It's All Greek to Me!

Eros and Psyche! Love and soul. Theirs is a long story, with a rare happy ending. To make a long and detailed story shorter, here’s the main gist- Psyche was a very beautiful maiden, so much so to spike Aphrodite’s jealousy. Here the story has different versions, but basically Aphrodite can’t have anyone competing with her beauty/ stealing her worshipers, so she plans to dispose of the maiden. The version I heard first has Psyche being sacrificed to appease Aphrodite; Psyche was sentenced to being pushed/jump off of a cliff, where she was to be taken by Zephr the West Wind to a secret place where she would be sacrificed and/or married to a monster. 

However, Eros had fallen in love with Psyche at some point, and would not allow Psyche to be harmed/with anyone else. So Psyche arrived at the palace, and was not sacrificed- instead, she was “married” to the “monster” that night and by “married” I mean consummated, and by “monster” I mean Eros. Eros could not let Psyche see him, however, so their bedchamber was always dark. He would leave every morning before she woke, and come back every night after dark. Psyche was having a grand old time, but she was lonely during the day, and confessed this to her nighttime husband. So he had Zephr bring Psyche’s two sisters to their place- however the sisters were jealous of their sister’s life and cruel, and so convinced Psyche she was actually married to a monster, and that she should use candlelight to see who she slept with, and then kill him.

Psyche did light a candle, and saw that she was married to none other than Love, aka Eros. But a drop of hot wax fell onto Eros and woke him; started, hurt and angry, Eros left her that instant, leaving Psyche heartbroken. Then the trials of Psyche begin- she begged Aphrodite to help her, and Aphrodite set her a series of tasks, each intended to kill the young maiden. Psyche successfully completed the tasks, save the last one, where she was not supposed to look into a box she had procured from Persephone, Queen of the Underworld. Her Pandora complex set in, and Psyche looked, and was cast into an eternal sleep. Eros found out about this, and realizing all that Psyche had done in the name of her love for him, forgave her and woke her with a kiss. They were wed on Mt. Olympus, where Psyche gained her butterfly wings, and Aphrodite finally let bygones be bygones.

So that wasn’t as short as I originally intended, but at least I didn’t go into Psyche’s tasks.

Here are some lovely and famous renditions of these two lovers, but alas I only know the names/artists of a few. We had two different versions by Rodin, an Unknown, an Eros and Psyche by Lotz, L’amour et Psyche, enfants by Bouguereau, and The Abduction of Psyche, by Bouguereau. Enjoy!