Hmm. You know, I hadn't honestly even tried to apply the Cupid/Eros and Psyche stuff to the series canon proper; it's more a thing within my own head for this story. Kurt adopts Blaine's fantasy for Valentine's Day night and uses it as a moment of personal transformation--the marriage is happening within him as much as between them--if that makes sense?
I think Psyche is an interesting character because of how she goes to the underworld (alone) and back again. She runs into trouble after getting out (from which Cupid saves her), but the getting out on her own, in and of itself, is kinda cool, and if I remember my Greco-Roman myths well enough, rare.
For my part, I tend to view Dalton as Hades/Otherworld/Fairyland. Kurt and Blaine both enter the underworld of Dalton and exit again, Kurt with Santana's help, and Blaine with Kurt's (I have a little working theory that Santana has an Anima role vis à vis Kurt in places, and Kurt is certainly an Animus for Blaine...which prompts a discussion of gender, but Jung is rubbish about gender so...urgh, this would be for a different post, I think ^^;;), but I don't know that I can easily draw a parallel between Blaine & Psyche in any broader sense. It's rather ephemeral in my story, and mostly internal to Kurt. I just wanted to mention it, since it builds on butterfly stuff, transformation, and winged things.
McKinley as Hades is interesting though, and I've read some interesting meta that pegs WHMS as the fairyland (see Prom stuff) which maybe makes Dalton the Unseelie Court, particularly after Sebastian gets there. Anyway, that's a tangent. I've also heard some liken WMHS to Hell, which, by some sort of parallel, if we consider Hell the place where you go to suffer, makes WHMS (in Greek mythology) The Abyss (Tartarus), which is sort of the under-underworld, I guess. This is making me smile a lot, because the adults there certainly seem to be stuck in their Sisyphean tasks with no hope of escape. Will keeps trying. And (here's me overreaching absurdly for the fun of it) does Sue's hepatitis make her Prometheus? Is she punished for giving fire (Would fire be winning, self-esteem?) to the students?
As for Cupid/Eros and baby penguinitude? Eros doesn't have any connotations of sexual purity that I'm aware of; he's all about the sexual power and desire. Cupid is somewhat less potent than Eros (i.e., he's not a primordial creation deity, but the son of Venus and Mars), but he is also not sexually pure: he's definitely associated with sexual desire and erotic love. So, for me, Kurt was, by adopting Cupid/Eros for the moment, allowing himself to embrace his own erotic desire, and also integrate it more comfortably within himself. And again, this meta only applies within my own head canon for ITWOS. I'm hesitant to try to expand it beyond to the series overall. And obviously, as the author, I am dead; my opinion or intention doesn't really matter. Readers can read it however they like. :)
Mostly I'm just being self-indulgent. I don't talk about the guts of my stories often, at least not unprompted, but I was in a sharing mood and feeling overstimulated by all the cut scenes and S4 spoilers and speculation.
And! I am intrigued now to know if there are any other stories (myths, fairy tales, other folklore) that might follow the pattern you describe for Kurt (baby penguin->sexual awakening->display of virility). It feels like there should be, but then Glee is forging some new ground with Kurt and gender presentation stuff, so I really don't know. If you think of anything, I'd love to hear about it.
And I fear I am really far into the tl;dr babble land. I hope this made some sense? My brain's being kinda weird for me presently.
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I think Psyche is an interesting character because of how she goes to the underworld (alone) and back again. She runs into trouble after getting out (from which Cupid saves her), but the getting out on her own, in and of itself, is kinda cool, and if I remember my Greco-Roman myths well enough, rare.
For my part, I tend to view Dalton as Hades/Otherworld/Fairyland. Kurt and Blaine both enter the underworld of Dalton and exit again, Kurt with Santana's help, and Blaine with Kurt's (I have a little working theory that Santana has an Anima role vis à vis Kurt in places, and Kurt is certainly an Animus for Blaine...which prompts a discussion of gender, but Jung is rubbish about gender so...urgh, this would be for a different post, I think ^^;;), but I don't know that I can easily draw a parallel between Blaine & Psyche in any broader sense. It's rather ephemeral in my story, and mostly internal to Kurt. I just wanted to mention it, since it builds on butterfly stuff, transformation, and winged things.
McKinley as Hades is interesting though, and I've read some interesting meta that pegs WHMS as the fairyland (see Prom stuff) which maybe makes Dalton the Unseelie Court, particularly after Sebastian gets there. Anyway, that's a tangent. I've also heard some liken WMHS to Hell, which, by some sort of parallel, if we consider Hell the place where you go to suffer, makes WHMS (in Greek mythology) The Abyss (Tartarus), which is sort of the under-underworld, I guess. This is making me smile a lot, because the adults there certainly seem to be stuck in their Sisyphean tasks with no hope of escape. Will keeps trying. And (here's me overreaching absurdly for the fun of it) does Sue's hepatitis make her Prometheus? Is she punished for giving fire (Would fire be winning, self-esteem?) to the students?
As for Cupid/Eros and baby penguinitude? Eros doesn't have any connotations of sexual purity that I'm aware of; he's all about the sexual power and desire. Cupid is somewhat less potent than Eros (i.e., he's not a primordial creation deity, but the son of Venus and Mars), but he is also not sexually pure: he's definitely associated with sexual desire and erotic love. So, for me, Kurt was, by adopting Cupid/Eros for the moment, allowing himself to embrace his own erotic desire, and also integrate it more comfortably within himself. And again, this meta only applies within my own head canon for ITWOS. I'm hesitant to try to expand it beyond to the series overall. And obviously, as the author, I am dead; my opinion or intention doesn't really matter. Readers can read it however they like. :)
Mostly I'm just being self-indulgent. I don't talk about the guts of my stories often, at least not unprompted, but I was in a sharing mood and feeling overstimulated by all the cut scenes and S4 spoilers and speculation.
And! I am intrigued now to know if there are any other stories (myths, fairy tales, other folklore) that might follow the pattern you describe for Kurt (baby penguin->sexual awakening->display of virility). It feels like there should be, but then Glee is forging some new ground with Kurt and gender presentation stuff, so I really don't know. If you think of anything, I'd love to hear about it.
And I fear I am really far into the tl;dr babble land. I hope this made some sense? My brain's being kinda weird for me presently.