Cupid fell in love with the mortal Psyche after accidentally pricking himself with his own arrow. After Psyche endured Venus's trials, Jupiter granted her immortality and the pair married on Olympus, producing a daughter named Voluptas.
Venus raged at the mortal Psyche whose beauty drew worshippers from her own temples, and subjected her to a gauntlet of impossible tasks — sorting a mountain of grain, gathering golden fleece, and descending to the Underworld for a box of Proserpina's beauty.
Psyche carried two coins in her mouth to pay Charon twice — once descending to fetch a box of Proserpina's beauty for Venus, and once returning — navigating the ferryman's crossing where so many living mortals had been turned away.
In Apuleius's Metamorphoses, Favonius carried Psyche from the mountaintop where she had been abandoned to the hidden valley where Cupid's golden palace awaited her, gently lowering her onto a bed of flowers.
Jupiter summoned Psyche to Olympus, offered her a cup of ambrosia, and declared her immortal so that Cupid's marriage would be lawful and lasting — transforming a persecuted mortal into a goddess before the assembled gods.
Psyche descended to the underworld and petitioned Proserpina for a portion of her divine beauty, which Proserpina granted in a sealed box, as the final task imposed by Venus.
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