Psyche- Greek FigureMortal

The Mortal Too Beautiful

Psyche was a princess of such beauty that people began worshipping her instead of Aphrodite. Men traveled from distant lands to gaze upon her. They brought garlands and offerings as though she were a goddess made flesh, while Aphrodite's temples stood neglected and her altars grew cold. The goddess commanded her son Eros to make Psyche fall in love with the vilest creature alive, some wretched beggar or criminal who would shame her beauty forever.

But when Eros descended to carry out his mother's vengeance, he pricked himself with one of his own arrows as he gazed upon Psyche's sleeping face. He fell in love with the mortal he had come to curse.

The Oracle and the Mountain

Despite her beauty, or because of it, Psyche had no suitors. Men worshipped her from afar but dared not approach a woman who seemed more goddess than mortal. Her two elder sisters married kings, while Psyche remained alone. Her father consulted the oracle of Apollo.

The oracle delivered terrifying news: Psyche was destined to marry no mortal man. She must be dressed in funeral garments and left on a mountain crag, where a fearsome winged serpent would claim her as his bride. The king and queen wept, but divine commands could not be refused. They carried their daughter up the mountain in a wedding procession that was also a funeral march and abandoned her there. No serpent came. The West Wind, Zephyrus, lifted Psyche and carried her down to a hidden valley where a palace of gold and precious stones awaited her, attended by invisible servants.

The Invisible Husband

Each night, in complete darkness, Psyche's husband came to her. He was kind and tender, but he extracted one promise: she must never see his face or learn his identity. If she broke this condition, she would lose him forever. Psyche was content. She became pregnant with his child.

But she missed her family and persuaded her husband to allow her sisters to visit. When they arrived and saw a palace grander than anything their royal husbands possessed, jealousy consumed them.

The Sisters' Poison

Night after night the sisters fed Psyche's fears. Why did her husband refuse to be seen? Surely he was the serpent-monster the oracle had foretold, fattening her up before devouring her and her unborn child. They urged her to hide an oil lamp and a sharp knife beneath her bed, to light the lamp and slay the monster as he slept.

That night, Psyche lit the lamp and raised the knife. Lying before her was no monster but Eros himself, golden wings folded against his back, his bow and quiver laid aside. She stood transfixed until a drop of hot oil fell from the lamp onto his bare shoulder. Eros woke, saw the lamp and knife, and understood. He spread his wings and flew away into the night. The palace vanished. Psyche lay alone on the bare mountainside.

The Wandering and Surrender

Psyche wandered the world searching for Eros. She threw herself into a river, but the waters cast her gently on the bank. Pan, who sat nearby with his pipes, counselled her to win Eros back through devotion rather than despair. She went to Demeter's temple, where sheaves of grain and sickles lay scattered across the threshold. Psyche gathered them into order, but Demeter, though moved, refused to shelter Aphrodite's rival. Hera turned her away as well. Psyche surrendered herself to Aphrodite.

Aphrodite beat her and tore her hair. She mocked Psyche as a "cheap little servant-girl" who thought herself worthy of a god. Then she set her a series of impossible tasks.

The Trials of Aphrodite

Aphrodite dumped a vast heap of mixed grains before her and gave her until nightfall to sort them. Psyche sat before the heap and wept. A colony of ants streamed from a crack in the floor and sorted every grain into its own pile before sunset.

Then golden wool from a flock of savage, sun-charged rams, then water from the source of the Styx where dragons guarded the cliff. A whispering reed told her to gather fleece from the brambles after the rams slept. An eagle fetched the water from the sacred spring.

The final trial: descend alive to the underworld and ask Persephone for a box of her divine beauty. A talking tower told Psyche what she would need. Two coins for Charon. Two barley-cakes soaked in honey for Cerberus. She must refuse every hand that reached for her from the dark.

The Descent and the Forbidden Box

Psyche descended by the path the tower described. She paid Charon his coin and soothed Cerberus with a honeyed cake. A lame man driving a donkey begged her to pick up fallen sticks. Dead women weaving cloth called to her for help. She refused them all, as the tower had warned, and walked on. She stood before Persephone in her dark hall and made her request. The Queen of the Dead filled the box and sent Psyche back to the living world.

On the road back, Psyche opened the box. She thought she might take just a little of Persephone's beauty for herself, to look worthy when she saw Eros again. Inside was not beauty but the sleep of death. She collapsed beside the road, still and cold.

Love Triumphant

Eros had been watching. His burn had healed, and his love had never diminished. He flew to where Psyche lay, brushed the sleep from her face and sealed it back in the box. Then he woke her with the prick of one of his arrows.

He flew to Olympus and petitioned Zeus for permission to marry Psyche. Zeus agreed. He summoned Psyche and gave her a cup of ambrosia. She became immortal. The wedding was celebrated before the assembled gods, with Apollo playing the lyre and the Muses singing. Even Aphrodite relented. In time, Psyche bore Eros a daughter named Hedone, Pleasure in Greek, the child conceived in the dark palace and born on Olympus.