In Greek mythology , Eros ( UK : / ˈ ɪər ɒ s , ˈ ɛr ɒ s / , US : / ˈ ɛr ɒ s , ˈ ɛr oʊ s / ; Ancient Greek : Ἔρως , lit. 'Love, Desire') is the Greek god of love and sex . His Roman counterpart is Cupid ('desire'). In the earliest account, he is a primordial god , while in later accounts he is described as one of the children of Aphrodite and Ares and, with some of his siblings, was one of the Erotes , a group of winged love gods.
94-422: He is usually presented as a handsome young man, though in some appearances he is a juvenile boy full of mischief, ever in the company of his mother. In both cases, he is winged and carries his signature bow and arrows, which he uses to make both mortals and immortal gods fall in love, often under the guidance of Aphrodite. His role in myths is mostly complementary, and he often appears in the presence of Aphrodite and
188-712: A Cherub . The Putti (plural of Putto) and the Cherubim (plural of Cherub) can be found throughout the Middle Ages and the Renaissance in Christian art . This latter iteration of Eros/Cupid became a major icon and symbol of Valentine's Day . The Greek ἔρως , éros meaning 'desire' (whence eroticism ) comes from the verb ἔραμαι , éramai and in infinitive form ἐρᾶσθαι , erãsthai 'to desire, love', itself of uncertain etymology. R. S. P. Beekes speculates
282-404: A Pre-Greek origin. Eros appears in ancient Greek sources under several different guises. In the earliest sources (the cosmogonies , the earliest philosophers, and texts referring to the mystery religions ), he is one of the primordial gods involved in the coming into being of the cosmos. In later sources, however, Eros is represented as the son of Aphrodite, whose mischievous interventions in
376-495: A sacred marriage . Although the only extended narrative from antiquity is that of Apuleius from the 2nd century AD, Eros and Psyche appear in Greek art as early as the 4th century BC. The story's Neoplatonic elements and allusions to mystery religions accommodate multiple interpretations, and it has been analyzed as an allegory and in light of folktale , Märchen or fairy tale , and myth . The story of Cupid and Psyche
470-591: A "transition to the unknown". Zephyrus the West Wind bears her up to meet her fated match, and deposits her in a lovely meadow ( locus amoenus ) , where she promptly falls asleep. The transported girl awakes to find herself at the edge of a cultivated grove ( lucus ) . Exploring, she finds a marvelous house with golden columns, a carved ceiling of citrus wood and ivory, silver walls embossed with wild and domesticated animals, and jeweled mosaic floors. A disembodied voice tells her to make herself comfortable, and she
564-697: A Christian or mystical context, often as symbolic of the soul. In the Gnostic text On the Origin of the World , the first rose is created from the blood of Psyche when she loses her virginity to Cupid. To the Christian mythographer Fulgentius (6th century), Psyche was an Adam figure, driven by sinful curiosity and lust from the paradise of Love's domain. Psyche's sisters are Flesh and Free Will, and her parents are God and Matter. To Boccaccio (14th century),
658-667: A Greek origin. French Émile Dermenghem [ fr ] favoured a North African source, followed by French researchers Nedjima and Emmanuel Plantade, who all argue that the tale is a reworking of Berber folklore, since Apuleius was born and lived in Madauros , Numidia , located in what is modern day Algeria. Another line of scholars argue for some myth that underlines the Apuleian narrative. German classicist Richard August Reitzenstein supposed on an "Iranian sacral myth", brought to Greece via Egypt. Graham Anderson argues for
752-611: A character in Deipnosophistae by Athenaeus , asserts that Zeno of Citium thought that Eros was the god of friendship and liberty. Erxias (Ἐρξίας) wrote that the Samians consecrated a gymnasium to Eros. The festival instituted in his honour was called the Eleutheria (Ἐλευθέρια), meaning "liberty". The Lacedaemonians offered sacrifices to Eros before they went into battle, thinking that safety and victory depend on
846-420: A child in a sham marriage. The goddess then throws before her a great mass of mixed wheat, barley, poppyseed, chickpeas, lentils, and beans, demanding that she sort them into separate heaps by dawn. But when Venus withdraws to attend a wedding feast, a kind ant takes pity on Psyche, and assembles a fleet of insects to accomplish the task. Venus is furious when she returns drunk from the feast, and only tosses Psyche
940-409: A crust of bread. At this point in the story, it is revealed that Cupid is also in the house of Venus, languishing from his injury. At dawn, Venus sets a second task for Psyche. She is to cross a river and fetch golden wool from violent sheep who graze on the other side. These sheep are elsewhere identified as belonging to Helios . Psyche's only intention is to drown herself on the way, but instead she
1034-405: A king and queen, rulers of an unnamed city, who had three daughters of conspicuous beauty. The youngest and most beautiful was Psyche, whose admirers, neglecting the proper worship of Aphrodite (love goddess Venus ), instead prayed and made offerings to her. It was rumored that she was the second coming of Venus, or the daughter of Venus from an unseemly union between the goddess and a mortal. Venus
SECTION 10
#17327655059141128-412: A lame man driving a mule loaded with sticks, a dead man swimming in the river that separates the world of the living from the world of the dead, and old women weaving. These, the tower warns, will seek to divert her by pleading for her help: she must ignore them. The cakes are treats for distracting Cerberus , the three-headed watchdog of Orcus , and the two coins for Charon the ferryman , so she can make
1222-526: A meadow, and had a light competition about which would gather the most flowers. Eros was in the lead thanks to his swift wings, but then a nymph named Peristera ("dove") gathered some flowers herself and handed them over to Aphrodite, making her victorious. Eros turned Peristera into a dove. According to Porphyrius , Themis , the goddess of justice, played a role in Eros growing up. His mother Aphrodite once complained to Themis that Eros did not grow and remained
1316-437: A mere mortal woman instead, and so she commanded her son Eros, the god of love, to cause Psyche to fall in love with the ugliest creature on earth. Instead, Eros falls in love with Psyche himself and spirits her away to his home. Their fragile peace is ruined by a visit from Psyche's jealous sisters, who cause Psyche to betray the trust of her husband. Wounded both emotionally and physically, Eros leaves his wife, and Psyche wanders
1410-771: A painting by W. E. West. William Morris retold the Cupid and Psyche story in verse in The Earthly Paradise (1868–70), and a chapter in Walter Pater 's Marius the Epicurean (1885) was a prose translation. About the same time, Robert Bridges wrote Eros and Psyche: A Narrative Poem in Twelve Measures (1885; 1894). Sylvia Townsend Warner transferred the story to Victorian England in her novel The True Heart (1929), though few readers made
1504-432: A perpetual child, so Themis advised her to give him a brother. Aphrodite then gave birth to Anteros (meaning "counter-love"), and whenever he was near him, Eros grew. But if Anteros was away, Eros shrank back to his previous, smaller size. Another time, when Eros had assumed his child-like appearance and tried bending his bow, the god Apollo , who was similarly an archer god as well, mocked him by saying that he should leave
1598-427: A return trip. Everything comes to pass according to plan, and Proserpina grants Psyche's humble entreaty. As soon as she reenters the light of day, however, Psyche is overcome by a bold curiosity, and can't resist opening the box in the hope of enhancing her own beauty. She finds nothing inside but an "infernal and Stygian sleep", which sends her into a deep and unmoving torpor. Meanwhile, Cupid's wound has healed into
1692-464: A reworking of mythic material from Asia Minor (namely, Hittite : the Myth of Telipinu ). In a study published posthumously, Romanian folklorist Petru Caraman [ ro ] also argued for a folkloric origin, but was of the notion that Apuleius superimposed Graeco-Roman mythology on a pre-Christian myth about a serpentine or draconic husband, or a "King of Snakes" that becomes human at night. On
1786-598: A rocky cliff. In Hans Christian Andersen 's The Little Mermaid , the Little Mermaid is given a dagger by her sisters, who, in an attempt to end all the suffering she endured and to let her become a mermaid again, attempt to persuade her to use it to slay the Prince while he is asleep with his new bride. She cannot bring herself to kill the Prince, however. Unlike Psyche, who becomes immortal, she doesn't receive his love in return, but she, nevertheless, ultimately earns
1880-445: A scar, and he escapes his mother's house by flying out of a window. When he finds Psyche, he draws the sleep from her face and replaces it in the box, then pricks her with an arrow that does no harm. He lifts her into the air, and takes her to present the box to Venus. He then takes his case to Zeus , who gives his consent in return for Cupid's future help whenever a choice maiden catches his eye. Zeus has Hermes convene an assembly of
1974-579: A symbol of cyclical time. He is usually portrayed as an old callous man with a thick grey beard, personifying the destructive and stifling aspects of time. During antiquity, Chronos was occasionally interpreted as Cronus . According to Plutarch , the Greeks believed that Cronus was an allegorical name for Chronos. In the Orphic tradition, the unaging Chronos was "engendered" by "earth and water", and produced Aether , Chaos , and an egg. The egg produced
SECTION 20
#17327655059142068-429: A tree in order to escape the god's advances. Eros is imagined as a beautiful youth who carries bow and powerful arrows which he uses to make anyone fall madly in love. Ovid , a Roman author, elaborates on Eros' arsenal and specifies that Eros carries two kinds of arrows; the first are his golden arrows which induce a powerful feeling of love and affection on their target. The second kind are made of lead instead, and have
2162-422: A visit. When they see the splendor in which Psyche lives, they become envious, and undermine her happiness by prodding her to uncover her husband's true identity, since surely as foretold by the oracle she was lying with the vile winged serpent, who would devour her and her child. One night after Cupid falls asleep, Psyche carries out the plan her sisters devised: she brings out a dagger and a lamp she had hidden in
2256-439: A wanton homewrecker to a devoted husband by the end of the narrative. Apuleius's novel was among the ancient texts that made the crucial transition from roll to codex form when it was edited at the end of the 4th century. It was known to Latin writers such as Augustine of Hippo , Macrobius , Sidonius Apollinaris , Martianus Capella, and Fulgentius, but toward the end of the 6th century lapsed into obscurity and survived what
2350-445: Is Anima. The tale of Cupid and Psyche (or "Eros and Psyche") is placed at the midpoint of Apuleius's novel, and occupies about a fifth of its total length. The novel itself is a first-person narrative by the protagonist Lucius. Transformed into a donkey by magic gone wrong, Lucius undergoes various trials and adventures, and finally regains human form by eating roses sacred to Isis . Psyche's story has some similarities, including
2444-503: 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. Tighe's work influenced English lyric poetry on the theme, such as the Ode to Psyche (1820) by John Keats . Letitia Elizabeth Landon 's poem Cupid and Psyche (1826) illustrates an engraving of
2538-432: Is allowed to fall to a brutal death. In the course of her wanderings, Psyche comes upon a temple of Ceres , and inside finds a disorder of grain offerings, garlands, and agricultural implements. Recognizing that the proper cultivation of the gods should not be neglected, she puts everything in good order, prompting a theophany of Ceres herself. Although Psyche prays for her aid, and Ceres acknowledges that she deserves it,
2632-471: Is discovered by the wilderness god Pan , who recognizes the signs of passion upon her. She acknowledges his divinity ( numen ) , then begins to wander the earth looking for her lost love. Psyche visits first one sister, then the other; both are seized with renewed envy upon learning the identity of Psyche's secret husband. Each sister attempts to offer herself as a replacement by climbing the rocky crag and casting herself upon Zephyr for conveyance, but instead
2726-543: Is entertained at a feast that serves itself and by singing to an invisible lyre. Although fearful and without the proper experience, she allows herself to be guided to a bedroom where, in the darkness, a being she cannot see has sex with her. She gradually learns to look forward to his visits, though he always departs before sunrise and forbids her to look upon him. Soon, she becomes pregnant. Psyche's family longs for news of her, and after much cajoling, Cupid, still unknown to his bride, permits Zephyr to carry her sisters up for
2820-484: Is first found in the Anacreontea , attributed to sixth century BC author Anacreon , and goes that Eros once went to his mother Aphrodite crying about being stung by a bee, and compared the small creature to a snake with wings. Aphrodite then asks him, if he thinks the bee's sting hurts so much, what he thinks about the pain his own arrows cause. Theocritus , coming a bit later during the fourth century BC, expanded
2914-513: Is frequently confused with, or perhaps consciously identified with, the Titan , Cronus , in antiquity, due to the similarity in names. The identification became more widespread during the Renaissance, giving rise to the iconography of Father Time wielding the harvesting scythe. Greco-Roman mosaics depicted Chronos as a man turning the zodiac wheel . He is comparable to the deity Aion as
Eros - Misplaced Pages Continue
3008-406: Is offended, and commissions Cupid to work her revenge. Cupid is sent to shoot Psyche with an arrow so that she may fall in love with something hideous. He instead falls deeply in love with her, disobeying his mother's order. Although her two humanly beautiful sisters have married, the idolized Psyche has yet to find love. Her father suspects that they have incurred the wrath of the gods, and consults
3102-414: Is saved by instructions from a divinely inspired reed, of the type used to make musical instruments, and gathers the wool caught on briers . For Psyche's third task, she is given a crystal vessel in which to collect the black water spewed by the source of the rivers Styx and Cocytus . Climbing the cliff from which it issues, she is daunted by the foreboding air of the place and dragons slithering through
3196-429: Is supposed to assuage Charite's fear of rape, in one of several instances of Apuleius's irony . Although the tale resists explication as a strict allegory of a particular Platonic argument, Apuleius drew generally on imagery such as the laborious ascent of the winged soul ( Phaedrus 248) and the union with the divine achieved by Soul through the agency of the daemon Love ( Symposium 212b). There were once
3290-469: Is the most common setting for a " Feast of the Gods " scene in art. Apuleius describes the scene in terms of a festive Roman dinner party ( cena ) . Cupid, now a husband, reclines in the place of honor (the "top" couch ) and embraces Psyche in his lap. Zeus and Hera situate themselves likewise, and all the other gods are arranged in order. The cupbearer of Jove (Zeus's other Roman name) serves him with nectar,
3384-451: Is there, and through the yawning gates the pathless route is revealed. Once you cross the threshold, you are committed to the unswerving course that takes you to the very Regia of Orcus . But you shouldn't go emptyhanded through the shadows past this point, but rather carry cakes of honeyed barley in both hands, and transport two coins in your mouth . The speaking tower warns her to maintain silence as she passes by several ominous figures:
3478-441: Is written in a picaresque Roman style, yet Psyche retains her Greek name even though Eros and Aphrodite are called by their Latin names (Cupid and Venus). Also, Cupid is depicted as a young adult, rather than a fat winged child ( putto amorino ). The story tells of the quest for love and trust between Eros and Psyche. Aphrodite was jealous of the beauty of mortal princess Psyche, as men were leaving her altars barren to worship
3572-463: The domus of Cupid at the beginning of her odyssey, when she entered into a false marriage preceded by funeral rites, are reimagined in the hall of the gods following correct ritual procedure for a real marriage. The arranging of the gods in their proper order (in ordinem) would evoke for the Roman audience the religious ceremony of the lectisternium , a public banquet held for the major deities in
3666-509: The Gnostic narrative found in On the Origin of the World , Eros, during the universe's creation, is scattered in all the creatures of Chaos , existing between the midpoint of light and darkness as well as the angels and people. Later, Psyche pours her blood upon him, causing the first rose to sprout up on the Earth, followed by every flower and herb. Eros features in two Dionysus -related myths. In
3760-519: The Grimm brothers . In the Grimm version, Cinderella is given the task of sorting lentils and peas from ash, and is aided by birds just as ants help Psyche in the sorting of grain and legumes imposed on her by Venus. Like Cinderella, Psyche has two envious sisters who compete with her for the most desirable male. Cinderella's sisters mutilate their own feet to emulate her, while Psyche's are dashed to death on
3854-583: The Muses with melodic singing. Apollo sings to his lyre , and Venus takes the starring role in dancing at the wedding, with the Muses as her chorus girls, a satyr blowing the aulos (tibia in Latin), and a young Pan expressing himself through the pan pipes (fistula) . The wedding provides closure for the narrative structure as well as for the love story: the mysteriously provided pleasures Psyche enjoyed in
Eros - Misplaced Pages Continue
3948-413: The oracle of Apollo . The response is unsettling: the king is to expect not a human son-in-law, but rather a dragon-like creature who harasses the world with fire and iron and is feared by even Jupiter and the inhabitants of the underworld. Psyche is arrayed in funeral attire, conveyed by a procession to the peak of a rocky crag, and exposed. Marriage and death are merged into a single rite of passage,
4042-491: The pre-Socratic philosophers, makes Eros the first of all the gods to come into existence. Aristophanes , in his comedy The Birds (414 BC), presents a parody of a cosmogony which has been considered Orphic, in which Eros is born from an egg laid by Night ( Nyx ): In some versions the Orphic Egg which contains Eros is created by Chronos , and it is Eros who bore Nyx as his daughter and took her as his consort. Eros
4136-517: The "wine of the gods"; Apuleius refers to the cupbearer only as ille rusticus puer , "that country boy", and not as Ganymede . Liber , the Roman god of wine, serves the rest of the company. Vulcan , the god of fire, cooks the food; the Horae ("Seasons" or "Hours") adorn, or more literally "empurple", everything with roses and other flowers; the Graces suffuse the setting with the scent of balsam , and
4230-526: The Earth, looking for her lost love. She visits the Temple of Demeter and the Temple of Hera looking for advice. Eventually, she finds her way to Aphrodite's temple and approaches Aphrodite asking for her help. Aphrodite imposes four difficult tasks on Psyche, which she is able to achieve by means of supernatural assistance. After successfully completing these tasks, Aphrodite relents. After a near death experience, Zeus turns Psyche into an immortal to live amongst
4324-612: The Erotidia ( Ancient Greek : Ἐρωτίδεια ) meaning festivals of Eros. He had the epithet Klêidouchos (Κλειδοῦχος), meaning holding/bearing the keys, because he was holding the key to hearts. In addition, he had the epithet Pandemos (Πάνδημος, "common to all the people"). According to Hesiod 's Theogony (c. 700 BC), one of the most ancient of Greek sources, Eros (Love) was the fourth god to come into existence, coming after Chaos , Gaia (Earth), and Tartarus . Homer does not mention Eros. However, Parmenides (c. 400 BC), one of
4418-486: The Gods , where Zeus chides Eros for making him fall in love with and then deceive so many mortal women, and even his mother Aphrodite advises him against using all the gods as his playthings. Nevertheless, Eros could not touch any of the virgin goddesses ( Hestia , Athena and Artemis) who had all taken a vow of purity. Sappho writes of Artemis that "limb-loosening Eros never goes near her." A repetitive motif in ancient poetry included Eros being stung by bees. The story
4512-663: The Loggia di Psiche (ca. 1518) by Raphael and his workshop, as well as for the Stanza di Psiche (1545–46) by Perino del Vaga at the Castel Sant' Angelo . Hendrick Goltzius introduced the subject to northern Europe with his "enormous" engraving called The Wedding of Cupid and Psyche (1587, 43 by 85.4 cm), which influenced how other northern artists depicted assemblies of the gods in general. The engraving in turn had been taken from Bartholomaeus Spranger 's 1585 drawing of
4606-575: The Lost Husband " and " Animal as Bridegroom "). Bruno Bettelheim notes in The Uses of Enchantment that the 18th-century fairy tale Beauty and the Beast is a version of Cupid and Psyche . Motifs from Apuleius occur in several fairy tales, including Cinderella and Rumpelstiltskin , in versions collected by folklorists trained in the classical tradition, such as Charles Perrault and
4700-526: The Underworld. Eros has to use his strongest possible arrow to make Hades's stern heart melt. In an Anacreon fragment, preserved by Athenaeus , the author laments how Eros struck him with a purple ball, making him fall in love with a woman who is attracted to other women, and shuns him over his white hair. Eros is characterized as a mighty entity who controls everyone, and even immortals cannot escape. Lucian satirized this concept in his Dialogues of
4794-475: The affairs of gods and mortals cause bonds of love to form, often illicitly. Ultimately, in the later satirical poets, he is represented as a blindfolded child, the precursor to the chubby Renaissance Cupid, whereas in early Greek poetry and art, Eros was depicted as a young adult male who embodies sexual power, and a profound artist. A cult of Eros existed in pre-classical Greece, but it was much less important than that of Aphrodite. However, in late antiquity, Eros
SECTION 50
#17327655059144888-612: The aftermath of the French Revolution , the myth became a vehicle for the refashioning of the self. In English intellectual and artistic circles around the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, the fashion for Cupid and Psyche accompanied a fascination for the ancient mystery religions . In writing about the Portland Vase , which was obtained by the British Museum around 1810, Erasmus Darwin speculated that
4982-469: The anecdote a little in his Idylls ( Idyll XIX ). Little Eros is stung by bees when he attempts to steal honey from their beehive. The bees pierce all of his fingers. He runs to his mother crying, and muses how creatures this small and cause pain so big. Aphrodite smiles and compares him to the bees, as he too is small, and causes pain much greater than his size. This little tale was retold in antiquity and Renaissance many times. Pontianus of Nicomedia ,
5076-486: The connection till she pointed it out herself. Other literary adaptations include The Robber Bridegroom (1942), a novella by Eudora Welty ; Till We Have Faces (1956), a version by C. S. Lewis narrated by a sister of Psyche; and the poem "Psyche: 'Love drove her to Hell'" by H.D. (Hilda Doolittle) . Robert A. Johnson made use of the story in his book She: Understanding Feminine Psychology , published in 1976 by HarperCollinsPublishers . William Adlington made
5170-423: The eternal soul she yearns for. Thomas Bulfinch wrote a shorter adaptation of the Cupid and Psyche tale for his Age of Fable , borrowing Tighe's invention of Cupid's self-wounding, which did not appear in the original. Josephine Preston Peabody wrote a version for children in her Old Greek Folk Stories Told Anew (1897). C. S. Lewis ' Till We Have Faces is a retelling of Apuleius' Cupid and Psyche from
5264-449: The first person the victim lays eyes on), the temptation for an allegorical interpretation of the story becomes somewhat complexified but not inherently contradictory or unsubstantiated. The arrows of desire make it so that the victim cannot be satisfied with anyone except the sole target of their newfound affections; thus, Cupid's former predilections no longer occupy the same prominence they once held in his character, so that he changes from
5358-858: The first translation into English of Apuleius's Metamorphoses in 1566, under the title The XI Bookes of the Golden Asse, Conteininge the Metamorphosie of Lucius Apuleius . Adlington seems not to have been interested in a Neoplatonic reading, but his translation consistently suppresses the sensuality of the original. Thomas Taylor published an influential translation of Cupid and Psyche in 1795, several years before his complete Metamorphoses . A translation by Robert Graves appeared in 1951 as The Transformations of Lucius Otherwise Known as THE GOLDEN ASS, A New Translation by Robert Graves from Apuleius , published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux , New York. Folklore scholarship has also occupied itself with
5452-555: The first, Eros made Hymnus , a young shepherd, to fall in love with the beautiful Naiad Nicaea . Nicaea never reciprocated Hymnus' affection, and he in desperation asked her to kill him. She fulfilled his wish, but Eros, disgusted with Nicaea's actions, made Dionysus fall in love with her by hitting him with a love arrow. Nicaea rejected Dionysus, so he filled the spring she used to drink from with wine. Intoxicated, Nicaea lay to rest as Dionysus forced himself on her. Afterwards, she sought to find him seeking revenge, but never found him. In
5546-595: The form of statues arranged on luxurious couches, as if they were present and participating in the meal. The wedding banquet was a favored theme for Renaissance art. As early as 1497, Giovanni Sabadino degli Arienti made the banquet central to his description of a now-lost Cupid and Psyche cycle at the Villa Belriguardo , near Ferrara . At the Villa Farnesina in Rome, it is one of two main scenes for
5640-849: The friendship of those who stand side by side in the battle. In addition, the Cretans offered sacrifices to Eros in their line of battle. Cupid and Psyche Cupid and Psyche is a story originally from Metamorphoses (also called The Golden Ass ), written in the 2nd century AD by Lucius Apuleius Madaurensis (or Platonicus). The tale concerns the overcoming of obstacles to the love between Psyche ( / ˈ s aɪ k iː / ; Ancient Greek : Ψυχή , lit. 'Soul' or 'Breath of Life', Greek pronunciation: [psyːkʰɛ̌ː] ) and Cupid ( Latin : Cupido , lit. 'Desire', Latin pronunciation: [kʊˈpiːd̪oː] ) or Amor ( lit. ' Love ' , Greek Eros , Ἔρως ), and their ultimate union in
5734-400: The goddess is prohibited from helping her against a fellow goddess. A similar incident occurs at a temple of Juno . Psyche realizes that she must serve Venus herself. Venus revels in having the girl under her power, and turns Psyche over to her two handmaids, Worry and Sadness, to be whipped and tortured. Venus tears her clothes and bashes her head into the ground, and mocks her for conceiving
SECTION 60
#17327655059145828-419: The gods in the theater of heaven, where he makes a public statement of approval, warns Venus to back off, and gives Psyche ambrosia , the drink of immortality, so the couple can be united in marriage as equals. Their union, he says, will redeem Cupid from his history of provoking adultery and sordid liaisons. Zeus's word is solemnized with a wedding banquet. With its happy marriage and resolution of conflicts,
5922-483: The gods with her husband Eros. Together they had a daughter, Voluptas or Hedone (meaning physical pleasure, bliss). In Greek mythology, Psyche was the deification of the human soul. She was portrayed in ancient mosaics as a goddess with butterfly wings (because psyche was also the Ancient Greek word for "butterfly"). The Greek word psyche literally means "soul, spirit, breath, life, or animating force". In
6016-408: The hermaphroditic god Phanes who gave birth to the first generation of gods and is the ultimate creator of the cosmos . Pherecydes of Syros in his lost Heptamychos (" The seven recesses" ), around 6th century BC, claimed that there were three eternal principles: Chronos , Zas ( Zeus ) and Chthonie (the chthonic ). The semen of Chronos was placed in the recesses of the Earth and produced
6110-467: The marriage of Cupid and Psyche symbolized the union of soul and God. The allure to interpret the story as a religious or philosophical allegory can still be found in modern scholarship. Psyche by her very name represents the aspirations of the human soul—towards a divine love personified in Cupid. This simplistic interpretation overlooks the original characterisation of Cupid as a corrupter who delights in disrupting marriages ( The Golden Ass IV. 30) and
6204-467: The myth of Cupid and Psyche was part of the Eleusinian cycle . With his interest in natural philosophy , Darwin saw the butterfly as an apt emblem of the soul because it began as an earthbound caterpillar, "died" into the pupal stage , and was then resurrected as a beautiful winged creature. In 1491, the poet Niccolò da Correggio retold the story with Cupid as the narrator. John Milton alludes to
6298-503: The opposite effect; they make people averse to love, and fill their hearts with hatred. This is mostly utilized in the story of Daphne and Apollo, where Eros made Apollo fall in love with the nymph, and Daphne to detest any forms of romance. Meanwhile, in Ovid's tale of Persephone's abduction by Hades, the abduction is initiated by Aphrodite and Eros; Aphrodite commands Eros to make Hades fall in love with his niece, so that their domain can reach
6392-402: The other extreme, German classicist Detlev Fehling [ de ] took a hard and skeptical approach and considered the tale to be a literary invention of Apuleius himself. Friedländer also listed several European tales of marriage between a human maiden and prince cursed to be an animal, as related to the "Cupid and Psyche" cycle of stories (which later became known as " The Search for
6486-403: The other love gods and often acts as a catalyst for people to fall in love, but has little unique mythology of his own; the most major exception being the myth of Eros and Psyche , the story of how he met and fell in love with his wife. Eros and his Roman equivalent Cupid, are also known, in art tradition, as a Putto . The Putto's iconography seemed to have, later, influenced the figure known as
6580-408: The other, one of Artemis ' maiden nymphs Aura boasted of being better than her mistress, due to having a virgin's body, as opposed to Artemis' sensuous and lush figure, thereby bringing into question Artemis' virginity. Artemis, angered, asked Nemesis , the goddess of vengeance and retribution, to avenge her, and Nemesis ordered Eros to make Dionysus fall in love with Aura. The tale then continues in
6674-465: The perspective of one of Psyche's sisters. Till We Have Faces is C. S. Lewis' last work of fiction and elaborates on Apuleius' story in a modern way. Chronos Chronos ( / ˈ k r oʊ n ɒ s , - oʊ s / ; Ancient Greek : Χρόνος , romanized : Khronos , lit. 'Time' , [kʰrónos] ), also spelled Chronus , is a personification of time in pre-Socratic philosophy and later literature. Chronos
6768-437: The possible origin of the narrative. Swedish folklorist Jan-Öjvind Swahn [ sv ] , who authored a long study on the story, and German philologist Ludwig Friedländer defended the idea that it originated from a legitimate folklore source. Some scholars tend to look for a single source: Stith Thompson suggested an Italian origin, while Lesky, Gédeon Huet and Georgios A. Megas [ el ] indicated
6862-451: The rocks, and falls into despair. Jupiter himself takes pity on her, and sends his eagle to battle the dragons and retrieve the water for her. The last trial Venus imposes on Psyche is a quest to the underworld itself. She is to take a box ( pyxis ) and obtain in it a dose of the beauty of Proserpina , queen of the underworld. Venus claims her own beauty has faded through tending her ailing son, and she needs this remedy in order to attend
6956-410: The room, in order to see and kill the monster. But when the light instead reveals the most beautiful creature she has ever seen, she is so startled that she wounds herself on one of the arrows in Cupid's cast-aside quiver. Struck with a feverish passion, she spills hot oil from the lamp and wakes him. He flees, and though she tries to pursue, he flies away and leaves her on the bank of a river. There she
7050-409: The same manner as Nicaea's myth; Dionysus gets Aura drunk and then rapes her. Eros made two chaste hunting companions of Artemis, Rhodopis and Euthynicus , to fall in love with each other at the behest of his mother Aphrodite, who took offence at them rejecting her domain of love and marriage. Artemis then punished Rhodopis by turning her into a fountain. In another myth, Eros and Aphrodite played in
7144-566: The same title, considered a " locus classicus of Dutch Mannerism " and discussed by Karel Van Mander for its exemplary composition involving numerous figures. In the 18th century, François Boucher 's Marriage of Cupid and Psyche (1744) affirmed Enlightenment ideals with the authority figure Jupiter presiding over a marriage of lovely equals. The painting reflects the Rococo taste for pastels, fluid delicacy, and amorous scenarios infused with youth and beauty. The story of Cupid and Psyche
7238-401: The story at the conclusion of Comus (1634), attributing not one but two children to the couple: Youth and Joy. Shackerley Marmion wrote a verse version called Cupid and Psyche (1637), and La Fontaine adapted the story into a mixed prose and verse romance named Les Amours de Psiché et de Cupidon ( The Loves of Cupid and Psyche ; 1669). William Blake's mythology draws on elements of
7332-483: The story, such as placing 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 the bitter water on Psyche's lips. Tighe's Venus only asks one task of Psyche, to bring her the forbidden water, but in performing this task Psyche wanders into a country bordering on Spenser 's Fairie Queene as Psyche
7426-402: The tale ends in the manner of classic comedy or Greek romances such as Daphnis and Chloe . The child born to the couple will be Voluptas (Greek Hedone ‘Ηδονή ), "Pleasure". The assembly of the gods has been a popular subject for both visual and performing arts, with the wedding banquet of Cupid and Psyche a particularly rich occasion. With the wedding of Peleus and Thetis , this
7520-552: The tale in the Italian Renaissance and to its dissemination throughout Europe. One of the most popular images from the tale was Psyche's discovery of a naked Cupid sleeping, found in ceramics, stained glass , and frescos. Mannerist painters were intensely drawn to the scene. In England, the Cupid and Psyche theme had its "most lustrous period" from 1566 to 1635, beginning with the first English translation by William Adlington . A fresco cycle for Hill Hall, Essex ,
7614-575: The tale particularly in the figures of Luvah and Vala . Luvah takes on the various guises of Apuleius's Cupid: beautiful and winged; disembodied voice; and serpent. Blake , who mentions his admiration for Apuleius in his notes, combines the myth with the spiritual quest expressed through the eroticism of the Song of Solomon , with Solomon and the Shulamite as a parallel couple. Mary Tighe published her poem Psyche in 1805. She added some details to
7708-416: The theatre of the gods (theatrum deorum) . Once again despairing of her task, Psyche climbs a tower, planning to throw herself off. The tower, however, suddenly breaks into speech, and advises her to travel to Lacedaemon , Greece, and to seek out the place called Taenarus , where she will find the entrance to the underworld. The tower offers instructions for navigating the underworld : The airway of Dis
7802-421: The theme of dangerous curiosity, punishments and tests, and redemption through divine favor. As a structural mirror of the overarching plot, the tale is an example of mise en abyme . It occurs within a complex narrative frame, with Lucius recounting the tale as it in turn was told by an old woman to Charite, a bride kidnapped by pirates on her wedding day and held captive in a cave. The happy ending for Psyche
7896-408: The weapons to the older gods, and bragged about his slaying of Python . Eros was angered, so he immediately struck Apollo with a love arrow, making him fall in love with Daphne , a virginal nymph of the woods. In the same fashion he struck Daphne with a lead arrow, which had the opposite effect, and made the nymph be repulsed by Apollo and his ardent wooing. In the end, Daphne would be transformed into
7990-491: Was "notorious for his adulteries" (VI. 23), as well as the descriptions of his sensual unions with Psyche (V. 13), the aid Jupiter offers to Cupid in return for a new girl that Jupiter may seduce (VI. 22), and the name given to Cupid and Psyche's child ( Voluptas / Pleasure). However, when he admits that "I [Cupid], the famed archer, wounded myself with my own weapon, and made you [Psyche] my wife" (V. 24), having cut himself on his own magic arrow (which induces passionate love for
8084-682: Was a vehicle for the Neoplatonism the queen brought with her from France. The Cupid and Psyche produced by Orazio Gentileschi for the royal couple shows a fully robed Psyche whose compelling interest is psychological, while Cupid is mostly nude. Another peak of interest in Cupid and Psyche occurred in the Paris of the late 1790s and early 1800s, reflected in a proliferation of opera, ballet, Salon art , deluxe book editions, interior decoration such as clocks and wall paneling, and even hairstyles. In
8178-458: Was called "Protogonos" meaning "first-born" because he was the first of the immortals that could be conceived by man, and was thought of as the creator of all other beings and the first ruler of the universe. Nyx bore to Eros the gods Gaia and Ouranos . Eros passes his scepter of power to Nyx , who then passes it to Ouranos. The primordial Eros was also called Phanes ('illuminated one'), Erikepaios ('power'), Metis ('thought') and Dionysus. Zeus
8272-408: Was formerly known as the " Dark Ages " through perhaps a single manuscript . The Metamorphoses remained unknown in the 13th century, but copies began to circulate in the mid-1300s among the early humanists of Florence . Boccaccio's text and interpretation of Cupid and Psyche in his Genealogia deorum gentilium (written in the 1370s and published 1472) was a major impetus to the reception of
8366-415: Was known to Boccaccio in c. 1370, but the editio princeps dates to 1469. Ever since, the reception of Cupid and Psyche in the classical tradition has been extensive. The story has been retold in poetry, drama, and opera, and depicted widely in painting, sculpture, and even wallpaper. Though Psyche is usually referred to in Roman mythology by her Greek name, her Roman name through direct translation
8460-464: Was modeled indirectly after that of the Villa Farnesina around 1570, and Thomas Heywood 's masque Love's Mistress dramatized the tale to celebrate the wedding of Charles I and Henrietta Maria , who later had her withdrawing chamber decorated with a 22-painting Cupid and Psyche cycle by Jacob Jordaens . The cycle took the divinization of Psyche as the centerpiece of the ceiling, and
8554-470: Was readily allegorized. In late antiquity , Martianus Capella (5th century) refashions it as an allegory about the fall of the human soul. For Apuleius, immortality is granted to the soul of Psyche as a reward for commitment to sexual love. In the version of Martianus, sexual love draws Psyche into the material world that is subject to death: "Cupid takes Psyche from Virtue and shackles her in adamantine chains ". The tale thus lent itself to adaptation in
8648-450: Was said to have swallowed Phanes (Eros), and absorbing his powers of creation remade the world anew, such that Zeus was then both creator and ruler of the universe. The Orphics also thought that Dionysus was an incarnation of the primordial Eros, and that Zeus (the modern ruler) passed the scepter of power to Dionysus. Thus Eros was the first ruler of the universe, and as Dionysus he regained the scepter of power once again. In later myths, he
8742-547: Was the son of the deities Aphrodite and Ares : it is the Eros of these later myths who is one of the erotes . Eros was depicted as often carrying a lyre or bow and arrow . He was also depicted accompanied by dolphins , flutes , roosters , roses , and torches . The story of Eros and Psyche has a longstanding tradition as a folktale of the ancient Greco-Roman world long before it was committed to literature in Apuleius ' Latin novel, The Golden Ass . The novel itself
8836-729: Was worshiped by a fertility cult in Thespiae . In Athens , he shared a very popular cult with Aphrodite, and the fourth day of every month was sacred to him (also shared by Herakles, Hermes and Aphrodite). Eros was one of the Erotes , along with other figures such as Himeros and Pothos , who are sometimes considered patrons of homosexual love between males. Eros is also part of a triad of gods that played roles in homoerotic relationships, along with Heracles and Hermes , who bestowed qualities of beauty (and loyalty), strength, and eloquence, respectively, onto male lovers. The Thespians celebrated
#913086