Cupid was at his mother’s (Venus’) house after Psyche
accidentally burned him with candle wax. Venus heard about her son being hurt,
though what she was told was greatly overstated. This is exactly what Hollywood
tabloids do with celebrity news. They take a simple story and twist it so much
that it seems like a bigger deal than it actually is. With Cupid gone all
dealings that have to do with love and kindness were lost. Venus is extremely
angry when she finds out that Cupid is in love with Psyche. This makes her
dislike Psyche even more. Venus wants to get revenge on both Cupid and Psyche.
Psyche seeks the help and protection from the goddesses Ceres and Juno. Ceres
cannot help her because she is such a close friend to Venus. Juno is unable to
help Psyche as well. Since they were of no help, Psyche decides to confront
Venus herself. So, she tries to find a way to get to Venus’ house. Venus sets a
reward for anyone who can tell her the location of Psyche. Psyche is soon found
and brought to Venus. Venus has Psyche beaten and tortured by her servants.
Maybe this could be represented as Venus’ friends slandering her name in the
tabloids. Venus thinks that this is all funny. Now Venus is putting Psyche to
the test by making her sort out piles of different beans and grains. Ants
quickly came to Psyche’s aid and helped her sort out the pile. Now Psyche must
get golden fleece from sheep that graze in a field nearby. Psyche didn’t want
to try and complete this task so she decided to throw herself off a cliff.
However, as she went to do this she was given the advice to wait till the sheep
cool off in the evening and look for their wool and branches. Even still Venus didn’t
give her approval. So, she told Psyche to go to the river Styx and the river
Cocytus and to get water from them. With the help of Jupiter’s eagle, Psyche
was able to get the water from the river into a vial. Even after this Venus is
not impressed so she wants Psyche to go to the underworld to meet Proserpine.
She needed to ask her for a bit of her beauty. Even though she was told not to
look in the jar, she was too curious. When she went to look she instantly fell
asleep. However, Cupid found her and was able to wake her up. He asked Jupiter
for help to get back at Venus. Jupiter called for a meeting of all the gods and
told everyone that Cupid and Psyche were going to get married.
Now we are back to the old woman who was originally telling
the story. The robbers packed up their stuff and went to a cave to get more.
The robbers want to kill the donkey because he is not very helpful. The donkey
is now thinking of how to escape his death. As he tried to escape the old woman
caught him and pulled him back. The kidnapped girl helped the donkey escape and
rode him to safety. The donkey finally turns back into his human form.
Bibliography: Cupid and Psyche, written by Apuleius and translated English by Tony Kline. A fairy tale included in the novel The Golden Ass.
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