Reading Notes: Cupid and Psyche, Part A

Psyche:

• She was the most beautiful of the three daughters and people flocked to see her
• People began to say that she was the goddess Venus herself on earth as a mortal
• Venus was infuriated that people were worshiping Psyche instead of her 
• She was so perfect that men did not wish to marry her, only admiring from afar
• Could write about a terrible curse or spell that Venus casts on Psyche to punish her

Cupid:

• Venus's son who is wicked and with bow and torch in hand, ruins marriages and is shameful
• Venus asks him to punish her by causing her to passionately love an insignificant man 
• He brings Psyche to his palace, visiting her only at night to keep his identity a secret

Psyche's father sought out the oracle of Apollo and learned of the ritual and fatal marriage that would be Pysche's end. They left her on the precipice to die, but she was lifted by the wind and carried down the cliff where she stumbled upon a god or demigod's palace.

• Could change so that Psyche sneaked away from the ceremony (or even did die) and ran until she came upon the beautiful palace.

Her mysterious husband, who is actually Cupid, warns her not to see her sisters, but after she pleaded with him, he allowed her to visit them, but not to investigate who Cupid is. She seduces Cupid into bringing the sisters to the palace, but they were jealous when they see Psyche's new life.

•  I could expand on this idea of sisterly jealousy and even add influences of Cinderella with her two evil step-sisters. They could devise a scheme, possibly dressing up as Psyche and switching places.

Cupid warns her that she will bear a divine child if she speaks no word of Cupid, but her terrible sisters convinced her that Cupid was an evil beast and told her to kill him. But when she saw who it was, she woke him up, and he flew away. She fled to her sisters and when she told them what happened, they hurried to take her place in Cupid's palace but died trying.

 (Psyche discovering Cupid's identity by Giuseppe Maria Crespi)

Bibliography: Cupid and Psyche by Apulieus and translated by Tony Kline