February 6, 2000
Can you put a price on humping the one you love?

Adam and I aren't doing anything for Valentine's because money got so tight these last few weeks.

I'm unhappy about it. I want to be like everyone else, to be able to celebrate the fact that we found each other and renew the commitment that we've made by renting a cheap motel and wearing a trashy little maid outfit for him. Hold on, I just had a brilliant thought. I'm going to talk to Adam. Will return to continue shortly.

Alright. By the time that VD rolls around, we'll be able to handle doing something. Though I'm not sure what. Part of me wants to do what I just said above, but the adult that I have deep down wants to only go to dinner and come home and just be comfortable together. Instead of the pressure of having incredible sex and getting along perfectly for one night just because of what day it is.

So Adam and I just talked some more, and we've agreed to go to our favorite Thai place and indulge, then return home for a relaxing evening since it is a work evening after all. I'm happy with that. I can go pick up a red vinyl maid's costume any other day of the year.

Ever wonder why we celebrate this? Think that it has been invented by Hallmark? Think again.

FLAVIUS
See whether their basest metal be not moved;
They vanish tongue-tied in their guiltiness.
Go you down that way towards the Capitol;
This way will I disrobe the images,
If you do find them deck'd with ceremonies.

MARULLUS
May we do so?
You know it is the feast of Lupercal.

Julius Caesar Act 1, Scene 1.

t may not be fair to say that Valentine's Day has its origin in antiquity, but there were romantic spring holidays and a St. Valentine or two.

Hieros Gamos

Preparatory to such an important event was a period of abstinence. February was the month for purification. Since the Roman calendar began with March, February marked the end of the year and the time to get ready for the new. The word from which February comes means purification or purgation. Twin themes of purification and fertility come together in the Lupercalia where it is believed the strips of goatskin with which women were ritually whipped would purify and make them fertile.

Lupercalia

Luperci, priests of Lupercus, smeared themselves with sacrificial blood and went through the streets whipping women with the aforementioned goatskin thong. The priests also paired up boys and girls who stayed matched until the next Lupercalia.

St. Valentine

Related Holiday

Candlemas: The Light Returns
Imbolc, Oimelc, Brigit's Day, The Feast of the Purification of the Virgin Mary, Ground Hog's Day, and Candlemas are all holidays that occur in the first half of February. Suggests that some of these holidays were actually around February 14 because of different methods of figuring the calendar. Hypothesis that "v" was pronounced as a "g" making the holiday "gallant's day" thereby accounting for the association with love. The chubby, arrow-toting cherub who adorns modern Valentine's Day cards wasn't always such a minor figure. Originally he (as Eros) was thought to have arisen out of Chaos, along with Tartarus and Earth. Later he became associated with Aphrodite, often as her son.

The love story with which he is chiefly associated comes from Apuleius' Golden Ass.

Here's my re-telling:

Cupid and Psyche

Aphrodite was a jealous goddess, but she was also loving and sometimes her possessive instincts led her too far. When her son, Eros, found a mortal to love -- one whose beauty rivalled the Cyprian's -- Aphrodite did all in her power to thwart the marriage. Unfortunately for the young couple, she was not the only one trying to foul things up, for Psyche, which was the young woman's name, had two sisters as jealous as Aphrodite. When they learned about the luscious, extravagant lifestyle of their sister, they urged her to find out her husband's secret.

Eros was a god and for reasons known best to him, he didn't want his mortal wife to see his form. Psyche's sister didn't know he was a god, although they may have suspected it. They did know that her life was much happier than theirs, so they persuaded their sister that her husband was a hideous monster. She assured them they were wrong, but since she'd never seen him, she had her own doubts. Psyche decided to satisfy their curiosity, so that she night took a candle to her sleeping husband to look at him. The angelic form was exquisite, but while Psyche ogled him, she dropped a bit of wax and the awakened, irate, disobeyed husband-angel-god flew away.

"See, I told you she was a no good human," said mother Aphrodite. "Now you'll have to be content among the gods."

Eros might have gone along, but Psyche couldn't. Impelled by love of her gorgeous husband, she implored her mother-in-law to give her a chance. Aphrodite agreed saying, "I cannot conceive that any serving-wench as hideous as yourself could find any means to attract lovers save by making herself their drudge; wherefore now I myself will make trial of your worth," but she had no intention of playing fair. She devised four tasks (not three, this is a feminine story), each one more exacting than the last. Psyche passed the first three challenges with flying colors,

1. sort a huge mount of barley, millet, poppy seeds, lentils, and beans.
2. gather a hank of the wool of the shining golden sheep.
3. fill a crystal vessel with the water of the spring that feeds the Styx and Cocytus.

but the last one was too much for her.

Aphrodite asked Psyche to bring her back a box of Persephone's beauty cream. Going to the Underworld was a challenge for normal mortals, but even this was not too much for Psyche. What was too much was the temptation to make herself more beautiful. If the perfect beauty of the perfect Aphrodite needed this cream, Psyche reasoned, how much more would it help an imperfect human. Thus, Psyche opened the box and fell into a deathlike sleep.

With Zeus' connivance, Eros brought his wife to Olympus where Aphrodite reluctantly reconciled with her pregnant daughter-in-law about to give birth to a grandchild Aphrodite could dote on, Pleasure.

Cupid and Psyche Retold: C.S. Lewis' Till We Have Faces

C.S. Lewis took Apuleius' story and turned it on its ear. Instead of having the story seen through the eyes of Psyche, it's seen through her sister Orval's perspective. Instead of the refined Aphrodite of the Roman story, the mother goddess is a far more weighty power.

A Great Gulf Fixed
From the C.S. Lewis megasite Into the Wardrobe, a paper on the personal implications of C.S. Lewis' adult novel and retelling of the Cupid and Psyche story.

Book Review: Till We Have Faces
C.A. Frost's very brief summary of the book.

Till We Have Faces
This review of the "re-working" of the Cupid and Psyche story brings up an important point about the difference between the myth and Lewis' version. The first was a love story while the retelling is not.

An Annotated Bibliography for Till We Have Faces
Not only a great list of reviews and other bibliographic information, but also some of Lewis' notes on the novel.

Student Papers on Till We Have Faces
Students bring their backgrounds and prejudices to bear on their reading, understanding, and enjoyment of Till We Have Faces. Some essays are good and/or useful.

Resource Links for C.S. Lewis' Novel
From the same fascinating-looking class as the reviews above, a list of resources for learning more about Till We Have Faces.

Yesterday | Main | Tomorrow

Design, graphics and writing (c)1999/2000 Harvest Designs unless otherwise stated.