Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Word Origins 25.
The word origins tonight covers three words, Cupid , erotic and psyche.
They are all connected and they are all from Greek and Roman Mythology.
So let's take a look at the note here.
The origins of Cupid , erotic and Psyche all come from Greek and Roman mythology.
Cupid is a god of love which you would think so.
Cupid is his Roman name and Eros was his Greek name.
The word erotic derives from Cupid's Greek name Eros.
So that is how we ended up getting the word erotic.
Erotic means anything that causes sexual feelings.
So it would make sense that it should come from somebody like Cupid.
It comes from Cupid's Greek name which was Eros.
Okay.
Let's continue here.
The story sometimes varied about his parents.
You know about Cupid's parents.
Some stories have Aphrodite which is supposed to be the goddess of love and Ares which is
the god of war.
It sounds possible.
Others have Irirs and Zepherus.
I guess Iris is supposed to be the goddess of rainbows and Zepherus. is supposed to be
one of the winds.
I guess the east wind.
Or Aphrodite and Zeus.
Aphrodite the goddess of love and Zeus , of course is the god of the gods.
This one actually make more sense in a way.
Aphrodite should be the mother of Cupid.
It make more sense.
She was the goddess of love . She was more famous as the goddess of love.
It makes more sense that she would give birth to someone like Cupid.
And it could be from Zeus who always fooled around on his own wife.
Which would be...
But of course this would be a little weird.
Although this I think is the most common because then Zeus would be both his father and his
grandfather.
So there is a little bit of incest going on in some of this Greek and Roman mythology
or among the gods even, All right . Let's continue.
In Greek and Roman mythology Cupid was mostly not a cute little cherub like we often see portrayed
in a lot of images .But rather a very handsome god who was supposed to be very irresistible.
He was supposed to be extremely handsome.
Okay.
In the Hellenistic period usually thought of from the first to the fourth century.
Usually though of from the fourth to the first century BC.
He was sometimes portrayed or described as a playful and mischievous child.
This is where we get the modern-day cherub from.
Looking like Cupid.
The cute little baby with the bow and arrow.
That is where we get our modern-day version of Cupid and he has become kind of a mascot
for Valentine's Day as well.
In all stories he had wings , a bow and an arrow.
that he could shoot into men or gods to make them fall in love.
So he was kind of like a love potion.
He could just shoot an arrow into someone and make them fall in love.
Which is what we hear from most of the stories . All right . Let's continue.
In one story Aphrodite, it is supposed to be his mother became so jealous of the beautiful
mortal Psyche.
So Psyche was a regular woman.
And she was extremely beautiful.
and she felt that a lot of men or a lot of people were adoring her more than the goddess
of love.
They were nor spending time going to her temples and give her sacrifices and she got very,
very jealous.
I always thought it was funny if you ever read mythology, that the gods got just as
jealous as humans sometimes even more jealous.
So they had a lot of the same traits and bad qualities as humans had as well.
That she asked her son Cupid.
Now this is something the mother asked Cupid to do.
To make Psyche fall in love with a monster.
This would be away to punish her and if she fell in love with the monster then nobody
would adore her anymore.
Okay.
And this is one of the first time Cupid really disobeyed.
However Cupid got pricked by his own arrow And he fell in love with psyche. and married
psyche with the condition that she was not allowed to look at his face.
All right.
You can kind of imagine this.
You marry somebody and they say I love and I will treat you right but you can never look
at my face.
So this is what poor Psyche has to put up with.
It was actually driving her a little crazy., especially when she thought she was going
to be punished by Aphrodite as well and be told that a monster was loving her.
So but Cupid did treat her very well.
Okay.
Let's go on.
Psyche couldn't help herself and purposely caught a glance.
You know a quick look.
Cupid fled in anger. But at the end of the story they get back together and Cupid gives
her immortality.
He almost makes her into a god so she can live together.
Her name Psyche is now used as a word to refer to the part of one's mind or one's attitude
and behavior.
You know we always talk about somebody's Psyche.
That which is responsible for one's thoughts and feelings.
Anyway, I hope you got it.
I hope you enjoyed it Bye-bye