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I hated Valentine's Day until I embraced my love of Greek mythology. Did you know that our beloved Cupid comes from the Greek God Eros? In Ancient Greece, Eros wasn't the cutesy, demure cherub we know today. He could be vindictive with his love arrows!
One day I decided to re-write the story of Eros & his mortal lover Psyche BUT from Eros' own perspective and I published that on my substack blog! ?
The muses must have blessed me because once I got my fingers into the research of Eros & Psyche and I began writing, I couldn't stop. The way I compared and contrasted different authors’ retellings of the mythology, picking and choosing from details, realizing that my own favorite details would just have to lie on the editing room floor, the way I dreamt of the ancients thrilled me!
Finally, FINALLY, this year, I get to release until you, dear viewer, my dreamy rendition of the beautiful Psyche, photographed by Bella Vendetta. If you know the epic of Cupid & Psyche, you might know that she was modest but impossibly beautiful; so beautiful in fact, that the townsfolk began to worship Psyche instead of Venus, the Goddess of Beauty Herself!
In the Mythology, Venus learned that despite Psyche's demure exterior, inside every kitten is a lioness waiting. The mortal Psyche rose to every impossible challenge the vengeful Goddess Venus threw at her. She even willingly and bravely ventured into the Kingdom of the Dead to ask a favor of its Queen Persephone on behalf of Venus to ensure she would see her beloved Cupid again. As Venus suspected, Queen Persephone gave Psyche not a jar of beauty cream to borrow but a jar containing a devastating curse. Whether curiosity or clumsy feet got the better of Psyche storytellers vary but either way, the jar was opened and a feud between immortal goddesses was unleashed upon an unsuspecting human. Psyche lay on the ground, helpless and unresponsive, ensnared in the web Venus wove.
Fear not! If you read my Substack, you know that against all odds, Psyche was strong and tenacious enough to be awoken from this divine curse and still somehow finish the task Venus had set before her. She completed all challenges to shuck Venus's ire, and her beloved Cupid then hatched a devious plan. For in those days, Cupid was the cunning Greek God Eros, not the cute baby cherub we know today.
With Eros’ quick thinking, Psyche was gifted the rare gift of immortality and became the Goddess of the Soul.
And so, tomorrow, on Valentine's Day, we celebrate the anniversary of the day our Cupid found his Soul. The strength of what may lie beneath a quiet beauty. The wisdom to love with bravery and without shame.

I wonder what MY Cupid and Psyche will discover this year…

Watch my Video Store this Friday morning after 7am EST to find out!!

(Photography by Bella Vendetta)