When the God of love was struck by his own arrow: The story of Cupid and Psyche

But what happens erstwhile the deity of emotion himself becomes entangled successful the precise emotion helium commands?

The matchmaker’s ain mess

Cupid’s occupation was simple: marque mortals autumn successful love. But things got analyzable erstwhile helium became love’s unfortunate himself. His troubles began with Psyche, a mortal pistillate whose quality was truthful dazzling it made adjacent the goddess of quality and Cupid’s mother, Venus, seethe with jealousy. Furious that humans were worshipping Psyche implicit her, Venus devised a cruel revenge. She ordered her lad to marque Psyche autumn for the astir hideous carnal imaginable.

But past Cupid pricked himself with his ain arrow and fell hopelessly successful emotion with her. Instead of pursuing orders, helium spirited Psyche distant to a hidden palace wherever helium visited her lone successful darkness, forbidding her from ever looking upon his face.

Of course, secrecy and emotion seldom premix well. Egged connected by her jealous sisters, Psyche’s curiosity got the champion of her. One night, she lit a lamp to glimpse the antheral she’d fallen for — and alternatively of a monster, she recovered a radiant god. In her shock, she spilled blistery lipid from the lamp, burning him awake. Betrayed, Cupid fled, leaving down lone 1 parting declaration: Love cannot unrecorded without trust.

Amore e Psiche (1707–09) by Giuseppe Crespi.  One night, she lit a lamp to glimpse the antheral she’d fallen for — and alternatively of a monster, she recovered a radiant god. (Wikimedia Commons)

The mother-in-law from hell

Psyche didn’t instrumentality her punishment lying down. Determined to triumph backmost her lover, she sought retired Venus, who, alternatively of offering help, acceptable her up for failure. What followed was a bid of tasks designed to interruption her spirit:

• She had to benignant a upland of mixed grains earlier dawn, until an service of ants took pity connected her and did the occupation for her.
• She was sent to stitchery aureate fleece from deadly, sun-maddened rams, which she managed lone with the assistance of a stream god’s whispered advice.
• She was ordered to cod h2o from the perilous River Styx — ngo impossible, until an eagle swooped successful to help.
• And then, the last challenge: retrieve a container of quality from the Underworld itself. Psyche did it, but curiosity struck again. She cracked the container unfastened and promptly fell into an enchanted sleep.

Psyché aux enfers (1865) by Eugène Ernest Hillemacher. The last situation was to retrieve a container of quality from the Underworld itself. (Wikimedia Commons)

Cupid, contempt his heartbreak, ne'er truly stopped loving her. Finding Psyche lifeless, helium kissed her awake. Even Jupiter, king of the gods, was moved by their devotion. He convinced Venus to fto them beryllium unneurotic and granted Psyche immortality, making their emotion eternal.

A communicative arsenic aged arsenic time

If Beauty and the Beast feels similar déjà vu, that’s due to the fact that Psyche lived it first. A young woman, trapped successful a mysterious palace, bound to a person she’s forbidden from seeing — sounds familiar? Cinderella’s wicked stepsisters? Psyche had her ain jealous siblings egging her on. And that enchanted slumber that lone existent love’s buss could break? Let’s conscionable accidental Sleeping Beauty wasn’t precisely pioneering caller territory.

“Psyche’s presumption arsenic the astir important of 3 sisters, the different 2 of whom are morally inferior, is intelligibly a exemplary for Cinderella, portion her ignorance astir the individuality of her hubby and the mendacious thought raised that helium mightiness beryllium a monster is intelligibly a exemplary for Beauty and the Beast,” says Stephen Harrison, Professor of Latin Literature astatine the University of Oxford.

Even Twilight echoes the story — a mortal miss successful emotion with an otherworldly being, a achy separation, near-death trials, and, finally, immortality. And Bridgerton? Look a small closer, and you’ll find shades of Psyche successful Penelope Featherington, the youngest of 3 sisters, portion Colin, ever the matchmaking charmer, unexpectedly falls for her. Even Queen Charlotte’s meddling wouldn’t beryllium retired of spot alongside Venus’s intolerable tests.

Both Psyche, and Sleeping Beauty find themselves successful a death-like slumber, breached lone by existent love’s kiss. (Wikimedia Commons)

Romeo and Juliet? The emotion that defies family, the secrecy — it’s each there. Juliet drinks the sleeping potion that mimics decease a la Psyche, but Romeo, believing her genuinely lost, takes his ain life, lone for Juliet to awaken excessively late.

Clearly, immoderate stories don’t conscionable get retold, they resurface, slipping into caller forms, period aft century. “The story presents a emotion communicative successful which a young mates overcomes trials, often imposed by family. This is afloat recognisable successful a modern discourse successful Europe and India, and is simply a connection for young radical to persevere successful their partnerships if they judge it is close for them, adjacent if things are practically precise difficult,” says Professor Harrison.

Psyche: a pawn oregon a rebel?

Of course, these fairy tales and romances haven’t ever aged well. Feminists person agelong criticised Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Beauty and the Beast for their passive heroines — women who endure suffering, hold for rescue, and are yet rewarded with marriage. Psyche, though? She broke the rules. She disobeyed Cupid’s command, questioned her circumstances, and fought her mode done intolerable trials, albeit with immoderate divine help.

Unlike truthful galore fairy-tale heroines who are rewarded for their patience and virtue, Psyche’s emotion communicative isn’t astir waiting.

Feminist interpretations of Psyche uncover a analyzable and often contradictory legacy. “Early feminists viewed Psyche arsenic the goddess of the soul, a awesome of purity and transcendence,” says Professor Unni. “But aboriginal feminist readings situation this, portraying Psyche arsenic a doubtful and susceptible figure, influenced by her sisters and perpetually scrutinising Cupid.”

Her regard connected Cupid portion helium slept has been analysed successful aggregate ways — was it an enactment of lust, curiosity, an aboriginal signifier of surveillance oregon an assertion of agency? Was she simply a gullible mortal swayed by her sisters, oregon was she reclaiming power successful a narration wherever she was kept successful the dark? “There is curiosity, sure, but that curiosity is simply a benignant of surveillance also,” says Professor Unni.

Historically, women’s scepticism has been marginalised. “But what’s the occupation with doubt?” asks Professor Unni. “Doubt is not weakness, it’s an enactment of questioning, of seeking truth. Throughout history, women person been portrayed arsenic objects of conflict, deliberation of Helen of Troy, and Draupadi successful the Mahabharata. But Psyche’s uncertainty makes her different.” In a satellite wherever women person often been reduced to symbols oregon pawns, uncertainty becomes an enactment of reclaiming agency.

One of her tasks — the retrieval of aureate fleece — is peculiarly striking. She is ordered to attack convulsive rams, an representation laden with masculine aggression.

Even creator depictions of Psyche uncover subtle biases. The coating ‘Abduction of Psyche’ by William-Adolphe Bouguereau portrays her wholly nude, stripped of control, says Professor Unni. Unlike depictions of different mythic women (think Leda, who retains immoderate covering), Psyche’s nakedness symbolises her utter vulnerability, but besides invites critique connected the ways women’s suffering has been aestheticised successful art.

Professor Harrison, however, offers a counterpoint: “Psyche is 1 of the fewer pistillate protagonists successful Roman literature, and this and her resilience and courageousness marque her a bully feminist relation model. It is existent that she suffers, but she does get determination successful the end, admittedly with divine help, and her fulfilling of the labours assigned to her (including a descent into the Underworld) shows her resolution.”

Psyche Opening the Golden Box (1903) by John William Waterhouse. Psyche remained funny and defiant till the precise end, opening the container of quality from the Underworld, contempt being told not to. (Wikimedia Commons)

The national of emotion and the soul

From past Greek philosophies to the Renaissance, the dichotomy betwixt assemblage and psyche has been a defining facet of quality thought. “While the Greeks initially placed much accent connected the body, the Greco-Roman civilisation, particularly arsenic it evolved from the aboriginal BCs to its highest successful the 4th and 5th centuries, began to prioritise the soul. This displacement continued into the Renaissance, wherever the psyche was seen arsenic superior to the body,” says Professor Unni, adding that artists specified arsenic Michelangelo (Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni), Alberti (Leon Battista Alberti), and Donatello (Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi) depicted corporeal emotion arsenic a means to attain a higher, soulful connection. The improvement of this thought is reflected successful the story of Cupid and Psyche, wherever emotion (Cupid) yet seeks national with the psyche (Psyche).

Besides, arsenic Professor Harrison explains, Cupid and Psyche adapted good to Christian ideology, arsenic it could beryllium understood arsenic a Platonic allegory of emotion and the soul. “Christianity and Platonism enjoyed a adjacent narration nether the Roman Empire, arsenic some shared a dualistic worldview — 1 that saw the worldly satellite arsenic a specified shadiness of a greater, eternal reality. This allowed Apuleius’ communicative to beryllium seamlessly integrated into Christian thought, reinforcing the thought of spiritual emotion implicit carnal desire,” helium says.