Melancholy Mentor Podcast
Welcome to Melancholy Mentor where classic literature meets the vibrant world of radio plays.
Melancholy Mentor Podcast
Cupid and Psyche: From Ancient Myth to Modern Inspiration
What do ancient Roman myths and 1980s new wave music have in common? More than you might think! Join hosts Fran and Evan as they unravel the captivating tale of Cupid and Psyche, a timeless narrative that has sparked creative inspiration for nearly two millennia.
This episode takes you on a journey through one of literature's earliest recorded fairy tales. Written by Apuleius in the second century AD, the story follows beautiful mortal Psyche who unwittingly incurs the wrath of Venus, goddess of love. When Venus sends her son Cupid to orchestrate Psyche's downfall, he instead falls hopelessly in love with her. What unfolds is a profound allegory about the soul's journey through trials to attain true enlightenment—a narrative that has influenced countless artists, writers, and even musicians across the centuries.
Discover the surprising connection between this ancient myth and the 1980s band Scritti Politti, whose album "Cupid & Psyche 85" pays homage to this enduring tale. Fran, an NLP coach, explains how these creative connections form new neural pathways, while Evan shares insights about the LibriVox recording featured on their Melancholy Mentor YouTube channel. Together, they reveal how classical literature continues to resonate in our modern lives, offering timeless wisdom and endless inspiration.
Whether you're a mythology enthusiast, a literature lover, or simply curious about how ancient stories continue to shape our creative landscape, this episode will open your mind to new possibilities. Listen now, then visit melancholymentor.com to explore more content that bridges the gap between classical narratives and contemporary creativity. Share your own mythologically-inspired creative projects with us—we'd love to see how these timeless tales spark your imagination!
Send us an email to let us know your thoughts or if you have anything to add at ⏬⏬
info@melancholymentor.com
You can watch the radio drama episode we are discussing on our YouTube channel :
https://youtube.com/@melancholy_mentor
Hello everyone and welcome to Melancholy Mentor, where classic literature meets the vibrant world of radio plays. I'm Fran and I'm joined by Evan from Mystery Mythos. Together, we're your guides on this creative journey. During each episode, we'll dive into stories featured on the Melancholy Mentor channel, allowing fresh ideas to flourish, inspiring you to dream big and unlock your creative potential. Get comfy, open your mind and embrace curiosity. Let's get started. Hello, I'm Fran.
Speaker 2:And I'm Evan.
Speaker 1:And today we are bringing you Cupid and Psyche. So each episode we're highlighting radio dramas that are featured on one of our YouTube channels, and this one's for the Melancholy Mental channel. So we've got radio drama on there, cupid and Psyche. So a little bit about Cupid and Psyche. So it's a classic myth from ancient Roman literature. It's attributed right here we go with the pronunciation it's attributed to Apuleius, who is also called Lucius Apuleius Magirinsus, possibly, but anyway, moving on, I know, just the pronunciations get me as well Apuleius was born in the Roman province of Numidia Numidia, I'm going to call it anyway which is modern-day Algeria. Okay, he studied Platoism in Athens, in Greece, and Cupid and Psyche is considered to be a rare instance of a fairy tale preserved in an ancient literary text. Yeah, all these difficult words to pronounce.
Speaker 2:They are.
Speaker 1:Cupid and Psyche was written in the second century AD, which basically means years ago. Yeah, a long time ago, a long, long, long time ago. An overview of the story is that Psyche is a mortal woman. So within kind of these classic literatures, the Roman kind of classic literature and Greek mythology and stuff like that, you had like the gods and you know so mortal it just means one of us, you know so mortal just means one of us. So Psyche is a mortal woman of extraordinary beauty. Venus, the goddess of love, was envious of Psyche. So Venus actually sends her son, cupid, to go and do some mischief. I think, yeah, venus wanted Cupid to make Psyche fall in love with the most hideous creature on Earth. Oh, yeah.
Speaker 1:What exactly is determined to be a hideous creature? I'm not sure. No, Just you know the mind boggles. So anyway, we've got a spoiler alert for you here. So upon seeing Psyche, Cupid falls desperately in love with her, and the tale represents the journey of the soul through trials and tribulations to attain true love and enlightenment. So it kind of goes on to this like epic thing of all this stuff happening basically within Cupid and Psyche. The myth of Cupid and Psyche has inspired many works of art and literature. So I'm going to give you a fun fact now. Oh yeah, it's a fun fact inspired by Cupid and Psyche. I'm going to mention a British band formed in 1977. They were formed in Leeds in Yorkshire.
Speaker 2:Okay, band is called squitty polity squitty polity yeah, I haven't heard about them for years yeah, well, their second studio album um, which was in 1985, was cupid and psyche 85.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, and I had that album amazing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, I've heard of Scrapeality, but I just haven't been on my radar for a long time.
Speaker 1:I've. In the 80s I used to play like I had their, their album and you know the records, kind of vinyl to play and um yeah, I turned that volume up loud.
Speaker 2:Let me tell you and um, yeah, I'll turn that volume up loud. Let me tell you yeah, this is brilliant.
Speaker 1:Oh god, I don't actually think they had a single out um actually called cupid and psyche, but their studio album was called cupid and psyche. Yeah, I think that um the lead singer. Um, who's Green Gartside stage name? Yeah, so he's the only original band member Right now. This is where it gets a little tricky for my brain. Okay, so Scritti Politti was called Scritti Politti after Antonio Gramsci, who was born in 1891 and perished in 1937. He was an Italian Marxist philosopher, right A linguist writer, politician, so it's something to do with the correct spelling of the Italian political writings would have been like scritty polisi or something yeah and they took that and changed the spelling slightly.
Speaker 1:So, or maybe it was scritty poli politi, but it was the way it was spelled, so they changed the spelling of it slightly. Um, a lot of that, I will tell you, is above my brain grade, like it's just, it's incredibly intelligent stuff and it's just way beyond my brain. Um, so there's an Italian link there to the name, yeah, of the band who had an album out in the 1980s that referenced cupid's psyche, yeah, it's really interesting I know I like all these links to things.
Speaker 1:Yeah, me too. One of the reasons why we like to do this podcast is to inspire people, so it's just to bring that creative inspiration to people. I'm actually an nlp coach, which is neurolinguistic programming. Evans learned how to do a lot of the tech, haven't you?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I didn't know. You've actually yourself taught with tech support.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And it's just about how these links are formed and how these kind of creative endeavors can be born and, you know, come to life and what else can happen. I think it's just limitless and I think it's very exciting as well to inspire anybody listening to get creative. Yeah, get studying, form new neural pathways in your brain and, you know, just enjoy the life that we're given. Yeah, so cupid actually has another name. It's like a different kind of deity, but it's another name, which is Eros, and Eros is, if I've got it round the right way, I think Eros is the Greek god of love and Cupid is the Roman one.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Also makes it quite fascinating to me that you had different writings in um, you know different kind of countries, different eras, but they have their own version of like the same or similar thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, um, I didn't know much about Eros except that in the um, probably the 80s, but the kind of early 90s, there was a nightclub Enfield, which is near where I grew up in in North london, called eros oh cool and on thursday nights they did like a cheap ticket in entry, so I quite often went on a first just after midweek, yeah yeah, cheap tickets as well, if you wanted it, but it always looked a little bit a dinner I don't know how I feel about that yeah, it was like in some kind of um buffet style, in like canteen tins and you could serve yourself.
Speaker 1:And I was kind of eyed it up and thought I don't know what's in that, so not sure I know, not to feed myself, basically, um, so yes, eros is the greek god of love, passion and fertility, and why not? Hey, yeah, there's many statues of, of um, kind of mostly cupid. Actually, there's not a lot of psyche, herself mostly cupid.
Speaker 1:Well, I think actually originally was probably a bit of a heartthrob, yeah, you know, muscle guy and heartthrob and then turned into some kind of little cherub, yeah, over time. So cheruby things, aren't they? A little cheruby thing with like a bow and arrow, yeah, yeah. So, evan, have you got any information about the radio drama that we feature on the melancholy mental channel?
Speaker 2:yeah, I've got a little bit actually on this one. Um, this is actually a librivox recording and librivox recordings are, um, basically a group of worldwide volunteers who read and record public domain texts, so it's just like a group of volunteers who do it. This story is from a collection called Myths and Legends Around the World. The author of the story is Thomas Ballfinch and this was read by Mariah Care. That's all I've got about the actual radio drama. The video itself was filmed on the Dorset Coast and this video is just under 25 minutes long and we've got like 58 views currently on it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, so not bad. We're a little little channel, so that's not bad. We're grateful for any views and listens. So, by video, that is that that's mainly me going out with a mobile phone and a tripod just filming the coastland or coastline or woodland, and we accompany the video with the audio of a radio drama that's. They're in the public domain and we decided to do this to bring um these classic literature adaptations to a to a new audience. Yeah, to inspire your creativity. Yes, yes, I know, thank you for joining us about Cupid and Psyche. Bye, bye, thank you for tuning in. Contact us at melancholymentorcom. Until next time, keep your minds open and stay curious.
