1. Introduction to
Classical Mythology
Dr. Michael Broder
University of South Carolina
April 19, 2012

2. William-Adolphe
Bouguereau (1889)

3. Extra Credit Opportunity
• If you attended Dr. Connolly’s lecture on
April 12 and wish to receive extra credit, be
sure to submit your report by the time of the
final exam (Wed, 5/2, 9:00 am – 12:00 noon)
• A 2-page report gets you credit for up to 2
Daily Writes (up to 8 points), depending on
how complete and comprehensive the report
is

4. Daily Write #24: Review
In his poem On the Nature of the Universe, Lucretius calls
Venus “mother” of the Romans and “nourishing Venus”
who “makes the sea and land throng with life.” In The
Tale of Cupid and Psyche, Apuleius calls Venus “mother of
the nature of the universe” and “nourishing Venus” who
“feeds and fosters the whole of this great globe.” Why
do you think Apuleius chose to describe Venus in
language that reminds us of Lucretius’s poem? Do you
think Apuleius’s intentions towards Lucretius are
serious, playful, mocking, respectful, disrespectful, or
something else? Explain your answer as completely as
you can.

5. Daily Write #24: Review
Sample student response:
I think Apuleius is alluding to Lucretius’ Venus
in a playful yet respectful manner. Lucretius
made a very serious use of Venus. Apuleius is
not mocking Venus or Lucretius; he is paying
homage to what has come before. He assumes
that his readers have a knowledge of Lucretius’
writings and can understand both the humor
and the respect in Apuleius’ parody.

6. Mythological Parody
• Parody
– A literary or musical work in which the style of an
author or work is closely imitated for comic effect
• Origin of the word “parody”
– Par (para) = alongside, not “straight”
– Ody (ode) = song
– Thus, parody is a kind of “counter-song,” a playful
imitation that goes against the serious grain of the
original

7. Mythological Parody
• Aristotle (Poetics, ii. 5) wrote that the comic poet
Hegemon of Thasos (c. 430 BCE) invented a
kind of parody by altering the wording of well-
known poems to transform the sublime into the
ridiculous
• In ancient Greek literature, a parodia was a
narrative poem imitating the style and rhythm
(dactylic hexameter) of epics but dealing with
light, satirical or mock-heroic characters and
events

8. Mythological Parody
• Lucius is on a (mock) heroic journey
• Lucius seeks hospitality / xenia from Milo
• Milo’s wife Pamphile engages in witchcraft
and magic, like Helen, Circe, or Medea
• Lucius is curious, like Odysseus, but foolish
where Odysseus is clever and cunning

9. Mythological Parody
• Lucius’ (mock) heroic quest for a rose to
regain his human form reminds us of other
heroic quests
– Odysseus’ journey home
– The labors of Herakles
– Jason’s quest for the Golden Fleece
– Aeneas’ quest for the Golden Bough

10. Mythological Parody
• Charite, the maiden kidnapped from her
wedding by thieves, is like the kidnapped
maidens of mythology listed by Herodotus
– Io
– Medea
– Helen

11. Mythological Parody
• The old woman who is a servant to the
thieves and tells the tale of Cupid and Psyche
is like Eurycleia, the nurse in the Odyssey who
tells the story of how Odysseus received his
scar and his name

12. Mythological Parody
• Traditional epic maintains a high tone
– Odysseus’ relationship with Nausicaa
• Apuleius’ novel often assumes a low tone
– Lucius’ relationship with Photis

13. Epic Poet Becomes
Romantic Storyteller
• Romance
– A medieval tale based on legend, love, adventure,
or the supernatural
– A prose narrative about imaginary characters
involved in events remote in time or place and
usually heroic, adventurous, or mysterious
– A love story especially in the form of a novel

14. Epic Poet Becomes
Romantic Storyteller
• When Lucius (as a donkey) is stolen from Milo’s
house by thieves, he becomes an eyewitness
and an eavesdropper
• Instead of receiving the gift of song from the
Muses, he picks up stories along his journey by
seeing them firsthand or hearing them from
others
• The romantic storyteller is thus analogous to a
historian
– Hower, his stories are understood to be entertaining
fictions, not historial facts

15. How different is the romantic
storyteller from the epic poet?
• Remember what Hesiod’s Muses say:
“We know how to tell many believable lies, but also,
when we want to, how to speak the plain truth.”
• The romantic storyteller (fiction writer,
novelist), while divorced from the idea of
divine inspiration (the Muses), retains the idea
of fictional tales (“lies”) that have some kind
of intellectual, emotional, or spiritual
truth

16. The Tale of Cupid and Psyche
Both Parody and Allegory
• Parody
– A literary or musical work in which the style of
an author or work is closely imitated for comic
effect
• Allegory
– Use of symbolic fictional figures and actions to
express truths or generalizations about human
existence, human nature, or the human condition

17. The Tale of Cupid and Psyche is
both a parody and an allegory
• Mythological parody
• Philosophical allegory

18. The Tale of Cupid and Psyche
Mythological Parody
• Psyche is a beautiful maiden, like many
beautiful maidens in mythology such as
Pandora or Helen
• Most beautiful maidens are said to receive
their beauty as a gift from Venus, but
Psyche’s beauty is not credited to Venus
• Instead, Psyche becomes a rival to Venus,
and is worshipped as a goddess
• This makes Venus angry, and she retaliates

19. The Tale of Cupid and Psyche
Mythological Parody
• Apuleius’ Venus is a multiple mythological
parody
– Demeter from the Homeric Hymn to Demeter
• Demeter, grieving for her kidnapped daughter,
withholds the grain from humanity
• Venus, grieving for her abandoned temples, deprives
humanity of Psyche
• Thus, Venus takes on the role of kidnapper, like
Hades in the Homeric Hymn

20. The Tale of Cupid and Psyche
Mythological Parody
• Apuleius’ Venus is a multiple mythological
parody
– Venus from Lucretius’ On the Workings of the
Universe
– Juno from Vergil’s Aeneid (with Psyche, in this
parody, becoming a parody of Aeneas)

21. Aeneid Book I, Lines 1-11
Of arms and a man I sing, that famous fugitive from fate
who first tried to escape the shores of Troy
only to find himself here in Italy on Lavinian shores,
tossed on land and sea by powers above
(because cruel Juno’s anger doesn’t forget)
and suffering many casualties in war as well,
until he could finally found a city and bring his gods to Latium;
whence the Latin race, our Alban ancestors, and the lofty walls of Rome.
Oh Muse, recount for me the reasons—
which insult, what injury was she nursing,
when the queen of the gods contrived so many mishaps
for a man so marked by his piety, forced him to undergo so many labors.
Do the gods above really experience such intense anger?
Translated by…Dr. Broder!

22. The Tale of Cupid and Psyche
Mythological Parody
• Venus demands that Psyche be sent to a
mountaintop and wed to a murderous beast
– Reminds us of the plight of Andromeda,
chained to a rocky cliff to be wed to a sea
monster
– She is rescued by Perseus
– In this scenario, Venus = Poseidon, who
demanded the sacrifice of Andromeda (Hades
is only in Clash of the Titans)

23. The Tale of Cupid and Psyche
Mythological Parody
Carle van Loo, c. 1740

24. The Tale of Cupid and Psyche
Mythological Parody
• Sent by Venus to destroy Psyche, Cupid falls
in love with her and flies her away to his
castle
• Apuleius’ Cupid, too, is a multiple
mythological parody
– If Psyche = Andromeda, then Cupid =
Perseus
– If Venus = Demeter, then Psyche =
Persephone and Cupid = Hades

25. The Tale of Cupid and Psyche
Mythological Parody
• After Cupid abandons Psyche for revealing
his identity, she seeks help from Venus, who
assigns her four impossible tasks
• Of course, this makes
– Venus = Juno (Hera)
– Psyche = Hercules (Herakles)

26. The Tale of Cupid and Psyche
Mythological Parody
• When Psyche must retrieve a jar of beauty from
Persephone, things get REALLY FREAKY
– Since she is making an underworld journy, Psyche
now = Odysseus, Aeneas, Herakles, Eurydice
(wife of Orpheus), and Alcestis (you remember her)
– But remember, Psyche herself is already a
mythological parody of Persephone, so she she going
to visit HERSELF!
– But since the beauty comes in a jar, Psyche =
Pandora (especially when she opens the box)

27. The Tale of Cupid and Psyche
Mythological Parody
• After Cupid rescues her, he begs Zeus to let
Psyche become immortal
– Like Helen and Herakles and Zeus’ own
boyfriend (“cupbearer”), Ganymede (who, btw,
is an ancestor of Aeneas)
• Psyche is given ambrosia (like Demophoon in
the Homeric Hymn to Demeter…so Psyche is
both Persephone and Demophoon…again,
FREAKY!)

28. The Tale of Cupid and Psyche
Philosophical Allegory
• Psyche = soul is joined with her heavenly
desire = Cupid
• Remember Uranian Eros from the speech
of Pausanias in Plato’s Symposium?

29. The Tale of Cupid and Psyche
Philosophical Allegory
• Psyche = soul believes that her desire =
Cupid is an ugly monster = wealth and
power, but instead he turns out to be a
beautiful god = wisdom and virtue

30. The Tale of Cupid and Psyche
Philosophical Allegory
• But because Psyche = soul does not remain
true to her desire = Cupid, she loses him
• Psyche = soul must then go on a long
journey with many labors to regain her desire
= Cupid

31. The Tale of Cupid and Psyche
Philosophical Allegory
• Once Psyche = soul is reunited with her
desire = Cupid, she becomes immortal
– Remember the immortality of the soul in
Socrates’ speech in Plato’s Symposium?
– Remember the immortal souls that are reborn
into new bodies in Vergil’s Aeneid?

32. The Tale of Cupid and Psyche
Philosophical Allegory
• Once Psyche = soul is reunited with her
desire = Cupid and becomes immortal,
they have a child named Voluptas = Joy,
Delight, Pleasure, HAPPINESS!
• Thus, the immortal soul achieves happiness
when it is united with its true desire, which is
beauty and goodness (Socrates much???)

33. Mythological Parody
AND
Philosophical Allegory
It’s a floor wax
AND
a dessert topping!

34. Extra Credit Opportunity
• If you attended Dr. Connolly’s lecture on
April 12 and wish to receive extra credit, be
sure to submit your report by the time of the
final exam (Wed, 5/2, 9:00 am – 12:00 noon)
• A 2-page report gets you credit for up to 2
Daily Writes (up to 8 points), depending on
how complete and comprehensive the report
is

35. Introduction to
Classical Mythology
Dr. Michael Broder
University of South Carolina
April 19, 2012