Reading Notes: Cupid and Psyche Part B

(Psyche, by Waterhouse)

Venus and the Goddesses: 

• Psyche searched for Cupid while he lay in his mother’s chamber with his scorched shoulder 
• Meanwhile, a bird dived into the ocean and informed Venus of her son's whereabouts and that he was in love with Psyche
• Venus returns to find her son Cupid and begins to mock him and his choices 
• Venus swears she will get revenge on him and Psyche and she runs from the room
• Venus meets with Juno and Ceres and asked them to help her get revenge
• They questioned why she would want revenge because her son is just young and easily attracted to girls 
• They tried to convince her to abandon her quest for revenge but Venus felt her wrongs were being ignored so she turned her back and walked away 

Psyche’s Prayer 

• Psyche continued to search for Cupid and wandered to a temple in search of him. 
• It was in this temple that Ceres found her. 
• She told Psyche that Venus was searching for her and warned her to think of her own safety 
• Though moved by Psyche’s tears, Ceres tells her to leave the shrine at once because she will not go against the wishes of Venus. 
• Psyche soon finds another temple and begins to pray once again for the help of the gods.
• Juno appears before Psyche although she was also moved by her tears, tells her that she must leave because she cannot go against the wishes of Venus. 

Venus and Mercury:  

• Abandoning her search on earth, Venus heads straight to Jove’s royal citadel to demand the help of Mercury 
• Venus tells Mercury to put out a reward for the princess Psyche and so Mercury travels all around spreading the word
• The promise of a grand prize begins to draw the attention of many. 

Venus and Psyche: 

• Psyche was soon found and delivered to Venus. 
• Venus makes Anxiety and Sorrow punish Psyche before punishing her herself. 
• Then, Venus called for a mixture of wheat, millet barley, poppy seeds, chickpeas, lentils, and beans
• She tells Psyche to separate all of them before nightfall when Venus would return to see her work. 
• A passing ant witnessed Psyche’s despair over the task and summoned a whole squadron of local ants.  
• The ant calls for the others to help Psyche with her task and they separate each grain until the task is finished when they vanish from sight. 

Psyche’s Next Task:

• Venus returns and is angered by the well-performed task
• She sends Psyche to bed with little food that night 
• The next day, Venus gives Psyche her new task; getting a piece of wool from the sheep that graze near the river. 
• Psyche sets off, intending to throw herself off the cliff and into the river 
• A reed tells Psyche not to do that, and instead wait until the sheep lay to rest and then sneak into the forest. The reed tells her she will be able to find bits of their wool clinging to the branches. 
• Psyche returned with the wool but Venus was still not pleased. 
• She told Psyche her next task was to collect water from the waters that feed into the swamps of the Styx 

The Third Task: 

• Psyche was overwhelmed when she saw her next task. 
• She vowed to commit suicide if she could not complete this task 
• Above her, Jupiter’s royal eagle watched Psyche and flew down to aid her. 
• The eagle grabbed the phial from Psyche and filled the jar

The Jar of Beauty: 

• Psyche brought the jar to Venus but Venus was still not appeased
• Venus orders Psyche to take the jar to Proserpine and fill the jar with a days worth of beauty 
• As she is ready to throw herself from a high tower, a voice tells her the way to reach Pluto’s palace with facing death. 
• After giving her the very detailed instructions, the voice warns Psyche to not look into the jar filled with beauty once she has obtained it 
• Psyche complete her task with haste but as she returned she was overcome with curiosity and thought that taking a drop of the beauty might help her to please her lover 

The Sleep of the Dead: 

• There was no beauty in the jar, only Stygian sleep. 
• Psyche was attacked by slumber and fell to the ground asleep
• Cupid had now recovered from his injuries and quickly flew to Psyche’s side
• He woke her with his arrow and told Psyche to return with the jar for his mother 
• Cupid quickly headed to Jupiter to attempt to win support for his cause 
• Jupiter told Cupid he would help as long as Cupid provided him with a girl of outstanding beauty 

The Wedding Feast: 

• Jupiter declared that Cupid should be allowed to claim Psyche in attempts to get the young man to settle down 
• Jupiter then told Venus that he would make their marriage legal and ordered Mercury to bring Psyche to heaven 
• He gave her a cup of ambrosia and told her to drink it and become immortal 
• She drank and soon a wedding feast appeared. 
• Psyche later gave birth to a daughter whom everyone called Pleasure. 

Lucius and the Robbers:

• Lucius listened to this story told by the old woman and wished he was able to write it down 
• The robbers soon returned loaded with loot and began to discuss how they would rid themselves of the donkey who was injured
• They decided they would throw him off the cliff once the loot was unloaded 
• This cause Lucius to begin to worry

The Escape:

• Lucius decided that he was going to escape so he pulled on the halter until it broke 
• This alerted the old woman and she quickly grasped the lead attached to him 
• He attempted to escape her and kicked her down but she held tight as he ran, dragging along behind him 
• The old woman began to yell and this caught the attention of the young girl
• She pulled the rope from the woman, climbed of Lucius’s back and told him to run 
• The young girl promised to care for Lucius greatly and told him he would be worshiped as a hero if her returned her home 

Story Source: Apuleius's Golden Ass, as translated into English by Tony Kline (2013).