Cupid leaving Psyche after he discovers her plot to kill him.
(Photo by Wikimedia Commons)
A young girl born of wealth is kidnapped and held for ransom
by thieves. She is held up in the cell with an old lady, and Lucius, who is a
donkey at the moment, is observing her. She wants to kill herself, but the old
lady tries to convince her otherwise, but the girl explains it was her wedding
day and she had a dream about being taken. The old lady decides to tell her the story of
Cupid and Psyche:
A king and queen had 3 daughters, the eldest two were very
beautiful, but the youngest daughter was so beautiful it left people speechless.
She was so beautiful that news of her spread all over and she was believed to
be the goddess Venus. The people stopped worshipping shrines and stopped
celebrating ceremonies for Venus to celebrate the girl. This angered the real Venus. She
ordered her son, Cupid, to punish Psyche, which is the name of the beautiful
girl.
Psyche on the other hand was offered nothing. While men from
all over worshipped her none ever asked for her hand in marriage. She was
unhappy with her beauty. Her father worried, asked an Oracle about her fate.
Her fate was death. She woke up to a beautiful place that could only be created
by gods. She was accompanied by “bodiless voices.” She was married to a man
that she could not see but she could feel and hear. He told her she can’t interact
with her sisters, but she wept for days and he gave in. He warned her not to
take her sisters advice or bad things will happen.
Psyche invited her sisters to her home so she could comfort
them and they could stop grieving. She showed them where and how she was
living, showered them in treasures, which lead to the sisters growing extremely
jealous. They begin comparing their lives to their younger sisters. They both
married old men who can’t take care of themselves. They come up with a plan to
take revenge on their sister. They beat themselves up to return home to show
their parents the so-called horror they had to endure.
Psyche’s husband warns her of something bad coming her way
and tells her that she is pregnant and must be careful. He warns her not to
listen to anything her sisters say or it will end badly. The sisters return and
remind her that the oracle said she was to marry someone awful. She forgets
everything her husband tells her and believes her sisters who convince her to
kill her husband and advise her on how to do so.
As Psyche was about to kill her husband it was revealed that he was Cupid. She changed her mind, but he found out about her plot and left
her. He explained to her how he was sent by his mother to punish her and
admitted that coming to her as a lover was a mistake. She went to her sisters and told them about
Cupid. They eagerly committed suicide thinking he would come to the rescue and
they would become his wife, but they ended up just dying.
Bibliography. Apuleius. "Cupid and Psyche." Web Source.
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