Psyche's Love Story

How would it feel to fall in love with love itself but not know? The tale of Psyche and Cupid goes a so.

Psyche possessed the kind of beauty that people from every kingdom could not help but talk about. Some people went as fast to compare her beauty to the goddess of love, Venus. Venus, you could imagine, was not thrilled to be compared to such a mere mortal like Psyche herself. Out of spite, Venus ordered her son Cupid to strike Psyche with one of his arrows to torture the princess. One small prick from Cupid's arrow would put a mortal like Psyche in a treacherous state of irrational unbending love. Now Cupid loved his mother with such devotion, but one look at Psyche could make even the most honorable son betray his mother's trust.

With Psyche and his mother Venus none the wiser, Cupid led the princess to safety and hid her away in a sanctuary. Cupid would love on her at night and fly away in the morning so she would never who he was. She had almost everything she could ever want: riches, servants, and a loving husband.

Psyche still longed for her family though. She missed her parents and two sisters. Cupid tried to tell her that no good could come of seeing her family, but she was so blinded by her blood bond she wouldn't hear anything about it. She begged Cupid to let them visit her and to her delight, Cupid gave into his love.

Psyche welcomed her sisters to her home and showered them with gifts. Her sisters, ungrateful and jealous ,felt like Psyche didn't deserve everything she had.

Psyche eagerly told her sisters about her new found love, "He's loving, intelligent, and so incredibly kind."

"Yes, but with such great traits he must not have looks to match," said one of the sisters in hopes of finding a flaw in Psyche's life.

Psyche, embarrassed that she could not describe her husband, quickly listed as many physical descriptors as possible. She was talking so fast that she didn't realize that she listed contradicting features. Psyche at first said her husband had hair as white as snow but later she said he liked to slick back his charcoal-colored hair.

Her sisters quickly noticed Psyche had no idea what her husband looked like. They knew that this meant Psyche was married to a god. Both agreed Psyche was not worthy of such love. They quickly devised a plan to sabotage their sister.

The sisters convinced poor Psyche that if she couldn't see him, he must be a serpent of some sort. Psyche as the youngest sister immediately believed her older all-knowing sisters. They cooked up a plan to reveal Psyche's husband's true identity. Psyche took away the blanket of night Cupid was hiding under by lighting a lamp to truly reveal who he was. She couldn't believe her eyes. Her one true love was Cupid himself!

Psyche was in such a state of shock at her most handsome husband, she didn't see the arrows by the edge of the bed. To get a better look at her love, she moved in closer and then suddenly felt light-headed. Psyche had accidentally leaned into Cupid's arrows and struck herself in the heart. Psyche lost all emotions but infatuation and lust for Cupid. She couldn't control herself. She was clawing at Cupid. He awoke from her exaggerated affections of love. Cupid took one look at her and knew Psyche had discovered his identity.

Cupid could not stand to be near his wife who betrayed him. He told her she would forever regret giving into such shallow needs. He would leave her as punishment because a life without him is not a life worth living.

Psyche's tragedy has been told by adults and children alike to teach them a lesson. To be in love with love itself is the most dangerous love of them all.

Author's note:

I chose this story because I had never read the story of Psyche and Cupid before. Plus Valentine's Day was coming up so why not get in the spirit? In the original story, the narrator was an old lady trying to keep a kidnapped victim quiet. Instead of that set-up, I wanted to make the story more of a fable which is why I added the end note and a lesson from the narrator. I emphasized the lesson to be in love with love itself is quite unfulfilling. In the original story, Psyche also picks up Cupid's arrow and nicks herself while doing it. I wanted Psyche to pierce her own heart by falling onto it. I thought this mirrored the way she fell into her sisters' plan to unveil her husband. I also wanted to shift some blame off of Psyche. I wanted to emphasize the blind faith she put in people in her life and how that affected her. In my version of the story, I didn't mention Venus as much as the original story, because I feel like my focus of this story was truly on Psyche and Cupid. If I were to focus on Venus, I think I would create a secondary focus on the sisters to take the villainous angle and pursue the theme of jealousy.

This story is part of the Cupid and Psyche unit. Story source: Apuleius's Golden Ass, as translated into English by Tony Kline (2013).