The Abduction of Psyche by William Bouguereau

The tale of Cupid and Psyche first appeared as a digressionary story told by an old woman in Lucius Apuleius' novel, The Golden Ass, written in the second century AD. Apuleius probably used an earlier folk-tale as the basis for his story, modifying it to suit the thematic needs of his novel. Read on its own, it is for the most part a straightforward fairy tale. Download high resolution version (475x900, 99 KB)William Bouguereau (French, 1825-1905) The Abduction of Psyche This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... Download high resolution version (475x900, 99 KB)William Bouguereau (French, 1825-1905) The Abduction of Psyche This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... Lucius Apuleius (c. ... Daniel Defoes Robinson Crusoe; title page of 1719 newspaper edition A novel (from French nouvelle, new) is an extended fictional narrative in prose. ... The Metamorphoses of Lucius, referred to as The Golden Ass (Asinus aureus) by Apuleius, is the only Latin novel to survive in its entirety. ... // Events Roman Empire governed by the Five Good Emperors (96–180) – Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius. ... Folklore is the body of verbal expressive culture, including tales, legends, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs current among a particular population, comprising the oral tradition of that culture, subculture, or group. ... A fairy tale is a story, either told to children or as if told to children, concerning the adventures of mythical characters such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, giants, and others. ...

Apuleius' tale of Cupid and Psyche

Cupid and Psyche at the Louvre.

The goddess Venus, jealous of the outstandingly beautiful mortal Psyche, asked her son Cupid to cause Psyche to fall in love with the vilest wretch alive. Cupid agreed. Statue of Venus in the British Museum. ... Cupidon (French for Cupid), by William-Adolphe Bouguereau, 1875. ...

When all continued to admire and praise Psyche's beauty but none desired her as a wife, Psyche's parents consulted an oracle which told them to set Psyche in mourning garments on top of a nearby peak as Psyche was destined for no mortal lover but for a monster who held even gods in thrall. So it was done. But then Zephyrus, the west wind, carried Psyche away to a fair valley and a magnificent palace where she was attended by invisible servants until night fell and in the darkness of night the promised bridegroom arrived and the marriage was consummated. The bridegroom visited her only by night and refused to let himself be seen. An oracle is a person or agency considered to be a source of wise counsel or prophetic opinion; an infallible authority, usually spiritual in nature. ... Zephyr and Hyakinth; Attic red figure cup from Tarquinia, circa 480 BCE. Boston Museum of Fine Arts. ...

The mysterious bridegroom even allowed Zephyrus to take Psyche back to her sisters and bring all three down to the palace during the day, only warning that Psyche should not listen to any argument that she should try to discover his true form. The two sisters, jealous of Psyche, returned, jumping down from that peak so that Zephyrus had to bear them up gently or let them die. The sisters told Psyche, then pregnant, that rumor was that she had married a great serpent who would devour her and her unborn child when her time came. They urged Psyche to conceal a knife and oil lamp in the bedchamber, to wait till her husband was asleep, and then to light the lamp and slay him at once if it was as they said. Psyche followed their advice. In the light of the lamp Psyche recognized the fair form on the bed as the god Cupid himself, but a drop of oil fell from Psyche's lamp and scalded Cupid. Cupid awoke and flew off with Psyche clinging to him until she could hold on no longer and fell to the earth, whereupon Cupid chastised Psyche for disobeying his charge though he himself had ignored his own mother's command, had descended from heaven to love her, and had wounded himself with his own arrow.

The god Pan, who was nearby, advised Psyche to seek to regain Cupid's love through service. Marble sculpture of Pan copulating with a goat, recovered from Herculaneum Pan (Greek Παν, genitive Πανος) is the Greek god who watches over shepherds and their flocks. ...

Psyche returned to her old home and told her two, jealous, elder sisters what had happened; they rejoiced secretly and each separately attempted to return to the valley hoping for the love of the god, but this time Zephyrus did not bear them and they fell to their deaths.

Psyche searched far and wide for her lover, finally stumbling into a temple to Ceres where all was in slovenly disarray. As Psyche was sorting and clearing, Ceres appeared, but refused any help but advice, saying Psyche must call directly on Venus. Psyche next called on Juno in her temple, but Juno said the same. So Psyche found a temple to Venus and entered it. Venus damned Psyche as a whore but did accept her service and ordered Psyche to separate all the grains in a large basket of mixed kinds before nightfall. An ant took pity on Psyche and with its ant companions separated the grains for her. Venus was outraged at her success and told her to go to a field where golden sheep grazed and get some golden wool. A voice from a reed in a river told Psyche that the sheep were vicious and strong and would kill her, but if she waited until noontime, the sheep would go to the shade on the other side of the field and sleep; she could pick the wool that stuck to the branches and bark of the trees. Venus next asked for water from the Styx and Cocytus flowing from a cleft that was impossible for a mortal to attain and was also guarded by great serpents. This time an eagle performed the task for Psyche. Venus, outraged at Psyche's survival, claimed that the stress of caring for her son, depressed and ill as a result of Psyche's unfaithfulness, had caused her to lose some of her beauty. Psyche was to go to Hades and ask Proserpina, the queen of the underworld, for a bit of her beauty in a box that Venus gave to Psyche. Psyche decided that the quickest way to the underworld would be to throw herself off some high place and die and so she climbed to the top of a tower. But the tower itself spoke to her and told her the route through Tanaerum that would allow her to enter the underworld alive and return again, as well as telling her how to get by Cerberus by throwing him a sop and Charon by paying him an obol, how to avoid other dangers on the way there and back, and most importantly to eat of no food whatsoever; for otherwise she would be forever stuck in hell. Psyche followed the orders explicitly and ate nothing while beneath the earth. Ceres, in Roman mythology, equivalent to the Greek Demeter (see which for more details), daughter of Saturn and Rhea, wife-sister of Jupiter, mother of Proserpina by Jupiter, sister of Juno, Vesta, Neptune and Pluto, and patron of Sicily. ... Juno was a Roman goddess, the rough equivalent of the Greek Hera, queen of the gods. ... For other uses, see Styx River (disambiguation) // River In Greek mythology, Styx ([river of] hate) is the name of a river which formed the boundary between earth and the underworld, Hades. ... In Greek mythology, Cocytus, meaning river of wailing (Greek kokutos, lamentation) was the river in the underworld on the banks of which the dead who could not pay Charon wandered, according to most accounts, for one hundred years. ... Hades, Greek god of the underworld, enthroned, with his bird-headed staff, on a red-figure vase made in the 4th century BC. Hades (From , Hadēs, or , Háidēs, Greek for unseen) refers to both the ancient Greek abode of the dead and the god of that underworld. ... Proserpina is an ancient goddess whose story is the basis of a myth of Springtime. ... Taenarum or cape Tenaron is where Hercules (Herakles) went to find the entrance to Hades (or Άδης in Greek) to fulfill his last labor of capturing Cerberus. ... Cerberus - Watercolor by William Blake Commonly mispronounced as kur-bur-us the proper English pronuciation is sur-bur-us. ... In Greek mythology, Charon (Greek Χάρων, fierce brightness) was the ferryman of Hades. ... The obolus (or obol) is a Greek silver coin worth a sixth of a drachma. ...

But when Psyche had got out of the underworld, she decided to open the box and take a little bit of the beauty for herself. Inside she could see no beauty, rather an infernal sleep arose from the box and overcame her. Cupid, who had forgiven Psyche, flew to her with love, wiped the sleep from her face, put it back in the box, and sent her back on her way. Then Cupid flew to heaven and begged Zeus to aid them. Jupiter called a full and formal Council of the gods (which parodies a meeting of the Roman senate), declared it was his will that Cupid might marry Psyche, told Venus that it would be respectable matrimony, had Psyche fetched to heaven, and gave her a drink of immortality. Statue of Zeus Phidias created the 12-m (40-ft) tall statue of Zeus at Olympia about 435 BC. The statue was perhaps the most famous sculpture in ancient Greece, imagined here in a 16th-century engraving. ...

The offspring of the marriage was Voluptas, that is, 'Pleasure'. Voluptas, is the daughter borne from the legendary union of Cupid and Psyche. ...

Relations and Origin

One of Fyodor Tolstoy's Neoclassical illustrations to Dushenka, a Russian version of the Cupid and Psyche theme.

Apuleius' Cupid and Psyche, though concerning gods and goddesses, is in form what is called in English fairy-tale and in German Märchen, a common oral genre found world wide but generally not represented in raw form in classical literature. Indeed only with Charles Perrault's Mother Goose Tales and following popularity of other such collections in 17th century did tales of that kind become recognized in Europe as a legitimate written genre. Image File history File linksMetadata Dushenka. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Dushenka. ... Charles Perrault, 1665 Charles Perrault (January 12, 1628 – May 16, 1703) was a French author who laid foundations for a new literary genre, the fairy tale, and whose best known tales include Le Petit Chaperon rouge (Little Red Riding Hood), La Belle au bois dormant (Sleeping Beauty), Le Chat bott...

External link

• Tales Similar to Beauty and the Beast (Texts of Cupid and Psyche and similar monster or beast as bridegroom tales, mostly of AT-425C form, with hyperlinked commentary).

Later adaptations

William Adlington's English translation of 1566 is excellent reading and for some is still the definitive English translation.

At the conclusion of Comus (1634), the poet John Milton alluded to the story of Cupid and Psyche. John Milton, English poet John Milton (December 9, 1608 – November 8, 1674) was an English poet, best-known for his epic poem Paradise Lost. ... Allusion is a stylistic device in which one implicitly references a related object or circumstance that has occurred or existed in an external context. ...

"Celestial Cupid, her famed son, advanced,

Holds his dear Psyche sweet entranced,

After her wandering labours long,

Till free consent the gods among

Make her his eternal bride;

And from her fair unspotted side

Two blissful twins are to be born,

Youth and Joy; so Jove hath sworn."

The poet T. K. Harvey wrote:

"They wove bright fables in the days of old,

When reason borrowed fancy's painted wings;

When truth's clear river flowed o'er sands of gold,

And told in song its high and mystic things!

And such the sweet and solemn tale of her

The pilgrim heart, to whom a dream was given,

That led her through the world,– Love's worshipper,–

To seek on earth for him whose home was heaven!

"In the full city,– by the haunted fount,–

Through the dim grotto's tracery of spars,–

'Mid the pine temples, on the moonlit mount,

Where silence sits to listen to the stars;

In the deep glade where dwells the brooding dove,

The painted valley, and the scented air,

She heard far echoes of the voice of Love,

And found his footsteps' traces everywhere.

"But nevermore they met! since doubts and fears,

Those phantom shapes that haunt and blight the earth,

Had come 'twixt her, a child of sin and tears,

And that bright spirit of immortal birth;

Until her pining soul and weeping eyes

Had learned to seek him only in the skies;

Till wings unto the weary heart were given,

And she became Love's angel bride in heaven!"

Shakerley Marmion wrote a verse version of the Apuleius story called Cupid and Psyche which was published in 1637. Events February 3 - Tulipmania collapses in Netherlands by government order February 15 - Ferdinand III becomes Holy Roman Emperor December 17 - Shimabara Rebellion erupts in Japan Pierre de Fermat makes a marginal claim to have proof of what would become known as Fermats last theorem. ...

Mary Tighe in her poem Cupid and Psyche first published in 1805 explains the origin of Cupid's love for Psyche. She adds two springs in Venus' garden, one with sweet water and one with bitter. When Cupid starts to obey his mother's command, he brings some of both to a sleeping Psyche but places only some of the bitter water on Psyche's lips and prepares also to pierce her with an arrow: Mary Tighe (Blackford) (1772 - 1810), poet, daughter of a clergyman, made an unhappy marriage, though she had beauty and amiable manners, and was highly popular in society. ...

Nor yet content, he from his quiver drew,

Sharpened with skill divine, a shining dart:

No need had he for bow, since thus too true

His hand might wound her all-exposed heart;

Yet her fair side he touched with gentlest art,

And half relenting on her beauties gazed;

Just then awaking with a sudden start

Her opening eye in humid lustre blazed,

Unseen he still remained, enchanted and amazed.

The dart which in his hand now trembling stood,

As o'er the couch he bent with ravished eye,

Drew with its daring point celestial blood

From his smooth neck's unblemished ivory:

Heedless of this, but with a pitying sigh

The evil done now anxious to repair,

He shed in haste the balmy drops of joy

O'er all the silky ringlets of her hair;

Then stretched his plumes divine, and breathed celestial air.

In the later part of her tale, Tighe's Venus only asks one task of Psyche, to bring her the forbidden water, but in performing this task Tighe's Psyche wanders into a country bordering on Spenser's Fairie Queene as Psyche is aided by a mysterious visored knight and his squire Constance and must escape various traps set by Vanity, Flattery, Ambition, Credulity, Disfida (who lives in a "Gothic castle"), Varia and Geloso. Spenser's Blatant Beast also makes an appearance. Edmund Spenser Edmund Spenser (c. ... Una and the Lion by Briton Rivière The Faerie Queene is an epic poem by Edmund Spenser, first published in 1590 (the first half) with the more or less complete version being published in 1596. ...

Tighe's work was appreciated by Wordsworth and also an early influence on John Keats whose short Ode to Psyche appeared in 1820. John Keats John Keats (October 31, 1795 – February 23, 1821) was one of the principal poets of the English Romantic movement. ... 1820 was a leap year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ...

William Morris retold the story in verse in The Earthly Paradise (1868–70). Robert Bridges wrote Eros and Psyche: A Narrative Poem in Twelve Measures (1885; 1894). A full prose adaptation was included as part of Walter Pater's novel Marius the Epicurean in 1885. Josephine Preston Peabody wrote a version for children in her Old Greek Folk Stories Told Anew (1897). Thomas Bulfinch wrote a short adaptation for his Age of Fable which borrowed Tighe's account of Cupid's self-wounding. William Morris, socialist and innovator in the Arts and Crafts movement William Morris, publisher Davids Charge to Solomon (1882), a stained-glass window by Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris in Trinity Church, Boston, Massachusetts. ... Bridges on the cover of Time in 1929 Robert Seymour Bridges (October 23, 1844–April 21, 1930) was an English poet, holder of the honour of poet laureate from 1913. ... 1885 (MDCCCLXXXV) is a common year starting on Thursday. ... 1894 (MDCCCXCIV) was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... Walter Horatio Pater (August 4, 1839 - July 30, 1894) was an English essayist and literary critic. ... 1885 (MDCCCLXXXV) is a common year starting on Thursday. ... Thomas Bulfinch (July 15, 1796 - May 27, 1867) was an American writer, born in Newton, Massachusetts to a highly-educated but not rich Bostonian merchant family. ...

The English scholar and novelist C. S. Lewis wrote a fantasy novel based on the story of Cupid and Psyche called Till We Have Faces (1954). C.S. Lewis Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898–22 November 1963), commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis, was an Irish author and scholar, of mixed Irish, English, and Welsh ancestry. ... Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold is a novel by C. S. Lewis, first published in 1956. ...

Beginning in 2000 Cupid and Psyche a musical adaptation by Sean Hartley with music by Jihwan Kim has appeared in various productions in various theaters. This article is about the year 2000. ...

The Beauty Of Psyche is a retelling of the myth by the English poet and novelist Andrew Staniland. His novel uses paintings and sculptures, and has all the characters played by actors, to evoke the imaginary world of the story and the final emergence of Psyche as a goddess of the psyche.

Andrew Wilson has created a retelling spiced up with photographs on the Classic Pages website. See External links below.

In art Psyche is sometimes portrayed as a beautiful woman with the wings of a butterfly.

Cupid and Psyche in Popular Culture

Cupid or Eros and Psyche appear in the Dark Hunter series by Sherrilyn Kenyon, frequently accompanied by mortals and often found in the guise of bikers. Cupidon (French for Cupid), by William-Adolphe Bouguereau, 1875. ... Eros, a god in Greek mythology Eros can also refer to: The Greek word Eros, which means sexual love 433 Eros, an asteroid EROS, the Extremely Reliable Operating System Pjur Eros, a premium latex-safe personal lubricant Eros, the life instinct postulated by Freudian psychology, standing in opposition to Thanatos... Sherrilyn Kenyon - pulp fiction author Sherrilyn Kenyon (born 1965, Columbus, Georgia) is a writer of pulp fiction novels unusually occasionally comprising both science fiction and romance. ...

External Links

• Mary Tighe, Psyche or, the Legend of Love (1820) HTML or PDF
• Voluptas
  • Ode to Voluptas (Information about Voluptas, Daughter of Cupid & Psyche)
• Walter Pater, Marius the Epicurean, chapter 5 (1885)
  • Gutenberg Project: Walter Pater, Marius the Epicurean, Vol. 1 (Plain text.)
  • Blackmask: Walter Pater, "Marius the Epicurean": chapter 5
  • Victorian Prose: Walter Pater, Marius the Epicurean, Vol. 1 (PDF)
• Josephine Preston Peabody, Old Greek Folk Stories Told Anew (1897)
  • The Baldwin Project: The Enchanted Palace and The Trial of Psyche
  • Rick Walton's Online Library: Cupid and Psyche
  • Blackmask: Cupid and Psyche
• Thomas Bulfinch, The Age of Fable (1913)
  • Bulfinch's Mythology: The Age of Fable: Cupid and Psyche
  • D. L Ashliman: Folktexts: Cupid and Psyche
  • Hermetic Philosophy: Cupid and Psyche (Illustrated with painting and sculpture.)
  • MythologyWeb: Cupid and Psyche (Illusrated with painting and sculptures.)
  • Cathy's Picnic: Cupid and Psyche (Illustrated with painting and sculpture.)
• Andrew Staniland
  • The Beauty Of Psyche
• Andrew Wilson
  • The Classics Pages: Cupid & Psyche (Illustrated mostly with hyperlinked photographs.)
• Art
  • Art Renewal Center: "Cupid & Psyche" by Sharrell E. Gibson (Examples and discussion of Cupid and Psyche in painting.)
• Material on the Musical by Sean Hartley and Jihwan Kim (2000)
  • Theater.com: Interview
  • Ashland Theater Review: Cupid and Psyche
  • Theatrescene.net: Cupid and Psyche
  • Talkin Broadway: Cupid and Psyche

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