Cupid and Psyche

Hey everyone! This week I’m back to talking about mythology. I promised back when I did this post that I’d tell the story of Cupid and Psyche, due to its similarities to East of the Sun, West of the Moon. It also has a lot in common with Beauty and the Beast. The story of Cupid and Psyche is found within a Latin book called The Golden Ass; as(s) such, the gods are called by their Roman names. However, scholars think that the work was inspired by a similar Greek book that has been lost to time. Despite their Roman names, the gods within the story seem to resemble more their Greek counterparts.

Let me explain that a little more before I start the story. When you hear the name Cupid, you probably picture something like this, right?

 

I mean, those things are called cupids. Of course Cupid looks like a cupid!

In fact, the cupids modern society is familiar with bear little resemblance to the Cupid within this story. While later Greek art (mostly beginning in the Hellenistic period) and most Roman art depicts Cupid in a child-like, cherubic manner, that was not always the case. Instead of looking like this sissy thing:

Cupid in fact originally looked a lot more like this:

The Greek version of Cupid is called Eros; like Cupid, he is the god of love. In early mythology, Eros was depicted as being one of the first gods to crawl out of a swirling mass of chaos. He pre-dates Zeus, king of the gods. Later on the Greeks changed his origin story and made him far less powerful. They assigned Aphrodite (her Roman name is Venus) as his mother, and made her the goddess of love. Eros was left to be her glorified errand boy. It is this figure which is depicted as being a fat baby with a bow, and which carried over into Roman mythology.

As to the story of Cupid and Psyche - well, the Cupid it depicts looks an awful lot like the original Eros. If you go looking for additional pictures, you’ll no doubt find some really creepy ones with a cherub-like Cupid seducing an adult Psyche (spare yourself the horror. Don’t go looking!). However, most pictures show the adult form of Cupid.

With all of that out of the way, I’ll tell you the story! Despite the Greek similarities, I’ll stick with the Roman names for the gods found within The Golden Ass.

Once there lived a king and queen who had three beautiful daughters. Two of them were married, but the third - Psyche, the most beautiful - remained single. Her beauty was so great that the people of her parents’ kingdom began to worship her. They thought she was the reincarnation of Venus, or a child of that goddess. While they worshipped the daughter, they neglected to worship Venus. This did not escape the goddess’ notice...

Venus was filled with wrath at being ignored in favor of a mortal. Her son, Cupid, possessed a bow whose arrows made whoever he struck fall in love with the first thing they saw. Venus ordered Cupid to take his bow and shoot Psyche, forcing her to fall in love with a hideous creature.

Cupid hastened to fulfill his mother’s command. He traveled to where Psyche lived and prepared to shoot her - but the sight of her beauty stunned him, and the god accidentally cut his finger on the tip of his arrow. This small nick caused Cupid to fall in love with Psyche. He ignored his mother’s order and left without shooting Psyche.

Terrible events within her kingdom lead Psyche’s parents to believe that the gods are angry with them. Part of this conclusion comes from the fact that Psyche remains unmarried. They consult an oracle (a prophet who delivered messages from the gods) and are horrified by what they are told: Psyche will not bear a human son, but rather a strange, dragon-like creature that will be feared by even the gods and the dead. (Sounds like Daenerys’ child in Game of Thrones!)

To prevent this from happening, the king and queen make the only choice they feel they have. Psyche is dressed for a funeral and led to the nearby cliffs. There, she is exposed - tied to a stake and left to die. (While horrible, this was not at all uncommon in Greek or Roman mythology. Most heroes in the myths were exposed as babies, including Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome.)

Luckily for Psyche, Cupid is watching out for her. He arranges for the West Wind, a being called Zephyr, to carry Psyche away from the cliffs and up to his home. Psyche falls asleep in beautiful meadows, and awakens to find a well-kept forest nearby. She explores it and soon finds a mansion made of fine woods, stones, and precious metals. A voice with no discernable source welcomes her and tells her to make herself at home. That night, a meal serves itself to Psyche while a lyre plays by itself.

After dinner Psyche is led to a bedchamber kept so dark that she cannot see. A man enters and introduces himself as her host - and her husband. They sleep together, and he departs before the sun rises. This happens every night, and Psyche is told that she can never look upon him. Soon she becomes pregnant.

Eventually Psyche’s sisters- who know that she did not die from exposure - begin to long to see her. After listening to many prayers, Cupid finally relents. Zephyr carries Psyche down to see her sisters. When they see the splendor of her clothing and jewelry they are struck by jealousy. In an attempt to ruin her happiness, they try to convince Psyche that her mysterious husband is a terrible winged serpent. She is unsympathetic to their pleas to look upon him during the night, until her sisters point out that the terrible serpent-thing might devour her child when it is born.

Psyche returns to Cupid not long after. One night, while he sleeps, she takes a dagger and a lamp from where she has hidden them in her room. She lights the lamp and moves to the bed, ready to kill her husband if he truly is a monster. Instead, she sees the most beautiful being she has ever beheld. Psyche is so distracted by his beauty that she accidentally cuts herself on an arrow from Cupid’s quiver, flung aside carelessly when he first entered her chamber. Struck with passion for her husband, Psyche accidentally spills hot oil from the lamp onto his skin.

Oddly enough, this wakes Cupid up! When he sees that Psyche has seen him he runs away. She tries to pursue him, but he flies away from her, leaving her alone in the wilderness.

Eventually Psyche goes to see her sisters. She tells them the identity of her husband, and they become even more envious than before. After Psyche leaves, the sisters separately try to offer themselves as replacements for her to Cupid. They go to the cliffs where Psyche was exposed and fling themselves off, counting on the mercy of Zephyr.

Zephyr doesn’t catch them.
They fall to their deaths.
Do we pity them?
Nah!

Back to the main story - Psyche wanders around the earth in search of Cupid. She comes to a temple of Ceres and finds its offerings in disarray. Psyche straightens things up and cleans the temple. Ceres takes note and visits her. Though she is moved by Psyche’s prayers for help finding Cupid, Ceres tells her that she cannot aid her against another goddess - Venus.

Psyche leaves Ceres’ temple and soon comes across a temple of Juno. Similar things occur, and Psyche is told once again that she will not find help against Venus from another goddess. Seeing no other recourse, Psyche decides to go and offer herself in service to Venus.

Venus is thrilled when the girl who was worshipped more than her comes into the goddess’ power. She orders Psyche whipped and beaten, and humiliates her over and over. (Remember, Psyche is pregnant at this point. Gotta hate Venus, right?) Eventually Venus declares that if Psyche can complete her tasks she will be reunited with Cupid.

The girl is thrilled at this promise, but horrified when she is given the first task. A hodgepodge of various grains and seeds are spilled around her. As Venus leaves for a party she orders Psyche to have them all separated by the time she comes back.

The goddess departs, and Psyche is filled with despair at the seemingly hopeless task. Luckily for her, a nearby ant takes pity on her. It offers to help, and summons its brethren to assist it in separating the grains from one another. By the time Venus returns, the ants have cleared out - leaving Psyche alone with neat, separated piles.

Enraged at Psyche having somehow completed her task, Venus assigns an even more impossible one the next day. She tells Psyche that she must collect the wool from sheep across a river. These sheep are the flock of Sol, god of the sun, and are carnivorous man-killers. Psyche knows that she cannot complete the task, and intends to drown herself in the river.

Again, outside forces intervene on her behalf. A reed within the river stops her from drowning herself, and tells her of an area where the wool of the sheep has been caught on nearby thorny plants. She is able to collect this wool, and it is enough to satisfy Venus’ demands - much to the rage of the goddess!

The third task is the most impossible of all. Psyche is given a container and told to go to a cliff from which pours two of the rivers of the Underworld. She is to gather their water and return to Venus. Inevitably, the task is more complicated than that. The waters are guarded by dragon-like creatures. Psyche climbs the cliff, but is unable to fend them off.

Jupiter steps in, sending an eagle that fights off the dragons. (Apparently a god can meddle in the affairs of a goddess!) Psyche returns to Venus with the waters of the rivers. The goddess then decides to make her last task truly unattainable.

If you’re familiar with the story, this is probably the task you best know. Psyche is sent to the Underworld with a box and told to ask Proserpina (the Roman version of Persephone) for some of her beauty. It is revealed that Cupid is within Venus’ house, and that she has spent so much of her energy tending to curing his “wound” (the burn from the hot oil) that she cannot replenish her own beauty. Since she must appear beautiful for a party, she needs to borrow some of Proserpina’s beauty.

Psyche knows that she doesn’t stand a chance of getting into the Underworld. She climbs a tower with the intention of flinging herself off of the top, but the tower speaks up and stops her. It tells her how to get to the Underworld, and to bring honeyed cakes and coins in order to survive the journey.

She travels to the place the tower told her of. Sure enough, therein lies the entrance to the Underworld. The honeyed cakes allow her to slip past Cerberus, the three-headed dog that guards the entrance. The coins pay for a boat ride with Charon the ferryman.

(Among the tower’s instructions is one important rule - Psyche must not talk to several people she encounters. One of these people is an old woman with a spinning wheel. This amuses me, since in East of the Sun, West of the Moon the heroine does talk to a woman with a spinning wheel!)

Psyche pleads her case to Proserpina, explaining what Venus requests of her. Proserpina willingly puts some of her beauty into the box, but warns Psyche that she must not open it. Psyche is then able to leave the Underworld without any problems.

She becomes quite excited as she travels back to Venus, for she knows that this is her last task before she’ll be reunited with Cupid. Then Psyche realizes that everything she’s gone through has her looking a little haggard. Not wanting to appear less than her best for her husband, Psyche decides that sneaking a little bit of Proserpina’s beauty couldn’t hurt. She cracks open the box - only to find that it contains not beauty, but a death-like sleep!

At this point in the story Cupid’s wounds have finally healed. He flees from his mother’s house and goes to find Psyche. When the god finds her lying on the ground he removes the sleep from her and puts it back into the box.

Cupid then takes her back to Venus’ house, where she presents the “unopened” box to the goddess.

Meanwhile, Cupid goes to visit Jupiter and strikes a bargain with him. In exchange for helping Jupiter with any future romantic conquests, Psyche will be freed from Venus, reunited with Cupid, and given immortal life. The story ends with Jupiter telling Venus to lay off of Psyche, and a wedding feast being given for the immortal pair of Cupid and Psyche.

That’s the story! I hope you guys enjoyed it. It’s amazing how similar the story is to East of the Sun, West of the Moon!

I’m still taking requests for different tales from mythology you guys want to hear. I’m open to any mythology! Please feel free to post below or email me with suggestions, or with questions/comments.

See you guys next week!

(Oh, and as a fun side note - Psyche is often depicted in art with either butterfly wings or a butterfly above her.  This was to symbolize her innocence.)