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About Cupid & PsycheThe tale of Cupid and Psyche first appeared as a digressionary story told by an old woman in Lucius Apuleius' novel, The Golden Ass, written in the second century CE. Apuleius probably used an earlier folk-tale as the basis for his story, modifying it to suit the thematic needs of his novel. Read on its own, it is for the most part a mixture of straightforward fairy tale and parody.
Outline of Apuleius' tale of Cupid and PsycheThe goddess Venus, jealous of the outstandingly beautiful mortal Psyche, asked her son Cupid to cause Psyche to fall in love with the vilest wretch alive. Cupid agreed. When all continued to admire and praise Psyche's beauty but none desired her as a wife, Psyche's parents consulted an oracle which told them to set Psyche in mourning garments on top of a nearby peak as Psyche was destined for no mortal lover but for a monster who held even gods in thrall. So it was done. But then Zephyrus, the west wind, carried Psyche away to a fair valley and a magnificent palace where she was attended by invisible servants until night fell and in the darkness of night the promised bridegroom arrived and the marriage was consummated. The bridegroom visited her only by night and refused to let himself be seen. The mysterious bridegroom even allowed Zephyrus to take Psyche back to her sisters and bring all three down to the palace during the day, only warning that Psyche should not listen to any argument that she should try to discover his true form. The two sisters, jealous of Psyche, returned, jumping down from that peak so that Zephyrus had to bear them up gently or let them die. The sisters told Psyche, then pregnant, that rumor was that she had married a great serpent who would devour her and her unborn child when her time came. They urged Psyche to conceal a knife and oil lamp in the bedchamber, to wait till her husband was asleep, and then to light the lamp and slay him at once if it turned as they had said. Psyche followed their advice. In the light of the lamp Psyche recognized the fair form on the bed as the god Cupid himself, but a drop of oil fell from Psyche's lamp and scalded Cupid. Cupid awoke and flew off with Psyche clinging to him until she could hold on no longer and fell to the earth, whereupon Cupid chastised Psyche for disobeying his charge. The god Pan, who was nearby, advised Psyche to seek to regain Cupid's love through service. Psyche returned to her old home and told her two, jealous, elder sisters what had happened; they rejoiced secretly and each separately attempted to return to the valley hoping for the love of the god, but this time Zephyrus did not bear them and they fell to their deaths. Psyche searched far and wide for her lover, finally stumbling into a temple to Demeter where all was in slovenly disarray. As Psyche was sorting and clearing, Demeter appeared, but refused any help but advice, saying Psyche must call directly on Venus. Psyche next called on Juno in her temple, but Juno said the same. So Psyche found a temple to Venus and entered it. Venus damned Psyche as a whore but did accept her service and ordered Psyche to separate all the grains in a large basket of mixed kinds before nightfall. An ant took pity on Psyche and with its ant companions separated the grains for her. Venus was outraged at her success and told her to go to a field where golden sheep grazed and get some golden wool. A voice from a reed in a river told Psyche that the sheep were vicious and strong and would kill her, but if she waited until noontime, the sheep would go the shade on the other side of the field and sleep; she could pick the wool that stuck to the branches and bark of the trees. Venus next asked for water from the Styx and Cocytus flowing from a cleft that was impossible for a mortal to attain and was also guarded by great serpents. This time an eagle performed the task for Psyche. Venus, outraged at Psyche's survival, claimed that the stress of caring for her son, depressed and ill as a result of Psyche's unfaithfulness, had caused her to lose some of her beauty. Psyche was to go to Hades and ask Proserpina, the queen of the underworld, for a bit of her beauty in a box that Venus gave to Psyche. Psyche decided that the quickest way to the underworld would be to throw herself off some high place and die and so she climbed to the top of a tower. But the tower itself spoke to her and told her the route through Tanaerum that would allow her to enter the underworld alive and return again, as well as telling her how to get by Cerberus by throwing him a sop and Charon by paying him an obol and how to avoid other dangers on the way there and back. Psyche followed the orders explicitly and ate nothing while beneath the earth. But when Psyche had got out of the underworld, she decided to open the box and take a little bit of the beauty for herself. Inside she could see no beauty, rather an infernal sleep arose from the box and overcame her. Cupid, who had forgiven Psyche, flew to her, wiped the sleep from her face, put it back in the box, and sent her back on her way. Then Cupid flew to heaven and begged Jupiter to aid them. Jupiter called a full and formal Council of the gods (which parodies a meeting of the Roman senate), declared it was his will that Cupid might marry Psyche, told Venus that it would be respectable matrimony, had Psyche fetched to heaven, and gave her a drink of immortality. The offspring of the marriage was Voluptas, that is, 'Pleasure'. Origin and Symbolism of Cupid & PsycheThe myth of Cupid and Psyche is of much later date than most of the other myths; though concerning gods and goddesses, is in form what is called in English fairy-tale and in German Märchen, a common oral genre found world wide but generally not represented in raw form in classical literature. Since Apuleius, the tale of Cupid and Psyche has been retold many times in verse and story, with many variations. Cupid is Love, while Psyche represents the soul; and thus the story, in its descriptions of Psyche's sufferings, symbolises how the soul, loved by heaven, and really loving heaven, is robbed of its joy through its own folly. Only by striving and suffering, the story tells us, is the soul purified and made fit for joy everlasting. Psyche's descent into the regions of the dead signifies that it is only after death that the soul realizes its true happiness. We may sum this myth up by saying that it is an allegory of:
Even if we did not know just when this myth originated, we might guess that the myth was a late one, for the earliest Greeks and Romans did not believe in a real happiness after death. They believed in existence after death, but it was a very shadowy existence, with the most negative sort of pleasures. Later, the Romans, even before they accepted Christianity, had their beliefs more or less modified by their contact with Christians. As you read this story of Cupid and Psyche, some incidents in it may have seemed familiar to you; you had come across them before in various fairy tales. Thus the story of Psyche's arrival at the palace and of the way in which she was waited upon by invisible beings will remind you of certain parts of Beauty and the Beast, while the labors set for Psyche by Venus will recall The Three Tasks. Now, while some of the fairy stories are undoubtedly borrowed from this old, old tale, it is a singular fact that there is an old Norse story (East of the Sun and West of the Moon) which contains some of the same incidents One of the most interesting things about the study of mythology is the attempt to discover how widely separate nations came to have similar stories. Many learned men have worked much over this question, and some of them say that, having the same facts to explain, or the same things to express in allegory, the various ancient peoples naturally hit upon the same explanations (independent origins). Others believe that this similarity of myths shows that far, far back, the ancestors of these different people must have had social intercourse with each other (common origin). Probably there is some truth in both theories, though most authorities now believe that the theory of independent origins covers more cases than does the theory of common origins. John Bunce argued for the theory of common origin in his 19th Century book Fairy Tales: Their Origin and Meaning . In his chapter on the story of Cupid and Psyche (Kindred Tales), he presents several similar fairy tales, and argues that these tales have their common origin in an Aryan sun myth. He interprets Cupid as symbolising the sun, and Psyche as the dawn.
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from Wikipedia and from ShiningRise.com
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