Speaker 1: Oh hello there, that is right, I am here in
Speaker 1: your ears yet again with a very special bonus episode.
Speaker 1: This is Let's talk about Miths Baby, and I am
Speaker 1: your host Live. Today's episode is a special one and
Speaker 1: there will be more of them. I am teaming up
Speaker 1: with the podcast network q Code to bring you a
Speaker 1: very special bonus series of episodes dedicated to their new
Speaker 1: fictions eeries Cupid. You all know how much I love
Speaker 1: mythological retelling, adaptation reinterpretation, so when I heard there was
Speaker 1: gonna be a new podcast that was not only a
Speaker 1: fictional series featuring the Olympians, but it's also a rom
Speaker 1: calm musical, well, I was pretty keen to team up
Speaker 1: because if there's anything I want to read or in
Speaker 1: this case, listen to, more than mythological retellings, it's rom coms.
Speaker 1: So if you are coming to this episode as a
Speaker 1: listener of my show, first, here's the deal with this
Speaker 1: new podcast, Cupid. It is a modern love story inspired
Speaker 1: by Greek mythology. When aphrodites love potion goes missing on Earth,
Speaker 1: Cupid is held responsible. Zeus strips him of his immortal powers,
Speaker 1: giving him seven days to find and return the love potion.
Speaker 1: The first two episodes are available wherever you get your podcasts,
Speaker 1: with new episodes coming every Tuesday, and it stars Diego
Speaker 1: buden Eda, Naomi Aki and Rupert Friend. Meanwhile, if you're
Speaker 1: listening to this because you've listened to the first or
Speaker 1: first two episodes of Cupid and you learned that there
Speaker 1: was an after show where you could learn more about
Speaker 1: the mythology featured, welcome, I am here for you. I
Speaker 1: have literally endless amounts of mythological content for you to
Speaker 1: listen to binge what have you? And every week on Wednesdays,
Speaker 1: I will be releasing these bonus episodes where I give
Speaker 1: you the mythological facts and stories background featuring the characters
Speaker 1: and concepts from that week's episode of Cupid. Gods of
Speaker 1: Love and War, what makes a party god a party God?
Speaker 1: And what on earth is going on up on Mount Olympus.
Speaker 1: This is the bonus Cupid after show. There's a rom
Speaker 1: com feature in Cupid, and I am here for it.
Speaker 1: I am always interested in new interpretations of the Olympian gods.
Speaker 1: They are a versatile bunch and it's always extra intriguing
Speaker 1: when they're featured in modern takes on mythology. Looking at
Speaker 1: what the Olympians would be like if they existed in
Speaker 1: the world we live in. It's what makes Laura Olympus interesting,
Speaker 1: and the same goes for Cupid. Like it isn't much
Speaker 1: of a stretch to imagine that Aphrodite would be absolutely
Speaker 1: obsessed with her public persona, her social media, her status
Speaker 1: as a maybe kardashian esque influencer, or really that all
Speaker 1: of the Olympians would be mostly concerned with their image,
Speaker 1: their status amongst humans. Add to that a redemption story,
Speaker 1: a romance, and musical elements. Cupid is seriously fun. But
Speaker 1: what I'm here to share today is the mythology behind it,
Speaker 1: all the stuff I know best, the gods, behind these
Speaker 1: modern interpretations. And I know the biggest thing my listeners
Speaker 1: are already thinking is live the show is called Cupid,
Speaker 1: But haven't you repeatedly endlefully told us that that's his
Speaker 1: Roman name. You're not wrong, my friends, but obviously this
Speaker 1: happens a lot in retellings and mythological interpretations, particularly in
Speaker 1: pop culture, because, as I've also told you, guys, for
Speaker 1: a long time, the Latin names were the most well known,
Speaker 1: and I mean Cupid is just a way, way way
Speaker 1: more well known. Name than Aarros. It's a household name
Speaker 1: and it makes for a catchier title. And I actually
Speaker 1: spoke with the creator of the show, Katie Kavanaugh Jupe
Speaker 1: for an episode of the podcast that will air after
Speaker 1: the season ends, and she told me that in place
Speaker 1: of the name Aarros, since it had to Cupid for
Speaker 1: the show, the love interest is named Rose Get It
Speaker 1: isn't that cute. As the most epic and over the
Speaker 1: top of nerds, I was very happy to hear how
Speaker 1: much thought went into the changing of his name to
Speaker 1: the Roman Cupid. But let's talk about Cupid or the
Speaker 1: Greek Arrows. He's the god of love and sex and
Speaker 1: the son of two volatile gods, Aphrodite and Aries, the
Speaker 1: goddess of love and the god of war, make for
Speaker 1: a spicy couple. Cupid or Arrows is their most famous son,
Speaker 1: but depending on the source you're reading, may have others.
Speaker 1: The arrotes, these cherubic like gods who embody varied forms
Speaker 1: of love and affection. The idea of Arrows, though, is
Speaker 1: sometimes much bigger than just Aphrodite and Aries his son.
Speaker 1: There are versions of the origin of the gods that
Speaker 1: have two different gods named Arrows. One is born of
Speaker 1: the nothingness that first exists, the chaos itself, and this
Speaker 1: is love as a kind of concept. This Arrows doesn't
Speaker 1: really have a body. He's kind of like chaos. It
Speaker 1: just exists, bringing love into this new world that had
Speaker 1: been created. Meanwhile, the stories of Greek mythology needed someone
Speaker 1: more tangible to embody, the sillier, the darker, the more
Speaker 1: complex bits of love, which is why we have the
Speaker 1: more literal god Arrows, Cupid, this son of Aphrodite and Aries,
Speaker 1: the one who's out there with his bow and his
Speaker 1: love and his loathe arrows, just hooking people up all
Speaker 1: over the place. That version of Arrows love is more
Speaker 1: down to earth, more fleeting. I explain this because it's
Speaker 1: one of the things I've learned through the podcast that
Speaker 1: makes me just generally happy, the idea that there had
Speaker 1: to be these two different forms of love, the big
Speaker 1: and the small, the lifelong, disembodied concept of human affection,
Speaker 1: and the fleeting nature of the most general romantic relationships.
Speaker 1: That Cupid is, of course, the one featured in Cute
Speaker 1: Code series, a Cupid who's beholden to his mother and father,
Speaker 1: living his daily life with his bow, and arrows and
Speaker 1: humans who don't much care for his work, which is
Speaker 1: how we get a kind of disaffected Cupid, one who
Speaker 1: doesn't find any value in his work, who's sick of
Speaker 1: doing the biddings of his mother. It's very cupid and psyche,
Speaker 1: but with social media. The first episodes of Cupid also,
Speaker 1: of course, feature Cupid's parents quite heavily. So let's talk
Speaker 1: about Aphrodite and aries, shall we. Aphrodite is such an
Speaker 1: interesting goddess, and certainly my historical favorite goddess. But what
Speaker 1: makes her interesting is the different ways her personality manifests
Speaker 1: depending upon the source. Aphrodite can be loving, affectionate. She
Speaker 1: can be strong, willed and full of sexual agency in
Speaker 1: a way that no other goddess is. She is beautiful
Speaker 1: and strong, She is awesome, and mostly she isn't obviously
Speaker 1: outright vain. In the Iliad, for example, she is devoted
Speaker 1: to her son and Nias in a way that made
Speaker 1: me devote an entire episode to wondering about what sources
Speaker 1: on a Nias have been lost, because I just know
Speaker 1: there had to be more to his story in the
Speaker 1: ancient Greek world. But I'm getting distracted. My point, though,
Speaker 1: is that Aphrodite does love her children, and she is
Speaker 1: full of affection maternal affection when necessary. She is also
Speaker 1: pretty independ pendant. There aren't a lot of Greek myths
Speaker 1: that actually feature the relationship of Aros and Aphrodite. This
Speaker 1: mother and son rather, Aros just kind of features in
Speaker 1: a lot of other love stories that center around other gods.
Speaker 1: Often he's more of a catalyst than a character in
Speaker 1: Greek myth, but not as all my listeners well know.
Speaker 1: In Roman myth Aphrodite of q Codes, Cupid is definitely
Speaker 1: more reminiscent of the venous Aphrodite's Roman name of Apulius's Metamorphoses,
Speaker 1: better known as The Golden Ass, the novel that features
Speaker 1: the story of Cupid and Psyche. My existing listeners know
Speaker 1: that story very well. It's one of the most popular
Speaker 1: series of episodes that I've ever done on the show,
Speaker 1: and that is because it is one of the most
Speaker 1: detailed stories of myth that we have from ancient Greece
Speaker 1: or Rome. Because it features in an actual novel all
Speaker 1: rather than the oral storytelling of most early Greek myths,
Speaker 1: it's able to have different elements and much much more
Speaker 1: detail by being this written novel. That is the aphrodite
Speaker 1: that I see in the podcast Cupid, one that loves
Speaker 1: her son, but is more concerned with her own image,
Speaker 1: her own status as an Olympian, and as a goddess
Speaker 1: worshiped on earth for her beauty, her sexuality. Perhaps not
Speaker 1: quite as volatile as the aphrodite of Cupid and Psyche,
Speaker 1: but certainly featuring her personality. I've linked to those episodes
Speaker 1: in this episode's description aries. Meanwhile, is the god of war,
Speaker 1: but a very specific aspect of war and warfare. See
Speaker 1: Athena is the goddess of war craft, the elements of war,
Speaker 1: requiring thoughts, planning, organization. She's the goddess of that craft element.
Speaker 1: Whereas Haris is the god of the war. It's self
Speaker 1: the blood and the gore, the battle, the fighting, the violence,
Speaker 1: the killing, and that influences his personality in myth. I
Speaker 1: haven't told a lot of stories of Arias in the past.
Speaker 1: He's high on my list, but when it comes to
Speaker 1: him as a god, he tends to feature either alongside Aphrodite,
Speaker 1: usually when they're caught in compromising positions, or he's there
Speaker 1: because he's joining warriors on the battlefield in the thick
Speaker 1: of it, just these references to Aries, because he symbolizes
Speaker 1: that horror of war. He isn't a thoughtful god. He
Speaker 1: is a reactive god, a god featuring the more toxic
Speaker 1: elements of masculinity, you know, the ones. He isn't Zeus,
Speaker 1: but he's still pretty messy. Thus we get Cupid Arrows,
Speaker 1: a mixture of the two of his parents in a
Speaker 1: very literal way, at least in the stories of Greek
Speaker 1: myth he bit Arrows is there somewhere in between. He
Speaker 1: is a troublemaker, using both his love and his loath
Speaker 1: Arrows to mess with people he decides need to be
Speaker 1: messed with. He is messy, not in his father's horrifying,
Speaker 1: battle and blood filled way, but with his mother's tools
Speaker 1: he can cause quite a bit of trouble. Love is
Speaker 1: a powerful drug, and this Arrows love is this perfect
Speaker 1: mixture of the beauty and grace love of Aphrodite and
Speaker 1: the war and blood lust of Aries, and all of
Speaker 1: those elements feature in two Q code's Cupid let alone,
Speaker 1: Aphrodite and Aries in the podcast. So who or what
Speaker 1: else features in these first episodes and maybe could use
Speaker 1: a bit of mythological background well, Demeter and Diane NICUs,
Speaker 1: two more Olympians and two more favorites of mine. Demeter
Speaker 1: is a mother first. She's most famous for her love
Speaker 1: her daughter Persephone, and her search across the whole of
Speaker 1: the world when that daughter is abducted by Hades, the
Speaker 1: god of the underworld. Demeter, though, is also the Olympian
Speaker 1: answer to Mother Earth. She isn't Mother Earth herself, that's Gaya,
Speaker 1: but she is the earth Mother, the granddaughter of Gaia,
Speaker 1: who takes on aspects of that role. She is the
Speaker 1: goddess of the harvest of grain. She is the giver
Speaker 1: of life. Though she only features briefly in these first
Speaker 1: two episodes of the Cupid Podcast, she is going to
Speaker 1: become important, and that she is a mother and a
Speaker 1: mother figure feature prominently Meanwhile, Dionysus. He's a bit of
Speaker 1: a departure from Demeter, though not devoid of natural elements.
Speaker 1: Dionysus is the god of wine, of partying, of making
Speaker 1: wine and drinking wine, and what can happen if you
Speaker 1: drink a lot of wine. He is the party god,
Speaker 1: the drunken god. He is also generally awesome, but he
Speaker 1: has a temper. His most famous myth includes well his
Speaker 1: cousin being ripped to shreds for not believing that Dionysus
Speaker 1: is indeed a god. There's so much more to the
Speaker 1: Back Eye, the Greek tragedy that best tells that story,
Speaker 1: but again it's long, so go ahead and click the
Speaker 1: link in this episode's description to listen to those entire
Speaker 1: episodes and learn more about the party god. I will add, though,
Speaker 1: the Dionysus that I see, what I read the myths
Speaker 1: and back Eye is different from the Dionysus of Q
Speaker 1: codes Cupid in a way that I think it's important
Speaker 1: to mention. Obviously, everyone has their own interpretations, none of
Speaker 1: them are wrong. That is the nature of Greek mythology.
Speaker 1: But Dionysis can be read as a gender fluid god,
Speaker 1: even a non binary god. That much is very clear
Speaker 1: from the ancient sources, and it's one of my favorite
Speaker 1: aspects of Dionysus, and I've got episodes on that too,
Speaker 1: namely a conversation with the incredible Emma Polly, who has
Speaker 1: done a non binary translation of that play. I mentioned
Speaker 1: Back Eye and spoke to me about it, and I
Speaker 1: highly recommend you listen to that episode if you want
Speaker 1: to know more. About this take on Dionysus and understand
Speaker 1: the nature of the god in Greek myth broadly, and hey,
Speaker 1: what do you know? It's in the playlist linked in
Speaker 1: this episode's description. Now, since q Code dropped the first
Speaker 1: two episodes of Cupid yesterday, I had planned on talking
Speaker 1: about mythologic called characters and concepts featured in both of
Speaker 1: those episodes, But because so many Olympians are introduced in
Speaker 1: the second episode, I'm going to save a few of
Speaker 1: them for next week's bonus. Next week, we'll talk about
Speaker 1: the other Olympians featured in that very epic assembly scene,
Speaker 1: as well as the absolutely wonderfully represented Furies, some of
Speaker 1: my all time, absolute favorite mythological creatures. Plus we'll talk
Speaker 1: about Zeus and why it's absolutely perfect and wonderful that
Speaker 1: Cupid has him depicted as a guy who will say
Speaker 1: a thing like cut to the chase areas. I have
Speaker 1: an orgy to attend, But today I'll leave you with
Speaker 1: my favorite phrase that the people behind Cupid have given
Speaker 1: us in this series, Gorgon's glare. Cupid says that when
Speaker 1: he's startled, annoyed, bad basically anytime he needs to exclaim
Speaker 1: something and I'm been obsessed with it. Now listeners of
Speaker 1: my show will already be laughing and adding along, like
Speaker 1: live obviously you're obsessed with a phrase like Gorgon's glare. Duh,
Speaker 1: And they're right, because this is, of course a reference
Speaker 1: to my favorite woman, my beloved Medusa and her two sisters.
Speaker 1: Together they make up the three Gorgon's Women, monsters, badasses
Speaker 1: known for their glare. A single look will turn you
Speaker 1: to stone. At least that's the common idea behind her.
Speaker 1: There is so so, so, so, so so so much
Speaker 1: more to Medusa than just her stony glare. She is
Speaker 1: a fascination. She is misunderstood, She is a victim, a survivor.
Speaker 1: She has everything good and interesting about Greek mythology Gorgan's glare.
Speaker 1: I love Medusa so much, so find episodes about her. Yes,
Speaker 1: you guessed it in the playlist linked in this episode's description.
Speaker 1: And with that perfect Gorgon's Glare ending, we'll leave off
Speaker 1: until next week's bonus episode, where we talk more about
Speaker 1: the gods and concepts and fun phrases that are introduced
Speaker 1: in Que Codes Cupid. Thank you all so much for listening.
Speaker 1: I'm really excited to be bringing you these bonus episodes.
Speaker 1: I'm hoping I'm now addressing a few new listeners who
Speaker 1: found my show through Q codes Cupid, and if so,
Speaker 1: welcome Hi. Normally I tell full and incredibly detailed stories
Speaker 1: from Greek mythology, or on Friday episodes, I chat with
Speaker 1: fascinating and fun scholars and authors about the nitty gritty
Speaker 1: of the ancient Mediterranean. That's all to say. They have
Speaker 1: almost four episodes for you to hunt through find your
Speaker 1: favorite characters from Cupid maybe, or just names you've heard before,
Speaker 1: gods and goddesses you want to know more about. A
Speaker 1: good place to start is that playlist I keep mentioning.
Speaker 1: It has episodes from throughout the life of this podcast
Speaker 1: and gives you an idea of what I do, and
Speaker 1: it will be updated as more of those episodes drop,
Speaker 1: and I have more episodes to recommend to you for
Speaker 1: further understanding of these incredible mythological characters and ideas. Great
Speaker 1: mythology is so damn fun and I love knowing that
Speaker 1: people are discovering it through my show or now through
Speaker 1: que codes Cupid. Let's Talk about Miss Baby is written
Speaker 1: and produced by me Live Albert Michaelis Smith is the
Speaker 1: hermes to my Olympians and handle so many podcasts related things,
Speaker 1: from running the YouTube, to creating promotional images and videos,
Speaker 1: to editing and research. Stephanie fully works to transcribe the
Speaker 1: podcast for YouTube captions and accessibility, and huge thank you
Speaker 1: to que Code for collaborating with me on these Cupid
Speaker 1: after show episodes. I am live and I Love this ship.