The Mythology Book

112

I LOVE YOU

AS I LOVE

MY OWN SOUL

CUPID AND PSYCHE

T

he mortal princess Psyche

was said to be so beautiful

that people began to

worship her and neglect Venus,

the true goddess of love, and her

temples. Venus was angered by

this and called upon her son,

Cupid—a mischievous youth who

constantly caused mayhem with

his arrows of love and his torch of

desire. She urged him to punish

Psyche by making her fall in love

with a vile and wretched man, but

Cupid clumsily scratched himself

with his own arrow of passion, and

instead fell in love with Psyche.

Meanwhile, Apollo warned

Psyche’s father that she was

destined to marry no mortal man,

but instead a terrible winged

serpent. Psyche’s distraught

Psyche reaches for Cupid's arrows

in this 3rd-century ce Roman mosaic.

She is portrayed with butterfly wings,

as butterflies represented the soul.

IN BRIEF

THEME

True love

SOURCE

Metamorphoses (also known

as The Golden Ass), Apuleius,

ca. 158–180 ce.

SETTING

Ancient Greece.

KEY CHARACTERS

Venus The goddess of love,

who is jealous of Psyche.

Psyche A beautiful mortal

princess; becomes the goddess

of the spirit.

Cupid Venus’s son, the god of

love; a troublemaker who falls

in love with Psyche.

Apollo The sun god; also the

god of wisdom and prophecy.

Jupiter King of the gods.

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113

See also: Hades and the Underworld 48–49 ■ The abduction of Persephone 50–51 ■ Apollo and Daphne 60–61 ■

Venus and Adonis 88–89

ANCIENT 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, when

her 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 type

known 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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