution. After telling her this, they promptly got the
Speaker 1: hell out of there. They went back up to the
Speaker 1: mountain with Zephyr and then went straight to the ships
Speaker 1: that would bring them home. They fully abandoned her because
Speaker 1: they're awful women only looking to function up because they
Speaker 1: just got shitty husbands. I get it, ladies, you didn't
Speaker 1: have a choice. It sucks to be female in ancient Greece,
Speaker 1: but we take it out on men, not on our
Speaker 1: lovely sisters, who would just happen to have some decent
Speaker 1: luck in life and are too trusting. Psyche now has
Speaker 1: this plan, but she's not totally sure. She wavers back
Speaker 1: and forth constantly. She trusts her sisters, which she shouldn't,
Speaker 1: but she also loves and trusts her husband. After all,
Speaker 1: While it's weird she's never seen his face, he is
Speaker 1: otherwise wonderful. Finally, she decides she's going to do it.
Speaker 1: She gets everything ready and she goes to sleep. That night,
Speaker 1: her husband comes and they have sex because I guess
Speaker 1: she's not too concerned, But he's actually a scary, poisonous
Speaker 1: snake monster. After he's fallen asleep, she gets out the
Speaker 1: lamp and lights up the room. And you guessed it.
Speaker 1: It's not a scary snake monster lying peacefully on the bed.
Speaker 1: It's Cupid, Beautiful, sexy Cupid. He's sleeping peacefully. She stares
Speaker 1: at him for a while. Seriously, he's super hot. Plus
Speaker 1: he's got those beautiful white feathery wings off his back.
Speaker 1: They're folded up all nice so we can sleep. Honestly,
Speaker 1: he's pretty magnificent. I'd take him, Psyche. If you don't
Speaker 1: what I'm just saying, Psycho panics. Obviously, she didn't want
Speaker 1: to kill Cupid. She wanted to kill a monster thing.
Speaker 1: The knife falls from her hand because it doesn't want
Speaker 1: to kill him. She sways in her spot, and the
Speaker 1: lamp itself leaps back at the site. Then she looks
Speaker 1: at the foot of the bed where he's placed his
Speaker 1: famous bow and arrow. She examines them and accidentally pricks
Speaker 1: herself with one of the arrows. And draws blood. It
Speaker 1: seems like a dumb mistake to me, but what do
Speaker 1: I know. I'm not often touching the tips of very
Speaker 1: sharp arrows. Anyway, She's pricked herself with a love arrow,
Speaker 1: and so now not only does she love him because
Speaker 1: they've been, you know, sleeping together for months and married,
Speaker 1: even if she only feels him at night, but also
Speaker 1: now she magically loves him super dangerous. She goes back
Speaker 1: over to Cupid, and now she's full of magic love lust,
Speaker 1: seriously dangerous stuff. She gets a little crazy. She's not
Speaker 1: steady on her feet, and she's still holding that pesky
Speaker 1: oil lamp. She sways and a drop of hot oil
Speaker 1: falls from the lamp and lands on Cupid, burning him badly.
Speaker 1: He wakes up with a nasty burn and sees immediately
Speaker 1: that Psyche has betrayed his trust. She's done the single
Speaker 1: thing he's warned her against doing, and he tries to
Speaker 1: fly off without a word, but Psyche grabs onto his
Speaker 1: ankle as he goes, and he ends up flying off
Speaker 1: with her. She lands on the ground outside, and he
Speaker 1: flies up into a tree to tell her his side
Speaker 1: of the story. He tells her how Venus had come
Speaker 1: to him, asking him to make Psyche fall in love
Speaker 1: with some monster guy. But see Cupid heads down there,
Speaker 1: he sees Psyche and is like, holy shit, this chick
Speaker 1: is awesome. And then he also accidentally pricks himself with
Speaker 1: one of his own love arrows, but because he's so
Speaker 1: caught up in his admiration for Psyche pre love arrow
Speaker 1: and then so he ends up falling magically in love
Speaker 1: with her on top of his immediate natural admiration. So
Speaker 1: basically this plant failed Venus pretty miserably. Cupid, now truly madly,
Speaker 1: deeply in love with Psyche, decides to steal her off
Speaker 1: where Venus couldn't find her, and he makes her his wife.
Speaker 1: He says, quote what I get out of it, apparently,
Speaker 1: is that you think I'm a monster and try to
Speaker 1: cut off my head with a sword, though in this
Speaker 1: head I've only got eyes for you. He tells her
Speaker 1: he's going to punish her sisters for what they've done,
Speaker 1: and that he'll punish her too, but only by leaving her,
Speaker 1: and he flies away. Psyche, having learned all of this,
Speaker 1: is pretty distraught. She's kicking herself. Why did she listen
Speaker 1: to her sisters when Cupid had warned her. They had
Speaker 1: never liked her to begin with. They'd always been jealous bitches,
Speaker 1: and but she wanted family nearby so badly that she
Speaker 1: forgot all of that. Now that she knows, she's been
Speaker 1: married to Cupid, which is quite the feat, and she's
Speaker 1: ruined it. She tries to kill herself. She throws herself
Speaker 1: off a cliff and into a river, but the river
Speaker 1: itself is so devoted and fearful of Cupid's wrath that
Speaker 1: it doesn't let her die. It catches her and puts
Speaker 1: her on dry land nearby. When she's back on dry land,
Speaker 1: she notices that the god Pan, the god of shepherds
Speaker 1: and sheep, is nearby. He's actually sitting with the nymph Echo,
Speaker 1: who you might remember from an earlier mini myth, and
Speaker 1: he's teaching her how to repeat the tones he's making
Speaker 1: up and down the scale. It sounds pretty adorable, to
Speaker 1: be honest. Anyways. Psyche notices Pan, and he offers her
Speaker 1: some advice. He says, quote, here's a real feat of prophets,
Speaker 1: see which would pass muster with the experts if I
Speaker 1: deduce correctly from your feet that won't quit tottering and
Speaker 1: staggering and your alarmingly pale skin, and your ceaseless sighing
Speaker 1: and those eyes rolling back in your head. You're suffering
Speaker 1: from an oversupply of love. So listen to me, and
Speaker 1: stop trying to make away with yourself by plummeting off things,
Speaker 1: and forget any other sort of death by your own hand.
Speaker 1: Stop grieving and moaning, and instead pray to Cupid. Give
Speaker 1: him your full devotion, because he's the greatest god there is.
Speaker 1: In researching this, I thought, man, to save time, I
Speaker 1: could totally leave out this Pan section, And then I
Speaker 1: read that quote and I thought, nope. Worth it. Basically,
Speaker 1: Pan gives her the most ironic, amazing advice possible. You're
Speaker 1: overwhelmed by love, Why just pray to Cupid and all
Speaker 1: will be better. But what if the love you have
Speaker 1: is for Cupid and he's the one who left you.
Speaker 1: Oh well, that's trickier situation. Maybe the rules don't always apply.
Speaker 1: It's like he doesn't tell Pan her predicament, mind you.
Speaker 1: She thanks him for his advice and leaves, wandering off alone. Finally,
Speaker 1: she comes to a land where one of her sisters
Speaker 1: happens to rule with her husband. She's announced to her
Speaker 1: sister and tells her all about what's happened. She recounts
Speaker 1: how it was those sisters who convinced her to do
Speaker 1: the stupid thing in the first place, and how it
Speaker 1: really bit her in the ass because hey, turns out
Speaker 1: she was married to Cupid. But after telling the story
Speaker 1: of how it actually went, while pointedly calling out the
Speaker 1: awful advice those stupid sisters gave, she elaborates a bit.
Speaker 1: She says that when Cupid woke up, he yelled, quote you,
Speaker 1: because of this terrible crime, consider yourself divorced for me
Speaker 1: this moment, leave our marital home and take anything that's yours.
Speaker 1: I'm going to wed your sister with all the required
Speaker 1: ceremonies and gave your full legal name. Who has the
Speaker 1: intellect of a tiny, delicate bud. Now, the sisters quickly
Speaker 1: made up a lie to tell her husband. She told
Speaker 1: him that her parents had died, and she went immediately
Speaker 1: to that same old mountain top. From there, she called
Speaker 1: to Cupid that she was the wife he deserved, and
Speaker 1: she flung herself from the cliff, asking Zephyr to pick
Speaker 1: her up and bring her to the palace to meet
Speaker 1: her new husband. Of course, Zephyr said fuck that, and
Speaker 1: instead pieces of her ended up everywhere, just everywhere. Next,
Speaker 1: Psyche headed over to her other sister and told a
Speaker 1: similar lie. That sister was of course just as shitty,
Speaker 1: and did the exact same thing, and once again, pieces
Speaker 1: of her everywhere. Such a satisfying ending for them both,
Speaker 1: if you ask me. From there, Psyche scours the and
Speaker 1: trying to find Cupid, but turns out Cupid is actually
Speaker 1: in his mother's bedroom on Mount Olympus. He's pretty injured
Speaker 1: from the oil burn, and he's making a big fuss.
Speaker 1: Venus isn't there, though, she's down by the beach. At
Speaker 1: the beach, she's approached by a bird, a talking bird.
Speaker 1: Evidently that tells her where Cupid is and that there
Speaker 1: are some pretty bad rumors going around. Everyone is saying
Speaker 1: that Cupid is off in the mountains with trash and
Speaker 1: that Venus is just wasting her time dipping her toes
Speaker 1: in the sea. They're saying that because of this, there's
Speaker 1: no charm or lust or love left in the world.
Speaker 1: Venus doesn't take this well. As we've learned, she has
Speaker 1: quite the temper, particularly when it comes to people worshiping
Speaker 1: her and her reputation. Of course, this is also the
Speaker 1: first Venus has heard of Cupid being with a woman
Speaker 1: at all. She asks who it is, suggesting all types
Speaker 1: of nymphs and lesser goddesses that could have seduced him.
Speaker 1: The chatty bird, though, isn't sure. He thinks he heard
Speaker 1: her name is Psyche and that Cupid is madly in
Speaker 1: love with her. This, of course sets Venus off. She
Speaker 1: knows Psyche knows her well. She yells, quote, does he
Speaker 1: actually love Psyche? That leech on my beauty? That rival
Speaker 1: from my position? I guess that little growth of mine
Speaker 1: thought I was a madam, pointing the girl out to him. Oh,
Speaker 1: you should get to know that one. Seriously, everyone go
Speaker 1: read this translation for yourself, because it's amazing. Venus then
Speaker 1: goes immediately up to her room on Mount Olympus and
Speaker 1: finds Cupid and she goes off. Oh, man, does she
Speaker 1: go off? I can't read it all because that would
Speaker 1: be cheating. But basically she accuses him of being awful, always,
Speaker 1: of torturing her when he was a baby. She says
Speaker 1: she's going to have another son and sign away everything
Speaker 1: Cupid has to that son. She's going to give it
Speaker 1: his wings, and his bow and even his arrows. She's
Speaker 1: going to give it all her riches. She's going to
Speaker 1: dis own Cupid. She goes crazy. She's raging away thinking
Speaker 1: all these options for how to punish Cupid sufficiently. Finally
Speaker 1: she turns to storm out of the room, but Sarah's
Speaker 1: and Juno are there watching her. Now, Sarah's is the
Speaker 1: Roman name for Demeter, and Juno is the Roman name
Speaker 1: for Hara, So it's really Demeter and Harra looking at Aphrodite.
Speaker 1: But again, I'm a purist. They try to talk Venus down,
Speaker 1: pointing out that he really hasn't done anything. Did you
Speaker 1: think he would never love a girl? Is that what's
Speaker 1: so bad? He's a young man, now seems only fair
Speaker 1: to let him have a girlfriend. They basically point out
Speaker 1: that she's being over dramatic. She's the goddess of love
Speaker 1: and lost. Who is she to tell her son he
Speaker 1: can't do just that. Venus doesn't take this well. She
Speaker 1: storms out and continues her search for Psyche. Meanwhile, Psyche
Speaker 1: is still searching high and low for Cupid, either to
Speaker 1: tell him how much she loves him or just to
Speaker 1: apologize profusely, and she comes upon a temple. She knows
Speaker 1: she's closest to him by appealing to any one of
Speaker 1: the gods, so she goes in turns out at the
Speaker 1: temple to Series, who comes down to speak with Psyche.
Speaker 1: She tells her she knows what's going on and that
Speaker 1: Venus is out for blood. Basically, she has the whole
Speaker 1: world searching for Psyche that she wants her dead. Psyche
Speaker 1: asked Series if she could stay there in the temple,
Speaker 1: away from Venus, but Series doesn't want to get on
Speaker 1: Venus's bad side, so she forces Psyche to leave. Continuing on,
Speaker 1: she comes upon another temple, this time to Juno. She
Speaker 1: begs Juno to let her stay in the temple to
Speaker 1: shield her from Venus's anger, but Juno feels the same
Speaker 1: as Series. She can't go against Venus. She tells Psyche
Speaker 1: that Venus is her daughter in law and she's always
Speaker 1: loved her as a daughter and really she's not so bad. This,
Speaker 1: of course, does Psyche zero good and now she's screwed
Speaker 1: once more. Meanwhile, Venus is continuing with her search, making
Speaker 1: it more and more insane. She calls upon Jove, Jupiter,
Speaker 1: whatever you want to call Zeus, and she asked him
Speaker 1: if she can have the help of Mercury, the messenger
Speaker 1: god and the Roman name for Hermes. When she has
Speaker 1: this help, she sends Mercury searching earth for Psyche. And
Speaker 1: now there's a reward. So Mercury is asking everyone, literally everyone,
Speaker 1: if they've seen her, and if they have, they get
Speaker 1: the reward. So, needless to say, people are pretty keen
Speaker 1: to turn in Psyche if they get the chance. Also,
Speaker 1: this whole time, Venus has been calling Psyche an escaped slave,
Speaker 1: which is apparently why it's okay for her to go
Speaker 1: to all this effort to track down one girl. She's property,
Speaker 1: so you know that's cool. Psyche, though, has learned of
Speaker 1: this reward, and so she says, fuck it, there's nothing
Speaker 1: left for me to do but to show up on
Speaker 1: Venus's doorstep. So she does. She rolls up and one
Speaker 1: of Venus's servants run is out to greet her, treating
Speaker 1: her like the escaped slave Venus has said she is.
Speaker 1: She's brought in to see Venus, and Venus greets her
Speaker 1: as her daughter in law and tells Psyche that Cupid
Speaker 1: is suffering from a life threatening wound. I eat that burn.
Speaker 1: Pretty unclear how on earth and oil burn would be
Speaker 1: life threatening to a god, but there you go. Maybe
Speaker 1: ambrosia doesn't account for second degree burns. Vita sell Psyche
Speaker 1: this that Cupid is dying, and then promptly calling in
Speaker 1: her servants, who are appropriately named anxiety and depression, who
Speaker 1: takes psych away to torture her. They're named anxiety and depression.
Speaker 1: I love just personifications of feelings. That is what ancient
Speaker 1: Greece was good for. Seriously, Venus is not taking this well.
Speaker 1: I dare say she's overreacting about the whole thing. After
Speaker 1: Psyche has been tortured, she's apparently near death, and Venus
Speaker 1: calls her back in. Now, Venus finally points out that
Speaker 1: she knows Psyche is indeed pregnant, and she starts rambling
Speaker 1: on about how she'll be a grandmother, but how the
Speaker 1: child can't be acknowledged because of this scandal, and that
Speaker 1: apparently Cupid's father didn't consent to the marriage, so that
Speaker 1: makes it illegitimate, which I think is ironic because Cupid's
Speaker 1: father is Mars, the Roman name for Aries, who is
Speaker 1: definitely not Venus's husband. But apparently, even when your father
Speaker 1: is a random god who is not your Goddess Mother's husband.
Speaker 1: He still needs to consent to your marriage. The one
Speaker 1: plus will take from this is that it seems to
Speaker 1: suggest that men also had to have their parents consent
Speaker 1: before they got married, So not just ladies who don't
Speaker 1: have their own say and who they spend the rest
Speaker 1: of their lives with. Bonus. Venus even goes so far
Speaker 1: as to say she may not even let Psyche have
Speaker 1: the baby in the first place. Seriously, she's taken it
Speaker 1: a bit far. I don't know if she's reatening to
Speaker 1: force a miscarriage or what, but it hill Venus like,
Speaker 1: you need to take a couple of steps back. You
Speaker 1: need to take a look at the situation. You need
Speaker 1: to realize you're crazy. Just next week, Venus gives Psyche
Speaker 1: a series of utterly Banana's tasks as a sort of
Speaker 1: punishment slash test of Psyche's resilience and her love for Cupid.
Speaker 1: Stay tuned. Thank you all for listening to this episode.
Speaker 1: We'll be back next week with part three, the final
Speaker 1: part of Cupid and Psyche. My favorite myth of all time. God,
Speaker 1: I love it. And you know, when I started talking
Speaker 1: about this one and reading about it, I thought, I
Speaker 1: think a lot of this is in your head from
Speaker 1: having loved it as a child so damn much, and
Speaker 1: maybe it's not quite as good I mean this translation,
Speaker 1: notwithstanding because this translation is bananas amazing, but I'm thinking
Speaker 1: about it's more. I mean, this is one of the
Speaker 1: only myths where the women basically have all the agency
Speaker 1: and are the main characters throughout. Cupid is not really
Speaker 1: a big deal, like he's in it. He's an important
Speaker 1: side character, but this is not about him, and that's
Speaker 1: kind of awesome. Granted, the women were absolutely you know,
Speaker 1: developed by men, their personalities and everything. You can tell
Speaker 1: by the sheer lunacy. We're not all that crazy dudes,
Speaker 1: but still, like that's a big step for the ancients
Speaker 1: list stories all about women and certainly women on women violence.
Speaker 1: But still Zeus isn't fucking shut up, and there is
Speaker 1: no rape in this one guy's that's a big deal. Anyway,
Speaker 1: Thanks again. As usual, you can find me at mythspace
Speaker 1: be on everything. I would really appreciate if you would
Speaker 1: rate and review the podcast on iTunes. It would do
Speaker 1: me a world of good in getting the podcast out
Speaker 1: there a little bit more and just finding new listeners.
Speaker 1: New lovely nerds who want to hear me, rent and
Speaker 1: rave about Greek mythology on a weekly basis. I know
Speaker 1: they're more out there, just waiting to be found. You're
Speaker 1: all wonderful people. I'm live and I fucking love this ship.
Speaker 1: It's crazy, fucking shit. Cad