A Rockin’ History of Valentine’s Day w/ Cupid & Psyche

Ah, Valentine’s Day! I believe it’s one of the most controversial holidays on the calendar. Sure, there are debates surrounding Halloween and Christmas about their pagan roots, Christian involvement, and so on and so forth. However, Valentine’s Day stirs the passions of many–there are those who passionately love it, passionately hate it, or are passionately indifference.

As tradition should have it, Saint Valentine illegally performed marriages in a time when they were outlawed by the powers (Rome) that because married men apparently made poor soldiers. St. Val thought that this was ungodly and started marrying people secretly. Eventually he was found out, imprisoned, and put to death…for marrying people. One legend says that Val sent cards out to his friends affirming his love for them and told them to “Remember your Valentine!”, hence the whole card thing. Another tale says that he fell in love with the jailer’s blind daughter, and wrote her a love note, which doesn’t make a lot of sense because she was, uh, blind.

Some cynics believe it was a whole conspiracy put together by greeting card companies to make tons of money, but in reality, valentines were also the idea of the postal service. When it was just starting, people didn’t really send mail because it was too expensive, so they though, hey, let’s get people to send lovely dovely cards to each other to kick off our new program, “The Penny Post”, thus making an industry where there was none. Or so I read somewhere once. Now we’re back to where it’s too expensive to send cards again, so we just send e-cards. You can also read this history of valentines cards, which says nothing about e-cards.

Then there’s the heart itself, which looks nothing like the organ that pumps blood around my body. The origin of the heart symbol is also wrapped in controversy. Now most historians can agree that it’s traditionally colored red to symbolize blood and passion, but as to how the shape came to be is another matter entirely. The following is a list of potential “models” for the heart icon: a cow’s heart (because back in the day people saw them after slaughtering their heifers), a turtle’s heart, the male prostate gland, “girly parts”, a woman’s buttocks or breasts, an ancient plant, the shape of a dove when its wings are spread, the shape lips make when they kiss or the silhouette of two people kissing (read more). I personally think it’s supposed to be a woman’s butt, a prostate gland, or a turtle heart because those are the most nonsensical, and therefore the most likely.

See, even if the history of the images surrounding Valentine’s Day are contested. I mean, do we really want to try to explain cupid–a naked kid with wings who had an archery set? Where did that madness originate? Who would give a kid weaponry, especially to a naked kid? Besides, according to the Greek myth of Cupid and Psyche, Cupid was a winged man and he was a hottie…not nekkid, not a baby, but definitely a shirtless archer. C.S. Lewis wrote an excellent retelling of the story in his book, Til We Have Faces. I thought about posting a picture of the book cover here, but Cupid (or Eros) looked kind of girly, which seems to be a theme of Eros/Psyche pictures…that or they’re scantily clad (go to end of post to see some amusing photos I have found).

So, like my friend Lea asked me the other day in an e-mail, what do I think of Valentine’s Day? I didn’t answer her yet, but this is what I want to tell her (or she could just read this blog entry like everyone else. Just kidding, Lea). I used to detest the holiday for the simple fact I have never had a boyfriend on Valentine’s Day, but then I realized that my gal pals still got me chocolate. And I think any day you can randomly give and receive chocolate is a good one. I have this theory that all the candy/unhealthy food you eat on holidays doesn’t cause weight gain. If you buy into my theory, you can eat tons of chocolate on Valentine’s Day and still look great. There you have it.

On a serious note, we are far too deprived of love in this world. Oh, we talk about it, but we feel like we need a “reason” to show it. If Valentine’s Day can get a husband to buy flowers for his wife, a daughter to dance with her Daddy, a woman to make a nice meal for her boyfriend, or a guy to tell his girl he cares, then why not? It’s not just about romance. It is if you want it to be, but it’s a great day to tell your friends that you love them and they matter, especially if you’re all single. A day to celebrate love with those you love…not a bad idea at all.

OK, I promised you funny Cupid and Psyche pics so here you go…

Yeah, I’d be annoyed, too, if a winged little boy was trying to kiss the back of my neck when all I wanted to do was eat my plum.

They’re little nekkid kids with a red cape and an archery set. Umm…yeah.

Awww….a mating part of birds named Cupid and Psyche.

Cupid’s the one with wings, right?

Ironically, Cupid’s the one showing leg in the shorter dress.

I love it. A high school kid drew it. You can just see Psyche thinking, “Hmm, maybe I shouldn’t kill him after all…since he’s the goddess of love and not a big, scary monster like my mean jealous sisters said.”

Truth be told, I like this one. Can you imagine it as the cover of C.S. Lewis’ book, just sitting on the shelf in the Christian bookstore? Yeah, me neither. But honestly, don’t his wings get in the way?

This one’s kind of cool. I appreciate how their sensitive areas are covered with flying fabric and appendages.

His wing tastefully covers his man parts. Nice.

Actually, this one is from DeviantArt and I think it’s lovely, even though Cupid is technically mooning us.

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