Week 2 Story: Cupid and Psyche

The Story of Cupid and Psyche

Painting source from Micheline Walker

Author's note: This is a summary of the story about Cupid and Psyche from this weeks reading. 

Bibliography: Apuleius's Golden Ass, as translated into English by Tony Kline (2013)

Once upon a time, there was a girl sleeping in her castle and she was waking up to robbers breaking into her house. They quickly grabbed her and blindfolded her and covered her mouth so she couldn’t yell. They threw her in a cave and told her that they wouldn’t kill her but were going to use her to bribe her parents for money. The girl is still scared and crying was comforted until she fell asleep by an old woman who was also locked in the cadge. She woke up screaming and shaking moments later from a nightmare and the old woman decided to comfort her again with a story. It was a story about a girl named Psyche. Psyche was the youngest of three and the most beautiful girl in the world. She was so beautiful that the Goddess Venus got jealous and told her son, Cupid, to make only the ugliest man on the planet fall in love with her. As time passed, her oldest sisters got married and she still wasn’t. Her parents pressured to find her a love asked the Gods what to do. The God told them Venus had a vendetta against her and there was no hope in her ever getting married. They accepted her fate and bought her to a mountain top to leave her. A mysterious wind picked her up and carried her to the most magical palace. There in the palace were bodiless voices who became her servants and did everything she asked and needed. That night she heard her husband but did not see what he looked like. As days, weeks and months went by they fell in love and she soon became pregnant. Although she loved her life, she missed her family dearly and asked her husband if she could see them. He at first told her, no, but then agreed as long as she was sure not to be naïve. She met her sisters and showed them her home. After they left, the sisters grew extremely jealous of Psyche and plotted against her for the next time they saw her. When that day came, they cornered her and told her that her husband, who she still had not seen, was a snake that was planning on killing her and her unborn child. They told Psyche that she must hold a blade under her pillow and kill him while he’s asleep. That night instead of killing him she flashed a lantern on his face. The lanterned revealed his face and showed that her husband was Cupid, Venus’s son. Cupid woke up angry as she disobeyed him and flew away to his mom. Venus heard what her son had done and became furious threatening his powers. She found Psyche and tortured her but Psyche didn’t give up. In return, Venus gave her an impossible task and as she accomplished each task Venus would give her a more impossible one. Her final task was to bring a jar of special water to the underworld but was told by her friends not to open the jar. After completing the task for Venus, she opened the jar in hopes that it would fix things between her and Cupid. The water made her fall asleep but Cupid found her and saved her as they lived happily ever after. As the woman finished her story a donkey was planning his escape out of the cave. The donkey started running and the girl ran with him. The old woman tried to catch them but they succeeded in their escape. In return, the girl promised a good life for the donkey.