Psyche's Beauty vs. Mine: My Fight To Stay On Top
Cupid and Psyche
As some of you may know, Cupid is the name of my
beloved son. He has
the ability to make people fall in love by the prick of his arrow. He
is very generous, loving and downright gorgeous. The last mission I
sent Cupid on went awry, which made me very angry with him and the
situation he had gotten himself into.
Psyche was the youngest of three mortal sisters. Her beauty was
so vast that people from neighboring countries would come just to look
at her. These people would pay her homage, which should have been paid
to me. My altars began to clear out while Psyche’s populated more and
more. It was as if people began to forget my beauty and look upon hers
instead. I am a god, an immortal god, and who is she? A mere mortal! It
was unforgivable. I had to do something about it. I decided to punish
her by making her explore the great depths of humility.
I called upon Cupid to make this possible. I told him to make
Psyche fall in love with a loathsome wretched creature, someone who was
unworthy of being loved by such a beautiful virgin as she. When I sent
him on his way to prick Psyche with one of his arrows, he was unable to
perform the task. One look upon the flawless face of Psyche had Cupid
mesmerized; he could not do it.
Although Psyche had people coming from miles away to witness her
beauty, never once was she presented with love. Her parents began to
worry about her never finding a suitor and approached Apollo for help.
Apollo told them that Psyche must be abandoned far away and await her
suitor there. “He is not of mortal blood, and is one whom no one can
resist,” Apollo said. Upon hearing this, Psyche was left alone on top
of the mountain Apollo led her to. She wandered for hours wondering
when her suitor was to arrive.
Finally, Psyche came upon a mansion like none she had ever seen
before. There was a beautiful fountain in the front, and gold pillars
that looked
as if they were inviting her into the foyer. She entered without
question. In each room she entered there was a different amazing
thing waiting for her. A humongous closet with a sign on it that said
“Psyche” above the
double doors opened to present her with thousands of shoes. Jimmy
Choos, Manolo Bhlaniks, Michael Kors and hundreds of other brands of
shoes were just sitting there waiting for her. In the bathroom there
was jacuzzi-style bathtub made all of marble with gold vaulted ceilings
to top it all off. The main bedroom had a California King sized
Tempur-Pedic bed with a purple and gold canopy above it. The curtains
opened by the touch of a remote and presented her with the most
gorgeous view of the hillside; it was everything she had ever dreamed
of.
Her suitor had created all of this for her, yet she had never
seen his face. He would talk to her over the intercom day and night
to make sure her every wish was fulfilled. Day-in and day-out Psyche
and her suitor would fall more and more in love. Once Psyche began to
wonder about her suitor’s looks, she snuck a peek at him in the middle
of the night. She accidentally awoke him to find that it was in fact my
foolish son Cupid. Cupid was disappointed in the selfishness that
Psyche had shown in needing to see his face, and decided to disappear,
leaving Psyche with nothing. Cupid vanished, the house vanished;
everything Psyche had was gone.
Trying to get my son back, Psyche approached my temple to ask for
my forgiveness. She really expected me to just forgive her? Please… She
didn’t trust the love Cupid had for her, and she broke his heart. I
told her there was only one pretty girl in his life and it was NOT
her. Psyche wouldn’t stop though; she wanted Cupid’s love back.
So I sent her to run some errands for me, which I expected her not to
be able to do. I told her I wanted to have an Emmy displayed in my
palace and an autographed picture of Brad Pitt. Sure enough, the stars
felt paralyzed at the sight of her beauty, and surrendered whatever she
needed at the sight of her.
Surprised at her success, I didn’t know what else to have the
girl do to win the love of my son. Cupid recognized everything that she
was doing for his love and decided to take her back. Although
the young girl didn’t realize what she had at first, she learned never
to take love for granted. Now that we are “officially” related, people
are more able to compare our beauty side-by-side…let’s just say my
confidence has been restored and my altar has yet to be vacant with
“sight-seers.”
Author’s Note: I
took the story of Cupid and Psyche and added my own touches to it by
having Aphrodite narrate it. The original story in Bulfinch’s
Mythologies mentioned Aphrodite’s jealousy towards Psyche (even though
she is a mortal) and I decided to emphasize that jealousy. I definitely
modernized the story in a lot of different ways. I used brand names
like Jimmy Choo shoes while describing the palace Cupid designed for
Psyche. I also had Aphrodite make Psyche run errands for her and had
them be seemingly impossible things in modern-day society. Getting an
Emmy from a star and getting a picture signed by Brad Pitt in a quick
fashion is something that is not easily done, and I thought that would
be more relatable to the audience in this case. The original story was
fairly lengthy and I was a lot more to the point. In the original
story, Psyche's sisters were big characters, but I decided not to
emphasize them that much in my version. Obviously in this
story Aphrodite is still showing her attitude and is able to sum up the
moral of the story at the end.
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HOME (Coverpage)
Introduction
Image
Source: Psyche's
Discovery
Story: "Chapter XI: Cupid and Psyche"
Author: Thomas Bulfinch
Book: Bulfinch's Mythology
Year Published: 1855
Web Source: Bulfinch's
Mythology