Boundless Love: The Tale of Cupid and Psyche

Introduction

Have you ever wondered whether there are an ancient stories with happy endings? Several mythologies, especially that of the Greeks and Romans, contain many tragic stories. This story is different from those tragic tales. Cupid and Psyche’s tale is one of the few Greco-Roman stories with a happy ending and also one of the very first fairy tales.

The story of Cupid and Psyche was originally featured in Lucius Apuleius’s ancient novel, The Golden Ass, which was written in the late 2nd century. In Apuleius’s novel the main character, Lucius of Madaurus, is transformed into a donkey and embarks on a journey to return to his human form while encountering many strange things along the way. During his journey, thieves capture Lucius along with a young maiden. While they are being held captive, an elderly woman from the band of thieves relates the story of Cupid and Psyche to the young woman in order to calm her.

I chose this story as the main focus for my storybook because there's just no way to fit it all into one short story! Cupid and Psyche's story is full of romance, jealousy, secrecy, distrust, revenge, dangerous tasks and more! Just to get a glimpse of what's to come, let me introduce you to some of the main characters:

CUPID

I'm sure that many of you have heard of Cupid before; however, I should probably let you know a few things that are different about the Cupid in this story. In Greco-Roman mythology, Cupid is the god of love and Venus's son. In the stories you will read in this Storybook, he is depicted as an attractive, young man, not the chubby, little cherub as depicted in the picture above.

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He does still fly around and shoot love arrows. In fact, he accidentally pricks himself with one of his arrows, but you'll find out more about that in the stories.

PSYCHE

Psyche is a young, mortal maiden, the youngest princess of a small kingdom. She is exceptionally beautiful and has many admirers who fawn over her and offer her lavish gifts. Her life is peaceful, but unfortunately for Psyche, Venus considers her beauty an unforgivable crime.

VENUS

Venus is the goddess of love. She is well known in Greco-Roman mythology for being very beautiful, but also very jealous. She quickly seeks vengeance upon anyone who could contest her beauty. In this case, Psyche is her poor, unsuspecting target.

I hope that after reading my humble retelling of this classic fairy tale, you will come to enjoy it as much as I have.

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To get things started, here's where the frametale begins...

Cynthia sighed as she stood outside the Blair J. Johnson museum. After pestering her for weeks to go to the museum, Cynthia’s friend had finally convinced her to go. Unfortunately, her friend had gotten sick and bailed at the last minute.

“Well, since I’m already here…”Cynthia muttered to herself as she entered the museum and found it surprisingly empty.

“Hello!” Cynthia shouted into the emptiness of the main hall.

A woman’s head popped out of a nearby doorway.

“Yes? Hello,” the woman replied. “Come on in.”

Cynthia walked into the room from which the head had appeared. At first, the room looked like a fairly normal showroom, but Cynthia soon realized that there were many multicolored lines criss-crossing all over the floor.

“What are the lines for?”

“To keep track of stories,” the woman explained. “Each story has a different colored line and each line connects to different items relating to each story."

She walked up to Cynthia and held out her hand. “I’m Blair, by the way.”

“Cynthia,” Cynthia replied and shook her hand. “Stories, you said? What kind of museum is this?”

“It’s a myth museum.”

“Myth museum?”

“Yes,” replied Blair, “I collect items related to mythical stories and showcase them here. For example…”

Blair walked over to a corner of the room next to a pedestal at the beginning of a pink line. “This story is one of my favorites.”

“What is it?” Cynthia asked, joining her next to the pedestal. A single, golden arrow lay on the pedestal.

“Here,” Blair instructed, “You can touch it. Just touch the tail though; you don’t want to prick yourself.”

“What kind of museum lets people touch things?” Cynthia asked as she reached for the arrow.

As she touched it, she was sucked through space.

Continued in Part 1...

Image Information: "Cupid and Psyche Oil on Canvas."  Guillaume Seignac (1870-1924)  Web Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Image Information: "Cupid and Psyche." John Roddam Spencer-Stanhope (1829-1908). Cropped. Web Source: ArtMagick.

Image Information: "Cupid's Arrows." Léon Bazile Perrault. Web Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Image Information: "Psyche Opening the Door into Cupid's Garden." John William Waterhouse. 1904.  Web Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Image Information: "Venus and Anchises." Sir William Blake Richard. 1889. Cropped. Web Source:ArtMagick.