Week 3 Story: The Story of Cupid and Psyche

Cupid kissing Psyche on the Forehead. 

Source: Wikiwand

One day an old lady was walking through the forest when she stumbled upon a young woman weeping to herself. The old lady thought about not disturbing the young woman and letting her be. When she turned to walk away the young woman started to cry even more so the old lady asked "Why are you crying, my dear?" 

Startled the young woman stopped crying and just looked at the old lady. For a moment all that could be heard around them was the animals of the forest going on with their life. Suddenly the young woman started to cry "I am supposed to marry a man I do not know," 

Upon hearing that news the old lady walked up to the young woman and sat next to her. To help console the woman she said "How about I tell you a story about a beautiful woman named Psyche who married someone she did not know?" This definitely got the young woman's attention who was barely crying now. 

This is how the story went...

Once upon a time, there was a king and queen who had 3 very beautiful daughters. The older two were quite attractive but the youngest daughter was exquisite. Her name was Psyche and everyone who saw her taken with her looks. Before long people started to worship her like they worshiped the goddess Venus. Because of that, no one worshiped Venus leaving her temples empty which angered Venus. Venus woke up and summons her son, Cupid. She wished for her son to go out and find a man for Psyche to fall in love with but with a catch. She wanted that man to be wretched, poor, and below everyone else in the world as to punish her. 

Even though Psyche was worshiped for her beauty she was all alone and had no one. Both of her beautiful sisters had already been asked for her hand. Psyche had no one ask for her hand since everyone just wanted to admire her. The king saw that his youngest daughter was lonely asked Apollo for a husband for her. Apollo said she would have a husband but it would be bad and her children would be evil. So, the next day they prepared psyche for the wedding but dressed her in clothes for a funeral and left her on a cliff. On this cliff she fell asleep but when she woke there was a palace like no other. She went in it and was told that it was all of hers, so she was pampered. That night while in bed her husband joined her and they consummated the marriage making her his wife. 

Psyche would spend her days alone trapped in the palace and only being by her husband at night. She did not know what he looked like. Since she never left the palace her family thought she was dead until one day her husband allowed her to see her sisters. Before he allowed it though he made her promise never to try to figure out what he looked like. As the visits with her sisters continued they kept planting seeds of doubt about Psyche's husband since she has never seen him. Finally, they convinced Psyche to take a lamp into their room at night and finally see his looks. She did just that and when he fell asleep she lit the lamp to see his face. She expected to see a beast of sorts but she saw... a young beautiful person. Then she saw the arrows and bow realizing that her husband was cupid. She went to touch him and oil from the lamp burned him. This woke Cupid up, he was furious at her and ended up leaving. 

Cupid went to his mother's chamber where she figured out that he betrayed her by marrying Psyche. He was locked in a room there while he was hurt. Venus went on a hunt to find Psyche and decided to go to heaven to get help from Mercury. While this was going on Psyche went to different temples trying to get help finding her husband but they would not betray venus. After a while Psyche was found and taken to Venus where she was punished by Anxiety and Sorrow before Venus attacked her. Venus then had Psyche do 4 different tasks to prove herself with each being more dangerous than the last. During each task, she got help from different things. After the last task, Cupid came to Psyche telling her he would take care of everything. So he went up to heave and talked to Jupiter who helped him. Psyche was then brought to heaven and made immortal during a wedding feast. Cupid and Psyche were allowed to be together and they had a daughter called Pleasure. 

After telling the story the old lady turned to the young woman and said "So as you see my dear sometimes unknown marriages can turn into an immortal love. It most likely will have its fair share of problems but it will also have some wonderful times,". With that, the old lady got up leaving the young woman with her thoughts on what she just told her about. 

Authors Note: For my story I chose The Golden Ass written by Apuleius and translated by Tony Kline. This story starts out with Lucious as a donkey working for robbers. Those robbers kidnapped a young woman on her wedding day and an old lady tells her a wives tale to help calm her. The wives tale is about a exquisitely beautiful girl named Psyche who is worshiped more than Venus. That angers her and makes her summon her son Cupid to find Psyche the worst guy to fall in love with. It goes on with Psyche marrying this guy but has never seen who he is. After a while her sisters make her curious so she finds out what he looks like one night when he is sleeping. She sees its cupid and this angers him so he leaves but Psyche spends time trying to find him. Venus captures Psyche during that and punishes her. In the end Cupid goes to heaven gets help and Psyche becomes immortal with him. For my story I started it out with the young and old woman still but did not include the robbers or lucious. I made it to were the young woman is crying because she has to marry someone she doesnt know. So, the old woman tells her the wives tale to try to help her. For the wives tale I just retold the Cupid and Psyche story in my own words. Then ended it with the old lady leaving. 

Bibliography: The Golden Ass written by Apuleius and translated by Tony Kline