WEBVTT - From the Vault: Cupid's Leaden Arrow 0:00:05.720 --> 0:00:08.119 Hey, welcome to Stuff to blow your mind. My name 0:00:08.160 --> 0:00:11.440 is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick, and it's Saturday. 0:00:11.440 --> 0:00:13.320 Time to go into the old vault, this time for 0:00:13.360 --> 0:00:17.439 an episode that originally aired on Valentine's Day of nineteen. 0:00:18.239 --> 0:00:21.919 That's right, Cupid's a laden arrow. This one is about. 0:00:22.000 --> 0:00:23.800 It's about a number of things. You get get a 0:00:23.840 --> 0:00:27.680 little bit of cupid mythology in this episode, and also 0:00:27.720 --> 0:00:30.479 a lot of discussions of lead, like what is lead? 0:00:30.560 --> 0:00:34.200 And then how have we used and arguably misused lad 0:00:34.640 --> 0:00:36.839 over the years? You get to learn all about the 0:00:36.840 --> 0:00:41.240 culinary virtues of lead. Don't cook with lead, but you'll 0:00:41.240 --> 0:00:43.879 find out why in the episode. So let's jump right 0:00:43.920 --> 0:00:47.320 in there. From his quiver full of shafts, two arrows? 0:00:47.400 --> 0:00:51.240 Did he take of sundry works to one causes love? 0:00:51.440 --> 0:00:55.639 The other doth hits slake? That causes love is all 0:00:55.720 --> 0:00:59.800 of gold with point, full, sharp and bright. That chase 0:00:59.920 --> 0:01:04.240 is love is blunt? Who steal with leadin? Head is dight? 0:01:10.120 --> 0:01:12.960 Welcome to stuff to blow your mind from how stuff 0:01:12.959 --> 0:01:21.600 weren't dot Com? Hey, you welcome to stuff to blow 0:01:21.640 --> 0:01:24.840 your mind. My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick, 0:01:25.160 --> 0:01:28.039 and so obviously we're talking about Cupid today. That's right, 0:01:28.080 --> 0:01:31.839 it's Valentine's Day, is it? Yes? Is it actually Valentine's Yes, 0:01:32.080 --> 0:01:35.040 actual Valentine's Day. Okay, yeah, so we figured what we 0:01:35.040 --> 0:01:36.959 gotta we gotta do some sort of Valentine's episode. We 0:01:36.959 --> 0:01:41.000 had the the episode where we talked to Tomorrow Heart previously, 0:01:41.040 --> 0:01:44.440 but this is the day itself Towers of Snail Sex. Yeah, 0:01:44.560 --> 0:01:48.440 so it seemed proper to get a little mythological here 0:01:48.640 --> 0:01:50.840 as we kick off this episode and to turn to 0:01:50.960 --> 0:01:56.640 that mythological figure that got of romantic love, Cupid, the creepy, 0:01:56.680 --> 0:02:00.560 smooth baby who shoots arrows with heart tips. Yes, now 0:02:00.600 --> 0:02:02.800 that the reading at the top of the episode was 0:02:02.800 --> 0:02:06.760 was Ovid. That was from the Metamorphosis, the Golden Translation, 0:02:07.480 --> 0:02:11.080 So that was how you get words like dita, which 0:02:11.120 --> 0:02:14.720 means clothed or equipped. I had to look that one up. Yeah, 0:02:14.919 --> 0:02:17.800 it might not be completely clear, but what Ovid is 0:02:17.800 --> 0:02:22.240 basically saying is, hey, Cupid has two different arrows that 0:02:22.280 --> 0:02:25.000 he may pull from his quiver. You often forget this, 0:02:25.200 --> 0:02:27.639 or maybe he never even learned it in the first place. Well, right, 0:02:27.639 --> 0:02:30.160 if you're just going off of cheesy Valentine state cards. 0:02:30.240 --> 0:02:32.560 You just think of that cartoon baby, and like you said, 0:02:32.840 --> 0:02:35.400 the arrows have just kind of a goofy cartoon heart 0:02:35.760 --> 0:02:38.560 at the end, and cupids launch and those at people 0:02:38.560 --> 0:02:42.120 and making them falling cartoon love with people. Yeah, well, 0:02:42.160 --> 0:02:44.960 you tend to not think of Cupid's arrow as literally 0:02:45.000 --> 0:02:49.639 being an arrow that strikes with force and penetrates the flesh. 0:02:49.440 --> 0:02:51.960 I guess we are to understand it that way, at 0:02:52.000 --> 0:02:54.840 least the ancients did. Like there's this poem by Anna 0:02:54.880 --> 0:02:56.920 Creon that Robert and I were talking about before the 0:02:56.960 --> 0:02:59.320 episode where it's not actually that great of a poem. 0:02:59.360 --> 0:03:01.240 I don't know if it's reading, but it makes this 0:03:01.320 --> 0:03:03.840 joke about Cupid gets stung by a bee and he 0:03:03.919 --> 0:03:06.239 starts crying and his mother I guess this would be 0:03:06.280 --> 0:03:09.320 Aphrodite or Venus maybe comes to him and is trying 0:03:09.320 --> 0:03:11.960 to console him and says, uh, you know, you're crying 0:03:11.960 --> 0:03:14.120 about being stung by a bee, but you shoot people 0:03:14.120 --> 0:03:17.919 with arrows all the time. That must hurt more shot 0:03:17.960 --> 0:03:21.839 through the heart. Um. Yeah, so he so he has 0:03:21.840 --> 0:03:24.600 two different arrows that he he chooses from when he 0:03:24.720 --> 0:03:28.760 decides to nail somebody one of these arrows, as the 0:03:28.960 --> 0:03:32.359 as Ovid says, is tipped in gold with a sharp 0:03:32.440 --> 0:03:35.120 point and bright right, and so that's the that's the 0:03:35.240 --> 0:03:39.080 love arrow, that is the romantic love arrow. But then 0:03:39.400 --> 0:03:43.720 he has this leaden arrow, which it sounds like it's 0:03:43.800 --> 0:03:47.200 it's probably not an arrow head composed entirely of lad 0:03:47.240 --> 0:03:50.760 for reasons will explain, but it is at least coded 0:03:50.880 --> 0:03:53.320 or tipped in lead somehow well. And it also says 0:03:53.360 --> 0:03:56.040 that it's blunt, meaning I assume it is not meant 0:03:56.120 --> 0:03:58.880 to penetrate, but maybe strikes more like a like a 0:03:58.920 --> 0:04:02.400 bean bag gun. Yeah, like just to brain you with 0:04:02.440 --> 0:04:06.560 this dense leaden arrowhead. Yeah, just to just smack you hard. 0:04:06.640 --> 0:04:10.360 And then it also it imparts aversion, so like it 0:04:10.440 --> 0:04:12.760 hits you, and now you you want to you want 0:04:12.760 --> 0:04:15.240 to not be around somebody. I guess, right. This seems 0:04:15.280 --> 0:04:17.800 that this seems to be the most popular interpretation of 0:04:17.800 --> 0:04:20.840 the leaden arrows power though I was looking around, uh, 0:04:20.920 --> 0:04:23.800 and I did see at least one description saying that 0:04:23.800 --> 0:04:26.960 the leaden arrow had to do with set with sensual passion. 0:04:27.400 --> 0:04:29.920 But I don't think that's the predominant interpretation. It's certainly 0:04:29.920 --> 0:04:31.760 not the one that we're going to spend much time 0:04:31.760 --> 0:04:34.920 with here today because sensual passion. There are other gods 0:04:35.000 --> 0:04:38.640 for that. Uh, you know, Cupid's domain is more about 0:04:39.600 --> 0:04:43.760 that that that that romantic passion, the arrows or or 0:04:43.800 --> 0:04:46.600 the philos or I lose track of what love is. 0:04:46.600 --> 0:04:52.640 What in Greek philodough your love. Um, yeah, we'll be 0:04:52.680 --> 0:04:55.800 we'll be getting into the Greek and Roman stuff shortly, okay, 0:04:55.839 --> 0:04:57.640 but yes we're gonna be talking about Cupid. And I 0:04:57.680 --> 0:05:00.800 do I do encourage everyone to maybe he put aside 0:05:00.880 --> 0:05:06.160 the more cherubic interpretations of of Cupid as we discuss 0:05:06.520 --> 0:05:10.480 this figure, because we have to remember he is a god. Um. 0:05:10.520 --> 0:05:15.080 He is capable of of of wrecking people's lives with 0:05:15.200 --> 0:05:18.560 his mischief. And he's not always depicted as a as 0:05:18.600 --> 0:05:22.200 a baby. He's he's often he's usually depicted as youthful, certainly, 0:05:22.640 --> 0:05:26.039 and that may be a male youth or a boy. 0:05:26.960 --> 0:05:31.039 He's very often and you know, depicted naked or nearly so. 0:05:31.279 --> 0:05:34.560 And sometimes he's blindfolded as well. I think it's blind right, 0:05:34.680 --> 0:05:37.440 Oh yeah, I didn't think of that. Well. I think 0:05:37.480 --> 0:05:39.919 he's often depicted as a baby just because if he 0:05:40.000 --> 0:05:44.920 were an adult, he would be a horrifying, gross creep right, Well, 0:05:44.960 --> 0:05:47.960 they're still there's STI always room to find Cupid creepy 0:05:48.000 --> 0:05:50.039 for sure. All right, Well who is Cupid? Where did 0:05:50.080 --> 0:05:52.960 he come from? In the pantheon and the mythology? Okay, 0:05:52.960 --> 0:05:56.800 so Cupid is the Roman variant of the Greek god Arrows, 0:05:56.839 --> 0:06:00.320 the prime evil god of love, a son of chao Us, 0:06:00.560 --> 0:06:03.680 though in later traditions he has depicted as a son 0:06:03.760 --> 0:06:07.960 of Aphrodite, who is the Roman Venus, whose goddess of 0:06:08.080 --> 0:06:11.880 sexual love and beauty. And as far as the father goes, 0:06:12.320 --> 0:06:15.560 it's all across the board. They're very different tellings. Sometimes 0:06:15.560 --> 0:06:19.520 it's Zeus, sometimes it's it's Aries. There's at least one 0:06:19.640 --> 0:06:22.520 version where it's it's it seems like it's Vulcan, the 0:06:22.560 --> 0:06:26.560 god of the forge. But in but then a lot 0:06:26.560 --> 0:06:29.720 of stories have it have Hermes as the father, who 0:06:29.760 --> 0:06:32.120 of course is the Roman Mercury. So it's a real 0:06:32.200 --> 0:06:35.400 Mari show. Yes, yeah, you can very much imagine that 0:06:35.600 --> 0:06:37.920 there being a lot of drama around this. But he's 0:06:37.920 --> 0:06:42.400 a god of passion and love but also a fertility 0:06:42.440 --> 0:06:45.120 to a certain extent as well. Now, in Roman traditions, 0:06:45.120 --> 0:06:48.520 Cupid is largely described as a son of Venus and Mercury, 0:06:48.560 --> 0:06:52.960 combining their roles into that of a divine messenger of love. Okay, 0:06:53.000 --> 0:06:56.000 so Mercury is the messenger, Aphrodite is love. So he 0:06:56.080 --> 0:06:59.839 brings you the love signals, the he's he's the radar 0:07:00.040 --> 0:07:02.479 of God. Yeah, don't you? So you can't really hate 0:07:02.520 --> 0:07:05.640 the messenger, right, I guess that's part of the story 0:07:05.680 --> 0:07:08.080 here as well. Now he's often depicted as this kind 0:07:08.120 --> 0:07:10.840 of trubic creature like we describe, but also sometimes is 0:07:10.840 --> 0:07:14.480 more of a you know, in an androgeneous, youthful figure, 0:07:14.560 --> 0:07:17.280 sometimes clad in armor, because I guess love is also 0:07:17.320 --> 0:07:23.120 a battlefield, and he's sometimes a mischief maker other times 0:07:23.480 --> 0:07:27.280 generous patron of love. His targets include both mortals and 0:07:27.440 --> 0:07:31.640 other gods and uh. As always, the versions of the 0:07:31.680 --> 0:07:34.560 myth very with the teller and the time. But we 0:07:34.680 --> 0:07:38.560 certainly want to to tell the major Cupid story. We'll 0:07:38.600 --> 0:07:41.600 tell me the story Robert. Alright. So his mother again 0:07:41.680 --> 0:07:45.840 is Venus, and Venus has is subject to bouts of 0:07:45.920 --> 0:07:48.800 jealousy pretty much like all of them, the major gods 0:07:48.840 --> 0:07:52.120 in the pantheon, right, and so she one day she 0:07:52.400 --> 0:07:54.960 has had enough of this beautiful mortal by the name 0:07:55.000 --> 0:07:58.920 of Psyche. She's just too too lovely. She's so lovely 0:07:58.960 --> 0:08:03.080 that other mortals are afraid to approach her. And in 0:08:03.200 --> 0:08:07.520 Venus isn't having it. She tasks her son Cupid and says, 0:08:07.600 --> 0:08:10.480 go to this woman, shoot her with a golden arrow 0:08:10.520 --> 0:08:12.760 of love, and then make her fall in love with 0:08:12.800 --> 0:08:15.200 the first thing she sees, because that's the power of 0:08:15.240 --> 0:08:18.160 the arrow in this, in this interpretation of it. And 0:08:18.320 --> 0:08:20.680 she adds, make sure that the next thing she sees 0:08:20.800 --> 0:08:24.680 is the most hideous creature imaginable. I don't care what 0:08:24.720 --> 0:08:27.160 it is, usual imagination. She falls in love with the 0:08:27.200 --> 0:08:32.440 font papyrus. That would have been good. Um, so keep it. 0:08:33.200 --> 0:08:35.240 Keep it. Goes down to Earth to do this, but 0:08:35.320 --> 0:08:38.839 he can't quite bring himself to finish the task, though 0:08:38.880 --> 0:08:42.079 he was certainly okay with the plan enough to trick 0:08:42.120 --> 0:08:46.000 her parents into abandoning her on a desolate hilltop so 0:08:46.040 --> 0:08:48.440 that she could wed a monster, but as far as 0:08:48.640 --> 0:08:51.839 actually yeah, because she's taken. The Psyche is taken to 0:08:51.920 --> 0:08:54.480 this hill and here you go. Sorry, the gods want 0:08:54.520 --> 0:08:57.160 you to marry a monster. It's gonna happen. See you later, 0:08:57.240 --> 0:08:59.040 because you know you do what do what the gods 0:08:59.200 --> 0:09:02.720 say or her? But then he can't actually shoot her 0:09:02.720 --> 0:09:05.360 with arrows, so instead he pricks himself with the golden 0:09:05.480 --> 0:09:08.800 arrow and then gazes upon Psyche, falls in love with her, 0:09:09.360 --> 0:09:11.520 and so he takes her away, sets her up in 0:09:11.559 --> 0:09:15.400 a protected place like a palace, somewhere where he can 0:09:15.480 --> 0:09:19.000 visit her safely, but only in darkness. And then but 0:09:19.040 --> 0:09:21.679 then one night she cast light upon him and she 0:09:21.800 --> 0:09:24.880 learns his identity, spilling wax on him in the process, 0:09:25.120 --> 0:09:29.480 and he flees. So Psyche is distraught. She's she's in 0:09:29.600 --> 0:09:33.080 love with this this god, this beautiful young god boy. 0:09:33.200 --> 0:09:37.120 So she searches for him, and finally Venus agrees to 0:09:37.200 --> 0:09:39.640 hand him over, but only if she completes a series 0:09:39.679 --> 0:09:42.960 of trials. Oh yeah, never a good sign in a myth. 0:09:43.080 --> 0:09:44.800 Right now, you get the feeling that a lot of 0:09:44.840 --> 0:09:49.079 these trials might be tricks. Yes, and indeed they are. Uh, 0:09:49.400 --> 0:09:52.880 the the exact trials can vary with the telling, but 0:09:53.679 --> 0:09:57.199 this is the basic roll out here. First of all, 0:09:57.240 --> 0:09:59.560 she has to sort a massive pile of seeds in 0:09:59.600 --> 0:10:03.880 a sing gold night, and uh, fortunately some ants help her. 0:10:03.960 --> 0:10:06.240 Oh that's a great variation on all the tweety birds 0:10:06.280 --> 0:10:09.440 and scugs and the snow white story. Yeah, they'll come 0:10:09.480 --> 0:10:12.080 in and help with the chores. Now it's ants and 0:10:12.120 --> 0:10:15.160 who knows, maybe Spider's pitch in a bit. Well. The 0:10:15.200 --> 0:10:17.840 next task is that she has to fetch the golden 0:10:17.840 --> 0:10:20.920 wool from a like a monstrous sheep, like a kind 0:10:20.920 --> 0:10:24.320 of sheep that disembowels anyone who gets near it, and 0:10:24.320 --> 0:10:27.800 a swarm of cockroaches. A sister, no actually a river 0:10:27.880 --> 0:10:30.760 god helps her out um and helps her acquire the 0:10:30.760 --> 0:10:33.040 woolf So she turns that in. But then she has 0:10:33.080 --> 0:10:36.520 to venture into the underworld and acquire a drop of 0:10:36.559 --> 0:10:41.040 the Queen of the Underworld's beauty. Oh yeah, so uh Cupid, 0:10:41.080 --> 0:10:43.120 it scenes ends up sort of cluing her in, sends 0:10:43.120 --> 0:10:46.720 her some signals and was going to the underworld isn't easy, right, Yeah, 0:10:46.760 --> 0:10:50.199 it's it's a dangerous proposition. So Cupid clues her in, 0:10:50.960 --> 0:10:53.520 you know, secret messages, letting her know, make sure you 0:10:53.600 --> 0:10:58.960 bring coins for torone and treats for a service, important 0:10:59.200 --> 0:11:02.000 things that bring along. Right, So she does this, She 0:11:02.040 --> 0:11:04.600 wins that drop, brings it back in a golden box, 0:11:05.080 --> 0:11:07.200 and brings it to the surface. She's on her way 0:11:07.240 --> 0:11:09.840 to deliver it to Venus, but then she decides, well, 0:11:09.840 --> 0:11:11.920 I'm going to steal a little bit of that beauty 0:11:11.960 --> 0:11:15.000 from the box for myself. And then she discovers the 0:11:15.040 --> 0:11:18.520 boxes full of sleep. Sleep comes over her, Cupid comes 0:11:18.559 --> 0:11:20.680 to her way and wakes her up, gives her the 0:11:20.720 --> 0:11:22.640 nectar of the gods and makes her a god as 0:11:22.679 --> 0:11:25.480 well the embodiment of the soul, and she later gives 0:11:25.520 --> 0:11:28.520 birth to pleasure. That's a heck of a story. Oh yeah, 0:11:28.520 --> 0:11:31.679 there are various treatments of the story. The various you know, 0:11:31.720 --> 0:11:34.200 additional stories such as Beauty and the Beast take this 0:11:34.280 --> 0:11:37.600 basic structure and then uh, you know, employ it in 0:11:37.600 --> 0:11:41.800 a slightly different manner. But yeah, that's the major Cupid narrative. 0:11:42.120 --> 0:11:45.680 But there's also a fun one that employs his arrows 0:11:46.280 --> 0:11:48.520 in an interesting way in which both of them, this 0:11:48.559 --> 0:11:51.400 time both of them as he messes with the god Apollo. 0:11:52.280 --> 0:11:56.120 So Apollo is a powerful god and he's he's he's 0:11:56.200 --> 0:12:00.080 lusting after the nymph Daphne. And while he's in the 0:12:00.120 --> 0:12:03.440 midst of this, he taunts Cupid's archery ability. He says, 0:12:03.559 --> 0:12:05.480 You're not much of an archer, are you? And so 0:12:05.679 --> 0:12:09.439 it's always good to taunt people holding ranged weapons. Well, again, 0:12:09.520 --> 0:12:12.719 the gods are vain and you know, kind of and 0:12:12.760 --> 0:12:15.680 it's in vengeful and but also kind of stupid at times. 0:12:16.280 --> 0:12:19.319 So what Cupid does is he shoots Apollo with a 0:12:19.400 --> 0:12:21.960 golden arrow that makes him of course, you know, lust 0:12:22.040 --> 0:12:25.640 like crazy after Daphney. But then he shoots Daphne with 0:12:25.679 --> 0:12:28.480 a leaden arrow, ensuring that she wants nothing to do 0:12:28.520 --> 0:12:31.400 with exactly. In fact, she runs away to her father, 0:12:31.480 --> 0:12:34.200 who also happens to be a river god, and has 0:12:34.320 --> 0:12:37.320 him turned her into a tree so that Apollo will 0:12:37.400 --> 0:12:40.480 leave her alone. And then Cupid, you know, goes off 0:12:40.520 --> 0:12:43.440 and laughs about the whole affair. Now, wait, after this, 0:12:43.520 --> 0:12:45.880 is Apollo still in love with the tree or not? 0:12:46.760 --> 0:12:51.000 It really depends on the user agreement with the golden arrow. 0:12:51.040 --> 0:12:53.520 How does the golden earrow magic work? Can you transform 0:12:53.559 --> 0:12:56.120 the essence of the target of the affection? And does 0:12:56.160 --> 0:12:58.520 that cancel the spell? Or do you have to roll 0:12:58.559 --> 0:13:00.559 a D twenty to find out? Don't know? And then 0:13:00.880 --> 0:13:03.720 we are the effects on god's Is that a little 0:13:03.720 --> 0:13:07.240 different than an effect on immortal? Who can say? Now 0:13:07.320 --> 0:13:10.720 you might think, okay, Cupid sounds like he makes some 0:13:10.840 --> 0:13:14.000 enemies here and there. Who's his greatest rival? Is there 0:13:14.040 --> 0:13:16.480 like a safety god who's always trying to take his 0:13:16.600 --> 0:13:20.160 arrows away? No? No, no, it's none other than the 0:13:20.240 --> 0:13:24.520 great god Pan. What one of our favorites. Yeah, in 0:13:24.600 --> 0:13:28.199 one corner we have the flighty arrow shooting cherubic son 0:13:28.240 --> 0:13:31.360 of of this of Venus U, the lord of love. 0:13:31.480 --> 0:13:33.720 And in the other corner we have the wild rutting 0:13:33.840 --> 0:13:38.520 he goat king of fornication, uh, surrounded by nymphs prancing 0:13:38.559 --> 0:13:42.680 through the forest. And so it's divine love versus earthly love, 0:13:43.120 --> 0:13:46.400 and uh spoiler alert, Cupid often comes out on top. 0:13:46.440 --> 0:13:49.880 In fact, there's some there are paintings that depict Cupid 0:13:50.240 --> 0:13:53.679 kind of wrestling Pan to the ground. Could you also 0:13:53.720 --> 0:13:56.400 say that this is like city love versus country love? 0:13:56.880 --> 0:13:59.880 I guess you could. Yeah, like Pan was sort of envisioned. 0:14:00.120 --> 0:14:02.880 Is the representative of the I don't know, the the 0:14:02.960 --> 0:14:06.319 amorous affairs of like shepherds and country people. Yeah, it 0:14:06.400 --> 0:14:10.280 is kind of country love versus you know, the divine 0:14:10.320 --> 0:14:12.679 love of Mount Olympus. Here. On the other hand, when 0:14:12.720 --> 0:14:16.520 you look up artistic interpretations of Pan, he is often 0:14:16.600 --> 0:14:20.640 wrestling or doing something like wrestling. So it's it's hard 0:14:20.680 --> 0:14:23.200 to say. He's definitely on the losing end of the 0:14:23.240 --> 0:14:27.680 scenario here. The pan's a rascal. Yeah. Now, in terms 0:14:27.680 --> 0:14:30.680 of other treatments of of Cupid, you know, we're not 0:14:30.680 --> 0:14:34.440 going to go through, you know, all the the echoes 0:14:34.840 --> 0:14:38.240 in popular culture. I did notice just the most dignified one. Yes, 0:14:39.600 --> 0:14:41.920 I did notice that there is a There is a 0:14:42.000 --> 0:14:46.160 Cupid in what DC comics that's kind of a feisty redhead, 0:14:46.640 --> 0:14:49.560 and it's a it's a female. It's like a cohort 0:14:49.600 --> 0:14:52.400 of the green arrow. Is she a got us or 0:14:52.520 --> 0:14:54.560 just a human named Cupid? I think she's just a 0:14:54.640 --> 0:14:57.120 human who shoots arrows at people. Yeah, it's not a 0:14:57.120 --> 0:15:00.000 thor situation. I don't think so. If any comic book 0:15:00.040 --> 0:15:03.760 fans out there that want to, um, you know, clue 0:15:03.800 --> 0:15:05.640 us in on this, we'd love to hear more. But 0:15:05.680 --> 0:15:07.800 I think she just shoots arrows at people and tries 0:15:07.840 --> 0:15:10.640 to kill them, you know. Independent of you coming up 0:15:10.680 --> 0:15:14.040 with this lead, Robert, I immediately was googling, like Cupid 0:15:14.120 --> 0:15:18.160 horror movie? Is there one? And I I came across 0:15:18.200 --> 0:15:20.480 something only to discover that you'd already given it a 0:15:20.480 --> 0:15:24.360 little right up here. Yes, two thousand and one slasher 0:15:24.400 --> 0:15:29.880 film titled Valentine. Now have you seen this before? No? 0:15:30.160 --> 0:15:33.480 I looked up a couple of scenes on YouTube. One 0:15:33.520 --> 0:15:36.000 actually had kind of a cool set with like somebody's 0:15:36.040 --> 0:15:39.080 like walking through a maze made out of TV screens 0:15:39.200 --> 0:15:41.760 or something that. Yeah, I kind of like that, but 0:15:41.880 --> 0:15:45.760 otherwise it looks so stupid, and it has the ultimate 0:15:45.840 --> 0:15:49.280 like two thousand one smart Face cast where it's got 0:15:49.360 --> 0:15:52.920 David Boreanaz and Denise Richards. It's like the cast of 0:15:52.960 --> 0:15:57.280 Starship Troopers. It also has a has a two thousand 0:15:57.360 --> 0:16:00.320 and one alternative rock album, like the most too thousand 0:16:00.360 --> 0:16:05.280 and one alternative rock album, Imaginable. Yeah, that the soundtrack is, 0:16:06.200 --> 0:16:09.040 does it have what down with the sickness? It doesn't 0:16:09.040 --> 0:16:13.600 have that particular track, but Disturbed is present and and yeah, 0:16:13.640 --> 0:16:16.120 you can pretty much extrapolate from there what else is 0:16:16.160 --> 0:16:19.720 on the soundtrack. But it does have this killer stalking around, 0:16:19.720 --> 0:16:22.560 the slasher character with a cupid mask, and there is 0:16:22.640 --> 0:16:25.360 one scene at least where he kills somebody with arrows, 0:16:25.600 --> 0:16:27.760 and that's the sequence you're you're talking about with all 0:16:27.800 --> 0:16:33.040 the TVs. So yeah, as far as slasher films we're seeing, 0:16:33.520 --> 0:16:35.280 it's been too long since I've seen it to really 0:16:35.320 --> 0:16:37.920 give it a firm recommendation, but as far as slasher 0:16:37.960 --> 0:16:40.920 films worth looking up the kills on YouTube, I give 0:16:40.960 --> 0:16:44.680 it give it a thumbs up. But in this movie, 0:16:45.040 --> 0:16:49.280 unless I'm mistaken, no gold arrows and lead blunt arrows 0:16:49.440 --> 0:16:51.920 right right. I think he just has normal killing arrows 0:16:51.960 --> 0:16:54.840 because he's ultimately not an actual god. That would have 0:16:54.840 --> 0:16:57.280 been a fun twist. Though they don't get deep into 0:16:57.360 --> 0:17:00.760 the resonances of the mythology, no, because if there's a 0:17:00.760 --> 0:17:03.080 lot there you could really go go nuts with. For instance, 0:17:03.120 --> 0:17:05.439 the fact that Cupid is often depicted riding around on 0:17:05.520 --> 0:17:09.919 dolphins or even sometimes just on sea monsters. That's odd. Yeah, 0:17:10.760 --> 0:17:13.000 and uh, you know, you know we mentioned beating the 0:17:13.040 --> 0:17:15.560 Beast already, but I should throw out there even though 0:17:15.720 --> 0:17:17.600 I haven't read it, and I don't know why I 0:17:17.640 --> 0:17:19.879 haven't read it, because I read a whole lot of C. S. 0:17:19.960 --> 0:17:22.359 Lewis at one point in my life. But C. S. 0:17:22.440 --> 0:17:26.760 Lewis retells the story of of Cupid and Psyche in 0:17:26.800 --> 0:17:30.680 the nine novel Till We Have Faces. I've never read 0:17:30.720 --> 0:17:33.440 that either, but that sounds maybe worth check now. So again, 0:17:33.480 --> 0:17:35.400 we could keep going on Cupid. We could keep talking 0:17:35.440 --> 0:17:40.159 about various mythological treatments, different versions of the stories. Um, 0:17:40.200 --> 0:17:42.880 But basically, what we want to drive home here is that, 0:17:42.960 --> 0:17:46.240 first of all, he has these two arrows. He has 0:17:46.280 --> 0:17:48.760 the leaden arrow and the golden arrow, and these are 0:17:48.800 --> 0:17:51.360 the powers associated. And we also just want to drive 0:17:51.400 --> 0:17:54.960 home that he's he is more than just this ridiculous 0:17:55.000 --> 0:17:58.640 cartoon baby. Now he's an epic creep cartoon baby who 0:17:58.680 --> 0:18:02.520 wrestles goat man and rides on sea monsters. Indeed, he 0:18:02.680 --> 0:18:04.879 is so On that note, we're going to take a 0:18:04.960 --> 0:18:07.520 quick break, and when we come back, we are going 0:18:07.600 --> 0:18:10.600 to discuss the leaden arrow of Cupid. We're going to 0:18:10.680 --> 0:18:14.240 get into what ancient people knew of lead, how they 0:18:14.359 --> 0:18:16.920 used lead, what they thought about its properties. And then 0:18:16.960 --> 0:18:19.320 of course we'll well we'll we'll dive a little bit 0:18:19.359 --> 0:18:22.119 into the periodic table and discuss exactly what lad is. 0:18:22.960 --> 0:18:28.359 Thank alright, we're back. So, Robert, we have already told 0:18:28.400 --> 0:18:33.200 the story of Cupid, as especially as described in Ovid's metamorphoses. Uh. 0:18:33.240 --> 0:18:35.600 And in the story of these two different arrows, he's 0:18:35.640 --> 0:18:39.080 got the gold arrow, which imparts love makes people fancy 0:18:39.119 --> 0:18:41.719 one another, and the lead arrow, which is blunt and 0:18:41.760 --> 0:18:44.120 maybe seems to cause a version, at least in some 0:18:44.320 --> 0:18:46.399 tellings of the story. Right Like if if you were 0:18:46.480 --> 0:18:49.520 hit with the lead arrow and somebody passed you a 0:18:49.600 --> 0:18:52.040 note in in in high school and said will you 0:18:52.119 --> 0:18:54.600 go out with me? Yes and no, you would add 0:18:54.640 --> 0:18:57.399 a third box that said I would rather my father 0:18:57.480 --> 0:19:00.000 turned me into a tree. Yeah, your head would just explode, 0:19:00.000 --> 0:19:02.960 would like in scanners? Yes. Well, other than the general 0:19:03.000 --> 0:19:06.520 association of gold being thought of as good, is there 0:19:06.560 --> 0:19:10.120 anything any reason we can think of why these particular 0:19:10.640 --> 0:19:14.080 metals are picked to have the magical significance they do 0:19:14.160 --> 0:19:16.440 in the arrows in the myth? Well, yeah, exactly what 0:19:16.600 --> 0:19:19.919 we with gold? Obviously, gold is beautiful, and humans have 0:19:19.920 --> 0:19:22.760 thought it's beautiful for ages, and we've been perfectly happy 0:19:22.800 --> 0:19:24.840 to squabble over it and kill each other over it. 0:19:24.880 --> 0:19:29.119 So it seems the perfect substance to sum up the 0:19:29.280 --> 0:19:32.960 appeal and then sometimes the dangers of love. Plus knowing 0:19:32.960 --> 0:19:34.840 what we know now, this was an element that was 0:19:35.000 --> 0:19:38.640 likely produced in the collisions of of neutron stars long 0:19:38.720 --> 0:19:42.560 before the formation of the Earth, which is amazing to consider. 0:19:42.640 --> 0:19:44.760 By the way, I mean, just to contemplate this for 0:19:44.800 --> 0:19:47.240 a moment. Uh. You know, it was once thought that 0:19:47.359 --> 0:19:50.240 most of the universe is heavy elements, like elements heavier 0:19:50.240 --> 0:19:53.639 than iron, were created in supernovas, which is when a 0:19:53.680 --> 0:19:56.800 massive star at the end of its life cycle collapses 0:19:56.840 --> 0:20:00.240 on itself and then explodes, and supernovas can create ate 0:20:00.320 --> 0:20:02.879 some heavy elements. But some scientists have argued for a 0:20:02.880 --> 0:20:06.520 while that there are too many heavy elements. The proportion 0:20:06.640 --> 0:20:08.600 of them that we find in the universe is too 0:20:08.680 --> 0:20:13.200 high to be accounted for by what's possible from supernovas alone. 0:20:13.840 --> 0:20:16.400 So in recent years there have been some cool experiments 0:20:16.440 --> 0:20:19.600 that have shown that the collision of neutron stars, like 0:20:19.640 --> 0:20:22.399 you say, could be the alternative. For example, I was 0:20:22.400 --> 0:20:25.080 looking at there was a study published in in the 0:20:25.119 --> 0:20:28.520 Astrophysical Journal by Code at All that looked at data 0:20:28.680 --> 0:20:33.000 from a neutron star merger, and I love that's the 0:20:33.040 --> 0:20:37.359 technology they use, like two companies like mergers and acquisitions. 0:20:37.359 --> 0:20:39.560 But they should have used the language of love, because 0:20:39.720 --> 0:20:42.120 we are creating a substance that will one day be 0:20:42.280 --> 0:20:44.920 used by the God of love. Right it is it 0:20:44.960 --> 0:20:52.320 should be neutron star copulation, yes, neutron starter course, but anyway, 0:20:52.359 --> 0:20:55.000 that this collision was between eighty five and a hundred 0:20:55.040 --> 0:20:58.480 and sixty million light years away, and the researchers calculated 0:20:58.520 --> 0:21:02.160 that this one event, these two neutron stars colliding, produced 0:21:02.240 --> 0:21:06.119 between one and five earth masses of an element called 0:21:06.160 --> 0:21:11.080 europium and between three and thirteen earth masses of gold 0:21:11.359 --> 0:21:15.160 earth masses of gold. So just think about a solid 0:21:15.320 --> 0:21:18.800 gold Earth and then between three and thirteen of them, 0:21:19.119 --> 0:21:21.399 and then it just like spits a bunch of this 0:21:21.600 --> 0:21:24.320 out into the universe to get bound up with other 0:21:24.359 --> 0:21:27.199 gases and stuff like that and eventually end up in 0:21:27.280 --> 0:21:30.440 maybe say a planetary accretion disk, where it becomes part 0:21:30.520 --> 0:21:33.000 of the crust of an Earth. So if you're wearing 0:21:33.040 --> 0:21:35.399 like a gold ring or any other piece of gold 0:21:35.520 --> 0:21:37.879 right now, or if you're maybe maybe say using an 0:21:37.880 --> 0:21:40.000 electronic device that has a bit of gold in it, 0:21:40.359 --> 0:21:43.320 just think about how that element was forged either in 0:21:43.400 --> 0:21:46.960 the guts of a dying star as it exploded, or 0:21:47.200 --> 0:21:50.879 was probably more likely created in the chaos of rapid 0:21:50.920 --> 0:21:54.760 neutron capture when two of the densest objects in the 0:21:54.880 --> 0:21:59.560 universe to neutron stars smashed together billions of years ago. 0:22:00.200 --> 0:22:02.399 And of course I guess the even crazier thing is 0:22:02.440 --> 0:22:05.520 that that doesn't stop at gold, right, like our amazement 0:22:05.520 --> 0:22:08.960 that the elements shouldn't stop there, because all the heavy 0:22:09.000 --> 0:22:11.000 elements had to be formed at some point. In fact, 0:22:11.040 --> 0:22:12.920