Even more literary influence...

In my English class today, a student brought up a C.S. Lewis book, Till We Have Faces, that is a reinterpretation of the Cupid and Psyche story. I thought I would share. Sounds very interesting; I hope to read it over Christmas break...

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17343.Till_We_Have_Faces

The Evil Stepsisters

When discussing Psyche's sisters in class, it's extremely easy to say "evil step-sisters" instead of "evil sisters." I wanted to write a quick post about why that is.

Obviously the Wicked Stepsisters are stock characters in the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm. But whence come those tales, and what do the presence of such stock characters tell us? In his very readable narrative, The Great Cat Massacre, Darton traces the (often misunderstood) origins of the Brothers Grimm stories and lays out some compelling theories about the cultural/social factors that influence the tales.

In short, the stories are French, and they come from the period of landholders and peasant farmers, when mortality rates were shockingly high. Second marriages were common as older men took younger wives, then left them without resources or protection when they died. On the other hand widowers were as common since childbirth was such a dangerous proposition. Women who remarried could be expected to favor their children over those of a previous wife. The upshot is competition for scanty resources within a household and vilification of rivals; the universality of this problem is attested by the presence of the wicked stepsister in so many stories.

I don't think the same type of analysis would hold for Apuleius, since his story is less a folktale and more a satire, but the themes of competition and rivalry resonate just the same.

Maidens flying!

In case anyone is having trouble imagining young maidens flying, I believe this is an accurate portrayal.

Cupid and Psyche's literary influence

Perhaps the most famous is Edgar Allan Poe's Ulalume:

The skies they were ashen and sober;

      The leaves they were crispéd and sere—

      The leaves they were withering and sere;

It was night in the lonesome October

      Of my most immemorial year;

It was hard by the dim lake of Auber,

      In the misty mid region of Weir—

It was down by the dank tarn of Auber,

      In the ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir.

Here once, through an alley Titanic,

      Of cypress, I roamed with my Soul—

      Of cypress, with Psyche, my Soul.

These were days when my heart was volcanic

      As the scoriac rivers that roll—

      As the lavas that restlessly roll

Their sulphurous currents down Yaanek

      In the ultimate climes of the pole—

That groan as they roll down Mount Yaanek

      In the realms of the boreal pole.

Our talk had been serious and sober,

      But our thoughts they were palsied and sere—

      Our memories were treacherous and sere—

For we knew not the month was October,

      And we marked not the night of the year—

      (Ah, night of all nights in the year!)

We noted not the dim lake of Auber—

      (Though once we had journeyed down here)—

We remembered not the dank tarn of Auber,

      Nor the ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir.

And now, as the night was senescent

      And star-dials pointed to morn—

      As the star-dials hinted of morn—

At the end of our path a liquescent

      And nebulous lustre was born,

Out of which a miraculous crescent

      Arose with a duplicate horn—

Astarte's bediamonded crescent

      Distinct with its duplicate horn.

And I said—"She is warmer than Dian:

      She rolls through an ether of sighs—

      She revels in a region of sighs:

She has seen that the tears are not dry on

      These cheeks, where the worm never dies,

And has come past the stars of the Lion

      To point us the path to the skies—

      To the Lethean peace of the skies—

Come up, in despite of the Lion,

      To shine on us with her bright eyes—

Come up through the lair of the Lion,

      With love in her luminous eyes."

But Psyche, uplifting her finger,

      Said—"Sadly this star I mistrust—

      Her pallor I strangely mistrust:—

Oh, hasten! oh, let us not linger!

      Oh, fly!—let us fly!—for we must."

In terror she spoke, letting sink her

      Wings till they trailed in the dust—

In agony sobbed, letting sink her

      Plumes till they trailed in the dust—

      Till they sorrowfully trailed in the dust.

I replied—"This is nothing but dreaming:

      Let us on by this tremulous light!

      Let us bathe in this crystalline light!

Its Sybilic splendor is beaming

      With Hope and in Beauty to-night:—

      See!—it flickers up the sky through the night!

Ah, we safely may trust to its gleaming,

      And be sure it will lead us aright—

We safely may trust to a gleaming

      That cannot but guide us aright,

      Since it flickers up to Heaven through the night."

Thus I pacified Psyche and kissed her,

      And tempted her out of her gloom—

      And conquered her scruples and gloom:

And we passed to the end of the vista,

      But were stopped by the door of a tomb—

      By the door of a legended tomb;

And I said—"What is written, sweet sister,

      On the door of this legended tomb?"

      She replied—"Ulalume—Ulalume—

      'Tis the vault of thy lost Ulalume!"

Then my heart it grew ashen and sober

      As the leaves that were crispèd and sere—

      As the leaves that were withering and sere,

And I cried—"It was surely October

      On this very night of last year

      That I journeyed—I journeyed down here—

      That I brought a dread burden down here—

      On this night of all nights in the year,

      Oh, what demon has tempted me here?

Well I know, now, this dim lake of Auber—

      This misty mid region of Weir—

Well I know, now, this dank tarn of Auber—

      In the ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir."

Said we, then—the two, then—"Ah, can it

      Have been that the woodlandish ghouls—

      The pitiful, the merciful ghouls—

To bar up our way and to ban it

      From the secret that lies in these wolds—

      From the thing that lies hidden in these wolds—

Had drawn up the spectre of a planet

      From the limbo of lunary souls—

This sinfully scintillant planet

      From the Hell of the planetary souls?"

There are also websites that I have found that relate the Twilight series to Cupid and Psyche. Although I am choosing to ignore these references because I think they give Twilight more literary validity than it deserves, here is one link...

http://mythicthinking.org/?p=176

Bridal Wear

Roman brides wore a white dress, flame-colored veil, a belt tied in the "knot of Hercules" (to be untied by the groom later, and the origin of our phrase "tying the knot" (http://www.roman-colosseum.info/roman-clothing/roman-wedding-clothing.htm )) and shoes to match the veil (http://ablemedia.com/ctcweb/consortium/ancientweddings7.html). Brides also had to wear their hair in elaborate braids (on some occasions, parted with iron spearheads) and a wreath of flowers over the veil (http://www.roman-colosseum.info/roman-clothing/roman-wedding-clothing.htm; http://rome.mrdonn.org/weddings.html).
I've decided to compare Roman weddings (particularly how the brides dressed) to the customs of other cultures.
Although many aspects of the Roman wedding have been adopted by the West (the veil, the exchange of vows, and the engagement ring among them) Western brides used to wear just about any color; for reasons I'm not quite sure about, black wedding dresses were popular in Scandinavia. In general, brides wore the best dresses they could afford when they got married, depending on their social status. Queen Victoria popularized the white wedding dress. Contrary to popular belief, white does not represent the virginal purity of the bride; blue (as in the blue part of the Virgin Mary's attire) was the color of virginity. Indeed, Mary, Queen of Scots, wore a white wedding dress because her favorite color was white; however, white was a color of mourning in the royal court of France.
In India and other parts of the world that wear saris, the bride traditionally wears a sari. The sari is traditionaly red, the color of good luck, with gold embroidery and gold jewelry. In fact, many eastern cultures traditionally have their brides wear red, since red was an auspicious color.
In Japan a bride may wear three or more kimonos. She wears a white one to represent that she is dead to her family, and then removes the white kimono to reveal a red one (symbolizing her rebirth in her husband's family). For better or worse, Western traditions are infiltrating traditional Eastern cultures and brides may wear white Western-style dresses, or at least white versions of their traditional garments (Wikipedia). On the other hand, I want to get married in a red sari (they're so much prettier than American white wedding dresses), so I guess the East can borrow from my culture if I want to borrow from theirs.
Feasting seems to be common in all cultures. I know feasting (or rather, extremely heavy snacking) are common features at weddings on my mom's side. The Romans had a priest sacrifice a cake to Jupiter. Alcohol seems to be consumed, except in cultures where consuming alcohol is forbidden (like in Islam and in the Southern-Baptist Church), in most cultures. Confusingly, the alcohol consumed at a Chinese wedding goes by the same name as the wedding feast itself. East Asian weddings include tea ceremonies (Wikipedia).

reflato sinu

So that you guys can have an idea of how a skirt can be inflated, the famous Marilyn Monroe picture Professor Malamud mentioned during my translation:

It is also apparently a statue in Chicago:

Cupid and Psyche in art

The link below (a blog) contains a good selection of works of art inspired by the story of Cupid and Psyche. ignoscatis precor: the blog is in Italian!!
However you can skip the introduction (it is a short summary of the story) and appreciate the images!

http://almacattleya.blogspot.com/2010/12/due-amanti.html

Apuleius and the fish (back to the first book)

Apuleius, as Lucius, had some problem when he tried to buy fish. In the Apology he tells us that the charge which the accusers treated as strong support for their accusation was "the matter of the fish". They accused Apuleius to have  purchased and dissected fish for making magic potions. 

This is part of the text in English translation:

“beginning with the charge which…they treated from the start as the strongest argument for the suspicion of magic, that I bought some species of fish from fisher men for a price. which of these pertains to magic? that I sought the fish from fisher men? But of course—I should have sought them from a seamstress or a carpenter if I had wanted to avoid your calumniae, and had them change jobs, so the carpenter would catch my fish, and the fisher do my woodwork. But perhaps it was from this that you under stood a crime, that I sought the fish for a price? I do believe if I had wanted them for a party I could have got them for nothing. Why don’t you argue against me from several other purchases? For I have even bought fruits and vegetables and bread and wine" (29. 1-5),

 and then....

"But I ask you, is a man a magician for seeking fish? Certainly I do not think so, any more than if I were hunting rabbits, boars, or birds. But perhaps fish have something secret from others, and known to magicians? If you know what it is, you are a magician; if you do not know, you are obliged to confess that you do not know what you are accusing me of" (30. 1–2).

Zygia (4.33.4)

 It is quite interesting the adjective zygia (4.33.4): it means "nuptial", "of marriage". What I found interesting is the fact that etymologically the word derives from the Greek "zugos" which means yoke! the same is true for the words jugalis, conjunx, conjugalis all related to jugum. So the marriage is considered a yoke, it puts a bridle on people. Cavete all you who are getting married.....

PS: Zygia is also an epithet for Juno (see Metamorph. 6, 4, 3) as the Goddess of marriages (= Juno Jugatina)

Cocteau

Lesley brings up the question of other variants of the Beauty and the Beast theme.  Davide says:
The story of Cupid and Psyche inspired also the Italian sculptor Antonio Canova (1757-1822). He represented the moment in which Cupid with a kiss awakened Psyche. There are three versions of this sculpture. Two are in display at The Louvre and another version at The Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg. When last June I visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC, I saw a cast of this statue.

Cast of Canova's Cupid and Psyche, Metropolitan Museum

Two notable 20th century ones are the quite remarkable C.S. Lewis novel Till We Have Faces, a re-telling of the Cupid and Psyche story from an unexpected point of view, and Cocteau's  La Belle et la Bete-- surreal and mannered in ways that Apuleius would have appreciated.  Black and white film has seldom been as luminous. 

Pulchritudo et Bestia

Since"Cupid and Psyche" is a forerunner for the fairy tale "Beauty and the Beast," I've decided to do a blog post about the classic fairy tale.
Just what is it about the story of a pretty girl and a mysterious (and usually hideous, though this isn't the case in "Cupid and Psyche") suitor? The story has been adopted many times. Some of the more famous examples I can think of (please list more examples below) are "The Princess and the Frog," the Hunchback of Notre Dame, and the Phantom of the Opera. On some levels the biblical narrative of Jesus fulfills the basic terms of the "Beauty and the Beast" story: beautiful being redeeming sinners.
Perhaps that's just it: the theme and promise of redemption through love in "Beauty and the Beast" stories are the reason they're so popular.

Roman Chariot Racing Teams

A while back, when we were still in the Satyricon there was a passage in which we began to talk about chariot racing and the different teams and colors. I meant to look up more on it before, but only just remembered (sometimes your mind will do anything to distract you while studying). There is an article on the vroma page that elaborates on this topic...

The four Roman racing companies or stables (factiones) were known by the racing colors worn by their charioteers; this mosaic depicts a charioteer and horse from each of the stables, Red, White,Blue, and Green. Fans became fervently attached to one of the factions, proclaiming themselves “partisans of the Blue” in the same way as people today would be “Yankee fans.” The factions encouraged this sort of loyalty by establishing what we might call “clubhouses” in Rome and later in other cities of the empire. In the later empire these groups even acquired some political influence (Junius Bassus, a consul of 331 CE, had himself portrayed driving a chariot in a mosaic; behind him are four horsemen wearing the colors of the four circus factions). 

http://www.vroma.org/~bmcmanus/circus.html

Also, the reason I was familiar with this in the first place is because over the summer I read two historical fiction novels that had much Roman history in them. They are a series and the third one just recently came out. The first one is called Mistress of Rome and the second is called Daughters of Rome both by Kate Quinn. The titles are kind of lame, I know, but the first book is an excellent novel and focuses a lot on Domitian, while the second has the bit about the chariot races (one of the daughters is a die-hard Reds fan). The second one is not as good of a story as the first but both have equal amounts of Roman history and the historical notes at the end are very good.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6581303-mistress-of-rome

-just some reviews about the book and a plot summary, etc. 

Great Minds

Not long after reading Katherine's post on the Brontes I stumbled on this by Fergus Millar, on Metamorphoses 9.33-34, an incident where a hen lays a live chicken, blood rises from the floor, and wine boils in vats in the wine cellar:  "This story, as Apuleius tells it, has another important characteristic.  Rather as in Wuthering Heights, the remarkable and fantastic goings-on in Apuleius' novel take place in a solidly realistic background, in this case a farm-house with chickens in the yard, wine-jars in store, sheepdogs and sheep.  Indeed, I am going to suggest that the realism of tone in the novel may extend beyond purely physical descriptions, to realistic images of social and economic relations, the framework of communal life in a Roman province, and even, here and there, to the wider context of what it meant to be a subject in the Roman Empire."  (Fergus Millar, "The World of the Golden Ass" in S.J. Harrison ed. Oxford Readings in the Roman Novel: 1999).

On Cheesy Comestibles

 Now that Lesley and Alexandra have forced us to confront cheese, I feel obliged to provide a link to Monty Python's The Cheese Shop Sketch.  Le fromage de la belle France, anyone? 

There is a folklore article on cheese and witches  available on JSTOR: Cheese Gives You Nightmares:Old Hags and Heartburn.

And Circe offers Odysseus' men a potion containing cheese, wine, and barley. 

Lucius- caring to his horse

I just wanted to share that I LOVED the last line of part 20 where Lucius thanks the storyteller.

"Quod beneficium etiam illum vectorem meum credo laetari, sine fatigatione sui me usque ad istam civitatis portam non dorso illius sed meis auribus provecto."

Perhaps it is because I am a horse lover, but I love that he refers to his horse as his 'ride' and then in the same sentence attributes human feelings to the horse. I find it funny that he seems almost to be thanking the storyteller not on his own behalf, but on behalf of his horse. Also, I love the poetic metaphor of being carried by your ears. It is so true though that when you are doing something strenuous it doesn't seem as hard if you are doing something enjoyable at the same time ( such as listening to a story or talking).

Cheese

Cheese...the ultimate sign of evil and nosiness.
I'm not quite sure cheesemakers had a reputation as nosy. I don't think the basic process of making cheese (milking a goat, straining the curds and whey, and letting the finished product mature into cheese) would necessarily make you a busybody. Then again, you could be a very skilled cheesemaker and not have to concentrate too much while making cheese; the maturation process takes time. You could have a lot of free time on your hands.
Anyone got any ideas?
Thanks :D

Hello all,

I was looking around for anything relating to religion in Metamorphoses and I stumbled upon a pretty lengthy but interesting article (in parts). Thought I would share!

The article is by Warran S. Smith, University of New Mexico
http://www.ancientnarrative.com/pdf/anvol1012prelwarrensmith.pdf