Greek Mythology : Psyche And Eros

Psyche and Eros

Psyche was a woman of extreme beauty and grace, so beautiful that the whole world rushed to see her. Goddess Aphrodite became so jealous of her, that she told her son, Eros (or Cupid) to poison the souls of men who desired her, but he ended up falling in love with her too.

Despite Psyche’s beauty and all the men who wanted to marry her, she loved none of them and stayed unmarried, waiting for the right man to love. But while her two beautiful sisters had managed to marry and not her, her father thought it might be a sign of the Gods’ wrath and became so desperate that he consulted the oracle of Apollo.

Eros guided Apollo to give the oracle that Psyche would end up marrying an ugly beast, whom she was never able to see, and he told her to wait for him up on a mountain. Despite her parents’ disappointment, they went on to arrange the wedding with the beast.

After the wedding, Psyche found herself living in a marvelous house with golden columns, silver walls and mosaic floors.

She was able to sleep with her husband, but was forbidden to look at his face. And as the days passed, she came to realise that the beast she was married to was a tender and loving husband who showed enormous love and respect towards her and made her happy beyond words. She looked forward to his visits, even though he always departed before sunrise, and soon she became pregnant with his child.

Psyche’s sisters came for a visit and they became envious when they saw the splendor in which their sister lived, so they talked to her and convinced 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 she was carrying.

So one night, after the beast fell asleep, she and her sisters carried the plan of his murder. Psyche brought a dagger and a lamp, in order to see and kill the monster.

But the light instead revealed the most beautiful creature she had ever seen, and in her shock, hot oil from the lamp was spilled on his face and woke him, the God of Love, Eros.

Eros then flees and flies away, yelling at her that she betrayed him and broke her promise to never look at his face, leaving her alone on the bank of a river.

Psyche searched everywhere for him but could not find him, when eventually she was suggested to beg Aphrodite to see him, and the Goddess in return gave her three impossible tasks to accomplish in order to prove her love for her son.

Driven by love and desire for her loved one, Psyche accomplished the two tasks and fearlessly moved on to the last one, where she had to visit the Underworld and bring the box with the Elixir of Beauty to Aphrodite, who ordered her not to open the box.

But Psyche’s curiosity urged her to open the box, where instead of the Elixir, she found Morpheus, the god of sleep and dreams. She fell asleep the moment she opened the box, breaking her promise for the second time.

When Eros found out what happened, he ran away from the Palace and begged his father, Zeus to save his love, Psyche.

Zeus decided not only to save her, but he made her Immortal, so that the two of them could be together, forever.

*Psyche (Greek: Ψυχή, "Soul" or "Breath of Life") *