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See also: Hades and the Underworld 48–49 ■ The abduction of Persephone 50–51 ■ Apollo and Daphne 60–61 ■
Venus and Adonis 88–89ANCIENT ROME
parents prepared her for this
dreadful wedding and, as Apollo
demanded, led her to the top of a
crag, where she was left alone to
meet her fate.Secret husband
No winged serpent came; instead,
the west wind Zephyrus picked
Psyche up and carried her down to
a wonderful palace so magnificent
that she knew it must be the home
of a god. An invisible voice told
Psyche the palace was hers, and
invisible servants washed and
dressed her, brought her food, and
played music.
In the darkness that night,
Psyche’s unseen husband got into
her bed, made love to her, and left
before the light of dawn. This
became the pattern of her nights—
sleeping with a husband she never
set eyes upon. Lonely and now
pregnant, Psyche persuaded her
husband to allow her two older
sisters to visit. He warned her not
to let them convince her to find out
what he looked like. If she did, her
happiness would be over.
Psyche’s jealous sisters arrived
and reminded her of Apollo’s
prophecy, that she would marry a
monstrous beast. That night, whenher husband was asleep, Psyche
approached him with a lit oil lamp
and a knife, intending to kill him.
However, to her shock, the light
revealed him to be Cupid. When
she reached for an arrow of his, she
accidentally pricked her thumb with
its tip, falling deeply in love with
him. Her hand trembled, and a drop
of hot oil spilled on his shoulder.
Injured and betrayed, he fled.Lover's quest
Psyche traveled far and wide
searching for her lost husband. She
went to the palace of Venus herself,where the hostile goddess set
Psyche a series of near-impossible
tasks. Her final task was to enter the
Underworld and fetch a jar of beauty
from its queen, Proserpina. On her
return, Psyche forgot the warning
she had received to not open the jar.
When she unsealed it, a deep sleep
overcame her and she fell as if dead.
Cupid flew to Psyche and woke
her from her slumber. Jupiter
consented to their marriage and
made Psyche immortal, after which
Venus finally accepted her. The
child born of Psyche and Cupid was
Voluptas, goddess of pleasure. ■Obtain the fleece of a
golden ram. A reed by the
river magically tells Psyche
how to safely gather up the
golden strands.Fill a flask with water
from the River Styx.
Jupiter’s royal eagle flies
above the dangers and
fills Psyche’s vial.Gather a jar of
Properina’s beauty
from Hades. A castle
turret speaks and
guides Psyche's way.Sort a pile of mixed grains.
A horde of ants pity Psyche and
sort the barley, wheat, lentils,
millet, poppy seeds, chickpeas,
and beans into separate piles.Folklore and fairy tale
The ancient Greeks, Romans,
and Egyptians all told fairy tales
with recognizable connections
to the ones we know today. The
allegorical element of the story
of Cupid and Psyche—with
Cupid (love) marrying Psyche
(soul) and conceiving Voluptas
(pleasure)—is built on a fairy
tale foundation. There are clear
similarities between the stories
of Cinderella and Beauty and
the Beast and the myth of Cupid
and Psyche, which is a tale of
the widely dispersed typeknown by folklorists as the
"search for the lost husband”
and the "animal bridegroom.”
The story of Cupid and
Psyche is an unusual blend of
fairy tale and myth—most fairy
tales of this genre highlight a
human husband who has been
enchanted into animal form,
rather than featuring a god.
In Ovid’s Metamorphoses,
however, when the daughters
of Minyas tell fairy tales, some
involve gods, so the boundaries
between myth and fairy tale
may have been more porous in
Rome than in other cultures.Tasks given to Psyche by Venus
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