So Robert Burton reports in The Anatomy of Melancholy , a seventeenth-century work rich in references to love. Sir Kenneth Clark drew from it for a memorable passage in one of his essays in the series on Civilization . It was a line sung by Perseus in Euripides' Andromeda . Those who heard the first performance in Abdera were captivated by the song. People sang it everywhere, in houses and on street corners.
Cupid continually threatens disorder.
Cumulatively, the results are social conditions inimical to predictability and planning. Hence, how to bring Cupid under control has been a question since antiquity. One Greco-Roman proposal recommended punishment as a means of control. Judging by the number of artifacts extant, the proposal never won wide acceptance. Perhaps the theology was found wanting.