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In his fury at her faithlessness, Eros fled. Psyche wandered endlessly in search of her husband, all the while trying to win the favor of the gods—particularly Aphrodite. Psyche offered herself to Aphrodite as a humble servant, and Aphrodite set about putting Psyche up to nearly impossible tasks.
- Psyche, The Most Beautiful Maiden
- Psyche and Eros
- The Trials of Psyche
- The Reunion of Eros and Psyche
- Eros and Psyche Sources
The Youngest of the Three Daughters
Once upon a time there lived in the West parts a king and a queen who had three daughters, all of them beautiful beyond belief. The two elder girls were so stunning that they exceeded all other mortal women in loveliness; but the beauty of the youngest of the three, Psyche (which is Ancient Greek for “Soul”), was such that even goddesses envied her. People came from all over the world to admire Psyche, and they were so smitten with her “maidenly majesty” that they even started paying her the...
Aphrodite’s Revenge
Aphrodite, to say the least, wasn’t that flattered by all of this, so she sent her son Eros among the mortalswith a simple mission: to fuel in Psyche love for “the most miserable creature living, the most poor, the most crooked, and the most vile, that there may be none found in all the world of like wretchedness.” Some say that it was because he accidentally pricked himself with his arrows, others because Psyche was just that beautiful; either way, the minute Eros laid his eyes upon this bea...
The Oracle’s Prophecy
Now, Psyche’s two sisters had enjoyed their fair share of suitors, culminating in their royal marriages to two foreign kings. However – thinking her an embodiment or an unknown daughter of Aphrodite – nobody had even dared to ask for the hand of Psyche, who, consequently, started hating herself for her own beauty. Distraught, Psyche’s father went to Miletus and asked Apollo’s oracle for an advice on how he could find a husband for his youngest daughter. The oracle replied that Psyche’s husban...
The Marriage of Psyche
Little did the king and queen knew – and even less did Psyche – that the god described by the oracle was none other than Eros. Soon after she was left alone on the craggy mountaintop, the frightened Psyche was lifted by Zephyrus, the West Wind, who wafted her gently down into a deep valley, and laid her even gentler in a bed of most sweet and fragrant flowers. In the midst of a nearby wood, Psyche happened upon a heavenly palace, so luxurious and splendid that even Zeushimself would have perh...
Psyche Missing Her Family
And so the days passed for Psyche who, for a while, wished for nothing more. Eventually, a baby started growing inside her, and she couldn’t help but thinking that nothing could ever spoil her happiness. However, after some time, she realized that unshared gladness is not as joyful as the shared one, and she suddenly started missing her family. So she asked her still unseen husband – who had explicitly told her that he would leave her if she ever sees his face – if it would be possible for he...
Psyche’s Jealous Sisters
Thousands upon thousands of embraces and kisses were shared between the sisters during their reunion. However, with every next visit, the elder sisters of Psyche grew more and more envious of their sibling’s extraordinary fortune. And when Psyche once confessed to them that she had no idea what her husband looks like, they scared her stiff that her husband must be an ugly beast who plans to devour her baby once she gives birth. Eventually, they convinced her to kill him.
First Task: Sorting Out a Heap of Grains
Aphrodite took a great quantity of “wheat, barley, millet, poppy seed, peas, lentils, and beans, and mingled them all together in a heap.” Psyche’s task was to sort out the seeds into separate heaps within a single day. Not knowing even where to begin, Psyche started crying. Fortunately, an ant heard her and felt sorry for her; so, she quickly rounded up all the ants of the country, and they all came, helping Psyche finish the job just in time.
Second Task: Gathering Golden Wool
Next, Aphrodite tasked Psyche with gathering the golden wool from a nearby flock of murderous sheep with sharp horns. This time, a divinely inspired green reed advised her, through the sounds of a gracious melody, to wait until the sheep fall asleep in the heat of the afternoon, and only then gather the locks of their golden fleeces hanging upon the nearby briar bushes. Psyche followed the advice and brought Aphrodite a lapful of golden wool, but the goddess was still not impressed.
Third Task: Fetching a Jar of Stygian Water
Aphrodite’s third task was even more complicated: Psyche had to fill a jar with the waters from the black and deadly river Styx, parts of which flowed on the top of a distant mountain. Psyche went to much trouble to merely get to the place, only to find that on each side of the river, there lay a great never-sleeping dragon, appointed to keep the waters safe. Psyche froze with fear and was so out of her mind that she wasn’t even able to cry anymore. Seeing her there, and remembering that he o...
The Curse of the Box
However, as it usually happens, she disobeyed the very last instruction: just like Pandorahad done once with her jar, Psyche too opened the box of Persephone. This time, though, the act was neither out of curiosity nor out of spite: Psyche had merely hoped that a dash of divine beauty should help her win back the love of Eros. However, “she could perceive no beauty nor anything else save only an infernal and deadly sleep, which immediately invaded all her members as soon as the box was uncove...
The Arrival of Eros
Eros – who could bear neither the sight nor the absence of Psyche anymore – secretly flew out through a window of his chamber and, upon reaching Psyche, wiped away the cloud of sleep from her face, and put its essence back in the box. Then, he lifted his beloved wife into the air, and Psyche was able to bring her present to Aphrodite just in time. Not wishing to see her tortured anymore, Eros immediately went to Zeus and begged him for approval. Zeus consented and made Psyche immortal by givi...
The earliest – and the only extended – source for this fairytale is Apuleius’ novel The Golden Ass. You can read the story in its entirety here, as translated by William Adlington in 1566; for a somewhat more readable modern reworking of the same translation, click here. See Also: Eros, Psyche, Aphrodite, Persephone
- The legendary beauty of Psyche. Once upon a time, there was a king who had three wonderful daughters. The youngest, Psyche, was much more beautiful than her two sisters and looked like a goddess among mere mortals.
- The horrible prophesy. Psyche, however, was felling bad because not only she could not fall in love with someone but, even more surprising, nobody seemed to really fall in love with her.
- The beginning of a fairy tale. On the hill and in the dark, Psyche remained seated and waited. While she was shaking and crying in the quiet night, a slight breeze reached her.
- The doubt in her heart. The following days passed in full joy and Psyche could not remember any happier time of her life. However, day after day, she was feeling sadness that she could not see her husband.
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.
Psyche is featured in the creation myth found in the ancient Gnostic text known as On the Origin of the World. Here she appears as a lover of Eros who pours her blood upon him and also upon the Earth, which causes the first rose to appear on the Earth from a thorn bush.
The myth of Eros (Cupid), from whom derives the word erotic, son of Aphrodite (Venus) goddess of love and Psyche, a princess, a story of a loss of trust and betrayal, one of the best-loved and the greatest love story of Greek mythology, is just one example; the ultimate twin flame journey!
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Jan 20, 2024 · Although the story was first written down by Roman author Apuleius in the second century AD, scenes from the myth are found on many ancient Greek works of art, indicating that the story was first told in ancient Greece.
