64 pages • 2-hour read
Electric Idol
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Themes
The Tension Between Public Image and Private Identity
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of sexual content and emotional abuse.
Robert’s version of Olympus is a world of high-status power games, and Eros and Psyche are both adept navigators of this social world. They cope with the constant scrutiny by crafting personas for public appearances and social media, while struggling to maintain authenticity in other arenas. Robert uses these issues to showcase that the series’ wildly different protagonists do share some core affinities, and in the case of Eros and Psyche, their love story requires them both to embrace their true preferences and needs.
Though they are aware of one another before the events of the novel, Eros and Psyche’s real first meeting occurs when she finds him in a rare vulnerable moment. As she dresses his injuries, Psyche suggests that Eros seek medical attention rather than attend the party, but he tells her, “You know better than anyone why I need to” (16). Even as relative strangers, Eros trusts that Psyche understands the pressure to perform that he is under. Their marriage of convenience only amplifies the pressure that they feel, as their plan to thwart Aphrodite depends on crafting the perfect love story. This arrangement also intensifies Robert’s use of the forced-proximity trope. As Eros tells Psyche, “It would be strange if you flinch every time I get close enough to touch you” (84). Psyche’s discomfiture reveals that she still sees Eros as more of a threat than an ally. However, her trepidation becomes a liability in the context of her chosen survival strategy, but this issue soon recedes when Psyche finds herself overwhelmed by the intensity of their first kiss despite their blatant staging of the scene. For Robert, public personas both tap into the power of sentiment and reveal hidden emotions.
As the protagonists’ romance develops, Eros comes to admire Psyche’s keen analytical eye for managing the public. He tells her, “The amount of thought you put into your public image is staggering” (238), and he also reflects that her consistent cultivation of sponsorship deals is part of the reason why his mother detests her. Psyche even photographs Eros rubbing her feet for her, and as he takes in the moment, he realizes that Psyche’s work brings a form of hope and positivity to the world and is something that he admires. Eros sees Psyche’s use of images and strategy as a sign of her talent and intelligence, not as a form of manipulation, because he also recognizes that her love of beauty and fashion is genuine. As time goes on, Psyche also forces Eros to confront the parts of himself that he keeps hidden; as she stands him in front of his penthouse mirrors and lists his virtues, he finds himself declaring, “You make me want to be a better man” (295). As he comes to understand Psyche’s acute sense that public images depend on genuine emotion, Eros begins to develop real connections and appreciates her talent even as he gains hope for the future.
Psyche’s decision to risk her safety and confront Aphrodite in public demonstrates that loving Eros has made her brave—and that she no longer believes that he is capable of killing without remorse. When she broadcasts his mother’s threats, he openly confesses his love for her during the same confrontation, indicating that their contrived romance has become entirely authentic. When they return home together, Eros’s joyful promise to photograph Psyche naked everywhere in the house is a sign that they are now free to retreat to private life as true partners.
Balancing Family Loyalty and Romantic Partnership
In the original myth, the beautiful Psyche attracts Aphrodite’s ire because the goddess sees her as a rival. In Robert’s version, Eros navigates the pressure to carry out his mother’s cruel whims and struggles against a lifetime of manipulation in order to protect Psyche from harm. For her part, Psyche is fond of her ambitious mother, Demeter, but has avoided crafting her own vision of the future. In this light, Eros and Psyche’s love story requires them both to overcome their fear of family disapproval and defend their own agency as adults.
Robert therefore establishes that both Eros and Psyche struggle with their mothers’ ambitions for them. For example, Demeter gently upbraids Psyche for avoiding Zeus’s company, and her scolding indicates that she has not let go of her plans to maneuver one of her daughters into gaining the title of Hera. Aphrodite is just as calculating as Demeter, but she is even crueler, as when she claims that her plan to murder Psyche is good for Olympus since it will curtail Demeter’s power. Aphrodite’s violence is twofold; she insists on murder but uses Eros to do it, and as his murderous reputation grows, her manipulations ensure that he has few others to trust or rely on for support. Eros frequency reflects that even if he were to choose exile, his work for his mother would endanger him in the world beyond Olympus.
Further strife on the home front occurs as both Eros and Psyche alienate their families with their hasty marriage. Psyche conceals the true reasons for her actions from her sisters, concerned that they will act rashly, and Persephone is a reluctant presence at her wedding. Likewise, although Demeter accepts Psyche’s decision, she later tries to exclude Eros from the family apartment, leading Psyche to point out her mother’s hypocrisy, given that Demeter had planned to arrange Psyche’s marriage with Zeus without consulting her. When dealing with her mother and sisters, Psyche openly advocates for her own preferences, reminding her family that she deserves to craft her own future. Though their marriage begins as one of convenience, Psyche decides to treat Eros as her partner and ally, pursuing various active strategies rather than relying on her mother’s influence to solve her problems.
Though Eros is more openly willing to defy his abusive mother, he struggles to break her emotional hold and overcome its effect on his self-esteem. This issue becomes apparent when Eros struggles to accept that Psyche sees positive qualities in him. His repeated insistence that he is a “monster” underscores the ways in which his mother has dehumanized him over the years. In the novel’s final act, Eros realizes that seeing his mother’s cruelty and manipulation “killed something in [him], something [he] didn’t think [he would] ever reclaim, not until [he] met Psyche” (344). Psyche shows Eros that he can participate in a relationship as an equal partner. Loving Psyche allows Eros to see that his mother is a source of harm in his life, and he decides to sever ties with her. His tentative embrace of Demeter’s welcome at the end of the novel and his joy in the Dimitriou family kitchen reinforce the idea that Eros is committed to building a warm and supportive future with his found family.
Self-Acceptance as a Source of Power
Because Psyche and Eros are public figures, their social status has a profound impact on their self-esteem and their approach to relationships. Psyche navigates Olympus from a specific disadvantage because she is a fat woman who must deal with others’ unfair and prejudicial views of her appearance. Her decision to embrace her body is therefore both a political and personal form of self-acceptance. Similarly, although Eros is conventionally attractive, he struggles to believe that he deserves partnership and intimacy, and the pair’s unlikely marriage gives Psyche and Eros more emotional security, leading them to exercise greater agency in their own lives.
Eros senses early in the novel that his mother’s murderous vendetta against Psyche is rooted in fatphobia and resentment, as his mother calls her a “fat girl with little style and no substance” after he mentions Psyche’s success as an influencer (28). Eros privately reflects that his mother’s petty comment fails to acknowledge Psyche’s eye for fashion and the fact that she is intensely attractive. Eros’s choice to save Psyche’s life by marrying her is therefore a dramatic rejection of his mother’s political aesthetic, which declares that thinness is synonymous with power and wealth. Eros maintains his rejection of his mother’s short-sighed stance and becomes furious when he realizes that Psyche’s social media is full of fatphobic commentary. Psyche herself privately struggles to maintain her hard-won confidence in her body, as she initially hesitates to let Eros see her in a tank top and demurs when Persephone tells her that she looks beautiful in her wedding gown. On their wedding night, however, she finally decides that Eros’s desire for her is genuine, as she realizes that “every bit of this man’s formidable attention is focused on [her]” (180). Eros’s open appraisal and interest help dispel Psyche’s past trauma from a lifetime of being dismissed due to her size.
Given this ongoing inner conflict, the novel’s final sex scene is a pivotal moment for both characters as they simultaneously pursue emotional intimacy and sexual desire. In this scene, Psyche catalogues Eros’s virtues in front of the mirror, insisting that he must see himself in a more nuanced way. He, in turn, insists that when he looks at her, he sees “a goddess” (296). Rather than argue with his statement as she did with Persephone’s, Psyche kisses Eros in loving gratitude, and their decision to have sex without a condom underscores their new level of trust in one another. It is in the aftermath of this intimacy that Psyche concocts her plan to film Aphrodite’s attempt to kill her, and it is clear that Eros’s acceptance of her as she is gives her the courage to act in her own defense. Similarly, Eros finds courage in his own way when he openly confesses his love for Psyche to his mother and does not respond to her efforts to deny his capacity for deeper emotions. With this inner shift, Eros now realizes that real love requires free choice, in contrast to his toxic upbringing. His clear respect for Psyche’s agency and his hope of becoming a better person are both clear in this moment, as he insists on a relationship of equals.
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