The Essay - Couples - Episode 1

Oscar-winning writer Frederic Raphael reads the first of five new essays exploring the theme of couples throughout history, literature, classical civilisation, culture and politics. He begins the series looking at the origin of human coupling and the earliest couples - in Greek mythology, the Bible and early civilisation. Frederic explores the relation between the first human couples depicted by early mythology, Prometheus and his early humans, and at Adam and Eve, as well as man's desire for ideal love. Drawing on the early ideas of Plato and Aristophanes he explores different versions of why humans pair off two by two, and at the political impact of, for example, early Egyptian coupling, which included brother/sister marriage. The series goes on to look at other famous couples of politics, public life and literature.