Cupid and Psyche

A wonderful legend about love.

The myth says that one king had three beautiful daughters, of whom the youngest was the most beautiful - Psyche. The fame of her beauty spread throughout the land and many came to the city where Psyche lived to admire her. They even began to pay divine honors to her, forgetting Aphrodite. The latter was offended and decided to destroy her rival. Calling her son Eros, she showed him the beauty and told him to instill in her love for the most outcast, ugly and pitiful of people. Meanwhile, Psyche felt very unhappy because everyone admired her as soulless beauty, and no one was looking for her hand.

In grief, her father turned to the Milesian oracle, and the god replied that Psyche, dressed in funeral clothes, should be taken to a rock for marriage with a terrible monster. Fulfilling the will of the oracle, the unfortunate father brought Psyche to the indicated place and left her alone; suddenly a breath of wind transported her to a wonderful palace inhabited by invisible spirits, and she became the wife of some mysterious invisible creature. Psyche's blissful life, however, did not last long: the envious sisters, having learned about her well-being, decided to let her know and by cunning achieved that Psyche had broken her promise to her husband - not to inquire who he was. The evil sisters whispered to her that the invisible spouse was a dragon who would one day eat her with her fruit (Psyche was already pregnant), and convinced her that she, armed with a sword and a lamp, would lie in wait for him while sleeping and kill him.

The trusting Psyche obeyed, lit the lamp, and began to examine her husband, who turned out to be the beautiful Eros; while she, amazed by the beauty of his face, was admiring the sleeping man, a hot drop of oil fell from the lamp on the god's shoulder, and he woke up in pain. Offended by the treachery and frivolity of his wife, he flew away from her, and she, abandoned, went across the earth to look for her beloved. For a long time Psyche walked through all the lands until she was forced to bow before her rival, Aphrodite, who was looking for an opportunity to take revenge on Psyche for a long time and sent Hermes to seek her. At this time, the patient from the burn, Eros lay with his mother.

Finding herself under the same roof with her husband, but separated from him, Psyche had to endure all sorts of persecutions by Aphrodite, who, wishing her death, invented various impossible jobs. So, Psyche had to sort out a huge pile of mixed grain by grain and by birth, get the golden fleece from the mad sheep, get water from Styx and bring a box with wonderful rubbing from the underworld from Persephone (Proserpina).

Thanks to someone else's help, Psyche did everything that Aphrodite told her, until Eros finally recovered. Then he turned to the assistance of the supreme Olympic god and with his help achieved the consent of the inhabitants of heaven to a marriage with Psyche, who received immortality from Zeus and was introduced to the host of gods.

The envious sisters of Psyche were punished for their envy and cunning by crashing on a cliff, jumping off it, hoping that Zephyr would take them to the magical palace of Eros. From the marriage of Psyche with Eros, Volupia was born, the goddess personifying pleasure.