Reading Notes: Cupid and Psyche, Part A

 

The Captive Woman,  Her Dream 

- The first few stories in Part A of Cupid and Psyche are telling of a group of misfits and thugs robbing and pillaging, and kidnapping a beautiful young girl.

- The robbers in the first story, The Captive Woman, seem to have only captured the young beautiful woman as a ransom to receive money. As Expected the girl is in hysterics and cannot be consoled.

- The girl starts having bad dreams and the old lady that is in the group of misfits and thugs tries to calm her by telling her a story. 

Psyche's Beauty

- As the girl Psyche gets older, the world becomes obsessed and attracted to her beauty, so much so that the goddess Venus starts to feel neglected by her followers around the world. 

- To get back at Psyche, Venus summons her son Cupid to make Psyche fall in love with the most hideous and horrible man in the land so that she'll suffer in misery.

The Mysterious Husband 

- Psyche was forced to marry, not knowing that instead of doing what his mother wished, Cupid decided to marry Psyche himself.

- Psyche found herself not in the hell she expected but a beautiful magnificent palace. 

- Psyche finally gets to meet her new husband in bed but is unable to see him. She makes promises to him, promises to obey and to never question. He warns her of her horrible trickster sisters, to not believe a word they say, but Psyche stills doubts. 

Psyche's Husband Revealed

- Instead of listening to her husband, Psyche decides to listen to her sister and look at her husband in the light, something he forbade her to ever do. 

- Once she found out her husband was actually Cupid, her spirits were lifted and she was happy again. She even accidentally pricked herself with one of his arrows and fell even deeper in love with him. 

- Once Cupid woke up and realized what she had done, he was upset and flew away from her. He told her of his mother's plan and how he couldn't go through with them, how he wanted her to himself. Then he left her.

Psyche's Despair

- Psyche was deeply hurt by Cupid leaving, that she decided to confront one of her sisters about the horrible advice she'd given her. They fought and her sister ran to the cliff in jealousy wanting Cupid as her own but died when she jumped instead. 

Picture of Cupid: Volodymyr Tokar

Cupid and Psyche: written by Apuleius and translated into English by Tony Kline