In keeping with the romance blooming on the board and Valentine’s Day:
Cupid is the most famous of valentine symbols. He is known as a mischievous, winged child,
who’s arrows would pierce the hearts of his victims, causing them to fall deeply in love. In ancient
Greece, he was known as Eros, the young son of Aphrodite (the goddess of love and beauty). To
the Romans he was Cupid, and his mother Venus.
One legend tells the story of Cupid and the mortal maiden, Psyche. Venus was jealous of the
beauty of Psyche, and ordered Cupid to punish the mortal. But instead, Cupid fell deeply in love
with her. He took her as his wife, but as a mortal, she was forbidden to look at him. Psyche was
happy and deeply in love until her sisters convinced her to look at Cupid. She did, and he was gorgeous. Cupid punished her by departing. Their
lovley castle and gardens vanished with him and Psyche found herself alone in an empty field.
As she wandered to find her love, she came upon the temple of Venus. Wishing to destroy her,
the goddess of love gave Psyche a series of tasks, each harder and more dangerous than the last.
For her last task, Psyche was given a little box and told to take it to the underworld. During her
trip she was given tips on avoiding dangers of the realm of the dead. She was also warned not to
open the box. Temptation overcame Psyche and she opened the box. But instead of finding
beauty, she found deadly slumber.
Cupid found her lifeless on the ground. He gathered the sleep from her body and put it back in the
box. Cupid forgave her, as did Venus. The gods, moved by Psyche’s love for Cupid, made her a
goddess.
If A equals success, then the formula is: A = X + Y + Z, X is work. Y is play. Z is keep your mouth shut.
-Albert Einstein
That was my favorite story in first grade; I remeber it was a in red book with woodcuts. Psyche means “soul” and Cupid is, of course “love” or “desire”. They had a child named Voluptas (“pleasure”). So it is also a metaphor of bringing together love and the soul, in addition to being a classic beauty and the beast (if they go more into depth on the “marriage to an unknown being, thought to be a monster” bit)/lover’s journey tale.
C.S. Lewis, of all people, did a novelization of this myth in a book called Till We Have Faces. Critics say it is one of his best works. I didn’t like it. (The last two sentences seem somehow connected in my mind.)
A city in Oregon was named “Psyche” by a lover of the classics. Most of the townspeople, however, could not assimilate “Psyche”–they found an easier was to spell and pronounce it, and so today the town is known as “Pysht.”
In the old TV series Our Miss Brooks, Osgood Conklin, the principal, is aghast at the prospect of Miss Brooks marrying and ‘quitting her job’! When the speaker–perhaps the dimwitted Walter Denton–says “Mr. Conklin, you can’t fight Cupid,” the principal bellows, speaking one of my all-time favorite lines from TV sitcoms:
“I’ll beat the bare little brute 'til he drops his quiver!”
In the version I read, Psyche was forbidden to look at Cupid, but one night she lit a candle so she could watch him sleeping. The candle wax dripped on his face, marring his beauty. He ran off, never to return, and Psyche was devastated, although she might have loved him even with the imperfection.
Remember, I’m pulling for you; we’re all in this together.
—Red Green
My memory of how Cupid discovered Psyche “spying” on him matched Rilchiam’s, although my memory of the story’s ending matched psycat90’s.
Here is the Encyclopedia Mythica entry (with a link to Bullfinch’s retelling of the story): http://www.pantheon.org/mythica/articles/p/psyche.html
The version I read most often was that she dripped wax on him, waking him up. He then realized that she disobeyed him and left. There are a couple of fairy tales based on this tale. There’s one about a girl that marries a bear and it’s basically the same - she isn’t allowed to look at him, does one night by candlelight and she has to go through many tasks to get him back.
My favorite, however, is Easy of the Sun, West of the Moon. It is the same at the start. She marries a strange creature and is forbidden to look at him. But he tells her he must marry a troll or dwarf noble if she ever looks at him and he must go away to her. Of course, she looks, and then must go east of the sun, west of the moon to find him. She does and must perform tasks and trick the noble before she can win her husband’s freedom back. It’s a very good story.
When are you going to realize being normal isn’t necessarily a good thing?
Yep guys the actual story does include her spying with the candle, as well as many other details. I thought I’d just kep it as short as possible. But I would most definately recommend reading the full story. It’s a great read, especially this time of year.
If A equals success, then the formula is: A = X + Y + Z, X is work. Y is play. Z is keep your mouth shut.
-Albert Einstein
::rubbing cheek:: Jeez! I’m not dissing the story, I’m saying the stoopid broad brought all her problems on herself! “Hey, whatever you do don’t open that box!” ::creak:: “Ahhh!” (thud) I mean, COME ON!
One week only! Special Valentine’s Candy Heart Sig Line! "OU KID"
Sometimes when you lose, you win. Psyche looked, she slept, but had the joy of awaking in her lover’s arms and being happy “ever after”.
“Universe Man - He’s got a watch with a minute hand, millenium hand and an eon hand and when they meet it’s a happy land - Powerful man, Universe Man”
-TMBG
