Myth Of Cupid And Psyche
Celebrated on 14th February
Psyche was the youngest of three
daughters of a great king. So beautiful was she in both countenance and spirit
that people traveled from all over the world to admire her. Venus, goddess of
beauty, became jealous of Psyche because their admiration of Psyche led people
to neglect and even forget about Venus. So Venus devised a plot: She asked her
son, Cupid, the god of love, to make Psyche fall in love with the most
detestable creature in the whole world. Cupid arranged for Psyche to be
abandoned by her parents on a hilltop, where she would be betrothed to an ugly
and vile winged serpent. Psyche wept at her fate but was resigned to her doom
because, although she was beautiful, no one had in fact fallen in love with her,
and so it seemed that only the winged serpent would have her.
Venus had not counted on one detail, though. Cupid, upon seeing Psyche, himself
fell in love with her. Instead of bringing her a monster, he spirited her to his
magnificent palace and made her his wife. However, because Psyche was a mortal,
Cupid could not allow her to know either who he was or what he looked like. He
visited her only at night and made her agree never to look upon him. Psyche
lived a happy life with Cupid, although one of mystery. Eventually, Psyche’s
sisters, upon seeing the splendid palace where Psyche lived, became envious and
devised a plot to ruin her. They poisoned her mind, assuring Psyche that if her
husband was so secretive about his identity and appearance, there must be
something dreadfully wrong with him. Clearly, they said, Psyche had ended up
with the dreadful winged serpent after all.
Psyche finally could no longer bear the uncertainty of not knowing who her
husband was or what he looked like. One night, while Cupid slept, she cautiously
carried a lamp to his bed to gaze upon his face. Instead of seeing a monster,
however, she saw as handsome a face as one could possibly imagine, and her hands
started to tremble at the sight of her beloved husband. As she trembled,
thought, oil fell from her lamp and severely burned Cupid’s shoulder. He awoke,
and finding that his wife has betrayed him, and he flew away as he cried "O
foolish Psyche! Is it thus you repay my love? But go; return to your sisters
whose advice you seem to think preferable to mine! I inflict no punishment on
you other than to leave you forever."
In anguish at her faithlessness and at having hurt him and then lost him, Psyche
vowed to show Cupid how much she loved him by spending the rest of her life
searching for him. She prayed to all the gods for help, but none of them wanted
to risk the wrath of Venus. Finally, in desperation, Psyche prayed to Venus
herself.
Cupid had flown
to his mother and asked her to treat his wound. When Venus heard that Cupid had
married Psyche and that Psyche had betrayed her pledge to Cupid, Venus decided
to punish Psyche severely. When Psyche begged for forgiveness from Venus, Venus
belittled Psyche as faithless and plain and told her that her only hope for
forgiveness was to perform certain tasks. The tasks were clearly impossible, but
Psyche hoped that in her travels to complete the tasks she might find her lost
love. First, Venus took some tiny seeds of wheat, poppy, and millet, mixed them,
and dropped them in a single pile. She gave Psyche until nightfall to separate
the seeds. Psyche despaired, but a colony of ants, showing compassion, sorted
them for her. Venus returned, and seeing what had happened, became even angrier.
So Venus gave Psyche more impossible tasks, such as to fetch the golden wool of
some fierce sheep and to obtain black water from the river Styx. Again, through
the help of others, Psyche fulfilled her tasks. Finally Cupid, who was now
healed, longed for her once again. He went to her, scolded her gently for her
earlier faithlessness, and assured her that her search was over. He longed to
reunite with her, so he approached Jupiter, king of the gods, and beseeched him
to grant Psyche immortality. Jupiter consented and, before an assembly of gods,
made Psyche a goddess and announced that Cupid and Psyche were formally married.
Even Venus was joyous: Her son now had a suitable match. Moreover, with Psyche
in the heavens rather than on Earth, people would no longer be distracted by
Psyche’s beauty and would worship Venus once again.
The curiosity of Psyche and her search – for both knowledge (of who Cupid was
and what he looked like) and for love – are symbolic of our own spirit of
inquiry as we go in search of the human mind. The story of Psyche exemplifies
many of the phenomena that psychologists seek to study: curiosity, envy, love,
compassion, altruism, and perseverance.
|
