Week 3 Storytelling: Psyche and Cupid

Psyche was born to a rather wealthy family. She was the youngest of three daughters, and the apple of her father’s eye. She and her sisters were very close and spent every moment of every day together. They would brush each others hair and tell tales of princes and princesses with each of them dreaming they would one day find their prince. 

As the girls grew older they started to look less like children and more like young women. Psyche’s two older sisters were lovely and drew the eyes of many when they went out; however, when Psyche started to reach womanhood, the eyes quickly shifted from the sisters to Psyche. Her beauty was unmatched. She was as lovely as a rose. Psyche’s sisters noticed that eyes no longer lingered over them, but their younger sister. Resentment started to build in them from the attention their younger sister was receiving. All people noticed Psyche’s beauty and would comment on it, and her sisters were left to watch. As Psyche grew older and more beautiful, the envy and resentment grew in her sisters as well.

 As she became more and more beautiful, more and more people noticed and word spread of the unmatched beauty of a girl that is the human form of Venus herself. People traveled far and wide to come see and bring sacrifices to the beautiful girl that was a gorgeous as Venus herself. As word spread, Venus soon took notice and became enraged that the humans were worshiping a mere human rather than she. As more humans started worshiping Psyche, Venus ordered Cupid, her son, to follow Psyche and watch her to find her weakness.

Cupid watched Psyche and observed her from the skies. Many people would come and bring her offerings. Some would bring her all they owned begging her make them loved and beautiful to all, but she would refuse the offerings and instead give them kind words of encouragement and inspiration. Cupid noticed her caring and kind nature and was curious how such a beautiful human could be so humble and filled with love for others. This fascinated him. As he watched her, he saw more of her compassion toward all humans, creatures, and plants alike. He noticed she poured out so much love in everyone she encountered, but never received any love from others. Even with all the people coming to see her, she felt more alone than ever. No man would take her to be his because her beauty was incomparable, and all the men felt they would fall short of such expectations. Her sisters had also gotten to where they refused to speak to her.

As time passed, Psyche’s sisters got married and moved away to their husbands’ homes. Psyche was saddened that she had no suitor, and no one would give her a chance at marriage. Cupid could feel her sadness from where he watched. He went back to Venus to report to her his findings. She ordered Cupid to find someone to make her fall in love with. Then Venus would take Psyche’s love away from her and cause her such distress, she would die of sadness and loneliness.

Upon these orders Cupid finally realized the fondness he had developed for Psyche. He couldn’t bear to see her with some other man then to see her dying of devastation when that man was taken from her. He contemplated what he should do for days. Then he came up with a brilliant idea. He would disguise himself as a human, and she would fall in love with the human him. As the sun was rising, he watched Psyche get up and get ready to go get water from the well. He decided he would disguise himself as a human traveling through that are that had been thrown from his horse and was badly injured. He would place himself on her way to the well so he couldn’t miss him. He knew she was so kind and caring she would never leave him there but make sure he was cared for. When she saw him lying on the path in pain, she knew she had to take him to her house where he could be cared for. She took care of him for the next few weeks as his broken arm and leg healed. As she nursed him back to health, they grew closer often spending much time together. He was soon almost healed back to health and the time for him to leave neared, she realized she had developed feelings for this traveler and she couldn’t bear to see him leave. 

The day arrived for Cupid to leave, and he was getting ready to return to his home, Psyche came to him and declared she would rather die than live without him. Cupid was overjoyed. His love for her had only increased since he had spent more time with her. He proposed she come with him and they could be together forever. She wanted nothing more. She immediately agreed. Then he realized he couldn’t life as a human forever and he had to tell her his true identity. When he told her, she was in shock and felt lied to. He explained what he was sent to do and how he had loved her from the beginning. She was flattered and agreed to go back to the skies with him and be his wife. Cupid said he would need to form alliances with some gods in order to help keep her safe from Venus’ vengeance, but he would come back for her and no harm would come to her. He returned a few days later after convincing Venus to accept Psyche as his wife. Psyche went with Cupid to the skies and they lived happily together. 

 

Psyche and Cupid 

Author's Note: I read the love story of "Psyche and Cupid". Last week I had read a variation of this that one of my classmates had written, and I enjoyed reading it so much that I wanted to read the original story. I slightly varied the original story and shortened it. I think I liked the original better, but it was a fun story to write!