You can see hot pics of the Passion Play here. But I’ll tell you the Love Story of Eros and Psyche right here in my bloggamy. Well, let’s call this my *interpretation* of the ancient Greek Hollywood script. The star of our show is the great God Eros, of course, distinguished by his glorious wings and potent bow and arrows. If one of Eros’ arrows hits you, that’s it, you’re toast: you’re in love. No one can resist the arrows of Eros. Our next character is Thanatos, the opposite of Eros. While Eros is Life, Thanatos is Death. While Eros is Love, Thanatos is War, Terror, Depression, Repression, Oppression, Death, Death and more Death.

Enough Death. Back to Sex…back to Eros who is adored like a movie idol, a rock star, the Original Sex Symbol. But, like many stars, he’s a mischief maker, a trickster. Some call him a MotherFucker, and he is. Because, in addition to his billions of other lovers, Eros does occasionally fuck his mother, Venus, Goddess of Love, Sex and Beauty. Venus and Eros are a rather different kind of Mother and Child than Mary and Jesus, but at least as powerful, in a pagan sort of way, and loving.

Venus is Aphrodite in Greek, from whom we get the word aphrodisiac. Distinguished by her gold belt, she adores and inspires all kinds of love, sex and beauty, and she is always ready for passion. Even though she too has billions upon billions of lovers, including many human ones, one of her very favorites is her sexy son Eros. Nothing like the love between an Eternal Boy and his Hot Mama. Not that anyone is recommending incest here. Please! Eros and Venus are God and Goddess, immortal, different from you and me, and subject to different imperatives.

Now, let’s meet a human: Psyche. Played in our Commedia Erotica Passion Play by our own lovely, passionate art curator Kim Mendoza, Psyche is the sexiest, most beautiful human female on Earth, so dazzling that people on Earth start to worship this mortal girl, instead of the great immortal Goddess Venus. Even though Psyche is worshipped (or maybe because of it), deep down, she’s pretty submissive. After all, she’s only human, and she longs to surrender, to give herself completely to someone special. Psyche means “Soul.” James Brown may be the Godfather of Soul, but Psyche is the Goddess of Soul. Though at this point in the story, she isn’t a goddess at all.. And her popularity on Earth makes the real Goddess Venus very angry. Jealousy – the root of much evil in life, in love and certainly in sex – fills her immortal heart. How dare this human female attract so much attention! How dare she show off like she is a goddess! How dare she act like a star! What planet does this silly Earth Girl think she’s on anyway?

Mama Venus tells her Boy Eros to shoot this arrogant Psyche in the heart with one of his most potent love-arrows and make her fall in love with Thanatos, thus compelling her to commit suicide. Eros is such a Mama’s Boy, he doesn’t even ask why. He just flies off on his mission to Earth, with the intention of doing exactly what Mama Venus asks him to do. But when he actually lays eyes on Psyche, he’s so totally bewildered by her beauty that he accidentally shoots himself with his own arrow. And so, Love falls in Love…

Eros is utterly smitten by Psyche, and now he must have her for himself. He puts on his golden mask and seduces her, which isn’t all that difficult because he is the God of Love. Very soon, he wins her heart and makes passionate love to her (that’s why we call it a Passion Play) – Eros makes Psyche come and come and come. A thousand multiple climaxes, tantric soulgasms and female ejaculations later, Psyche figures maybe she can lift the mask. “NO!” says Eros, suddenly acting all macho. She must never see his face.

Well, who cares about his face anyway? No one ever sees the Face of Love clearly. It’s always a bit of a blur when we’re in love. And our Psyche is soooooo happy. Though she doesn’t really know it, she’s in love with Love. Every night, they have incredible hot passionate sex. But every morning, when Psyche wakes up, Eros is gone. It doesn’t matter. Because Psyche is just sooooo happy!

But now Psyche’s two sisters are the jealous ones. They visit Psyche in her sumptuous new digs at Eros’ palace and, seething with jealousy that their beloved sister is so goddamn happy, they plant the seeds of doubt in her innocent sexual mind. “How can you love a man when he won’t let you see his face? How can you trust him? He could be a monster. He could be diseased. Psyche, sweet darling sister, you must have a look at this guy. What could he be hiding behind that mask?”

Persuaded by her jealous sisters, Psyche gets up in the middle of the night. She lights a candle, tiptoes back to bed, and then sees Him, Eros, deep in the sleep of angels. Gently and carefully, she removes his mask and looks upon the face of Love Himself. She is awestruck, falling even more deeply in love with him. He is so handsome, so divinely radiant that he startles her. She shivers with excitement, and her candle spills a drop of hot wax on Eros’ chest. Startled by the pain of the hot wax hitting his naked flesh, Eros awakens.

He cries out, seeing his human lover standing before him. “Psyche, Love of my Life, how could you be so stupid! How could you be so untrusting, so arrogant! So disobedient! How could you do this to me? To us? I should destroy you, but I love you too much for that. Your punishment will be that I will fly away from you.” And he does. Fly away Eros, fly away! Love ’em and leave ’em. Typical guy, Eros. Once a woman sees through his facade, once she sees the real man – no more masks – he’s gotta run. Fly away, Eros! Go home to Mommy, Little Boy! Can’t handle a real woman, can you?

Poor Psyche! Now that she’s seen his divine face, she’s really head-over-heels for this God. But no sooner had she seen him than she’s lost him! Alone and bereft, she searches the Earth, looking for Eros. “Have you seen my Eros?” she asks everyone who will listen. “Have you seen my Love?” But no one helps her. They just laugh at her, push her around and take advantage of her vulnerability. Thanatos comes to haunt her, as the sweet silence of Death is tempting to one so hurt by Love, so emotionally distressed, so guilt-ridden, so humiliated and exhausted as our Psyche. But Psyche does not die. She fights off the seductions of Thanatos, still holding out hope that she will find her Eros again.

Finally, she finds him in the temple of his mother, Venus, the Love Goddess, the ultimate nasty mother-in-law. Prostrate yourself, Psyche, you Stupid Lovesick Girl! This is the Goddess of Sex!

As Psyche prays, Eros lies in the Temple of Venus, sulking in his old room at Mommy’s house, wounded by the burning wax of Psyche’s clumsy curiosity. But Venus won’t let Psyche see her Love. After all, the Goddess is still jealous. What insolence of this human girl to not only act like a Goddess and steal Venus’ adoration, but then to go on and steal the heart of Eros, her own Son? What a bad, bad girl Psyche has been.

“Well, at least now you’re where you belong, groveling at my feet,” Venus sniffs, “That’s the proper place for a slut like you. On your knees, you little piece of human trash. You tramp! You whore! Why do you come to me? Do you want Love in your life?”

“Yes!” whimpers Psyche. “I want Love! I love Eros!”

“Well,” replies Venus, savoring her divine position in relation to her former rival, a pretty girl, but still a mere mortal. “Then you must become my Sex Slave. If you want to see Eros, you must work hard for the privilege. You must bow before me, kiss my feet and serve my pleasure as my Slave-Girl. You must grant my every whim and accomplish all of the tasks I ask of you. And you must be punished for your insolence, for your ignorance and for being such a bad bad girl.”

At this point, we at the Speakeasy digressed from the old myth and came to a very special portion of our Eros Day Passion Play: The Three Tortures of Psyche, at which time, the play kind of exploded into a party with a whole lot of flogging, spanking, nipple-clamping, dildo-screwing, vibrator playing and other erotic tortures going on.

In the story, and in our Passion Play, Psyche’s submission transcends her punishments, as she surrenders to the Gods and Goddesses of Love and Sex and Life itself, finding maturity and redemption in serving her mother-in-law, the Goddess of Love. And in the process, she too becomes a Goddess. As for Venus, as she watches Psyche take her punishment, her heart softens, her jealousy turns to passion, and she falls in love with Psyche too, as the Domina often falls in love with Her submissive. Then, Eros Himself joins them, making it a heavenly threesome. That night, according to the ancient myth, they have a great big wedding on Mount Olympus, with Jupiter presiding, and everybody dancing, celebrating and making love. And, at the end of our Eros Day Passion Play, that is just what we did.

The myth ends with Eros and Psyche having a daughter named Voluptas, which means Pleasure. Voluptas has always held a particular fascination for me, since I first read the old tale as a young girl and searched the library for other stories related to her. What happened to Pleasure? Did she marry? Did she have as many lovers as her Dad and Grandma, or just one, like her Mom? Was she happy, a spoiled brat, a lush, a moment, a serene sensation of enjoyment? But I couldn’t find a thing about her. Even now, with all the resources of the Intenet, I have never seen any information on Voluptas besides her being the daughter of Eros and Psyche. I’ve always wanted to know: What happened to Pleasure? Perhaps that’s one reason why I have devoted my life to the pursuit of it.