Reading B, Week 4: Psyche & Cupid
The story of Cupid & Psyche continues:
Psyche now lays in pain from his wound that Psyche accidentally gave him. A bird comes to Venus and tells her that people have turned against her & Cupid because there is now no love or beauty in the world. Venus asks who Cupid is in love with & the bird tells her it is Psyche and this really angers Venus. Venus returns home to take out her anger on Cupid. Juno & Ceres try to reason with Venus & give Cupid an excuse, but Venus won't hear of it.
Psyche is searching everywhere for her husband. She happens upon the temple of Ceres, hoping that Cupid might be there. He wasn't, but she set to taking care of the temple anyway. Ceres sees her work and thanks her, but won't give Psyche refuge from Venus. She next goes to Juno's temple to seek help, but again Juno refuses to go against Venus.
Psyche can find no one to help her & can't find her husband so she decides to go surrender to Venus herself, thinking that maybe she can find her husband there. Venus goes to Mercury & sends him to hunt for Psyche, offering a reward for her.
Psyche is captured & given to Venus, who immediately begins the punishing & torture of Psyche. Venus mocks the fact that she is carrying the child of Cupid. Venus also assigns her an impossible task of sorting a mountain of various types of grains into separate piles by evening. An ant see this & takes pity on Psyche & rounds up scores more of ants and they help her with her task & disappear. Venus is angry at this & Cupid & Psyche spend the night in Venus' home but locked away from each other.
The next day Venus assigns Psyche another task, to get some of the wool from the golden sheep in a pasture. Psyche goes to commit suicide, but a reed tells her not to do that & tells her how to complete her task easily. Psyche completed the task but still Venus was angry.
Venus gives Psyche another task, to retrieve freezing liquid from the river Cocytus & swamp of Styx. Providence, Jupiter's mighty eagle saw Psyche in trouble and knowing that she was Cupid's wife and he had helped Cupid in the past, took pity on Psyche & offered to do the task for her. He claimed that he was acting on Venus' behalf so the waters would be easier to handle. Psyche took the vial of liquid to Venus, but she was not pleased.
She gave Psyche another task: to go to the underworld & ask the goddess Porserpine for some of her beauty for Venus. Psyche was distraught as surely she was meant to die in this task. She goes to commit suicide again to get to the underworld but the turret she is going to jump off gives her very detailed instructions on how to accomplish this task safely. She was warned not to take a single drop of the beauty in the jar for Venus, but as Psyche safely reaches the light of day out of the underworld, she decides that she would be foolish not to take a single drop & it might even please her husband.
There was no beauty in the jar, only a deep sleep. Psyche fell where she lay, looking like a corpse, but in sleep. Cupid by now has healed & flies to check on his bride. He wipes the sleep from her & returns it to the jar. He tells her that her foolish curiosity has nearly ruined her again. He tells her to finish the task while he takes care of the rest. Psyche does as he asks. Cupid goes to seek Jupiter to get his help in the matter. Jupiter tells him that if he finds him another girl of equal beauty, he will help Cupid.
Jupiter tells the other gods that he will give Psyche to Cupid, but Cupid must honor his bonds of matrimony forever. Psyche is brought to heaven, made immortal & told that Cupid will be hers forever. There was a great wedding & feast for the marriage and later Psyche gave birth to a daughter & her name was Pleasure. This was the tale the old woman told to the kidnapped girl. Then the robbers return home with loads of loot, they have to go back for more with no regard for the donkey & the horse. They decide they've had nothing but bad luck since the got the lame ass so when they get back & unload him from the second load, they will throw the donkey off the cliff.
Lucius the donkey, starts plotting his escape. He decides to break free. The old woman grabs on to his rope, but the kidnapped girl yanks the rope away, jumps on the donkey & they both make a break for freedom. The girl is pleading to the gods to help her escape & promising the donkey all the rewards she can offer if he helps her get back to her parents.
Bibliography: The Tale of Cupid & Psyche by Apuleius. Weblink.
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