The Myth of Cupid
by Caitlin Hill
Happy Valentine’s Day, Nottingham!
Mythology is very interesting to me, and I love to explore it. Cupid, the roman counterpart for Eros, is the god of love, and he is widely associated with Valentine’s day. In honor of this year’s Valentine’s day I’m going to tell you about the myth of Cupid and his love, Psyche.
(Since I am lazy and more accustomed with Greek mythology, I will be referring to Cupid as Eros.)
Mythology is very interesting to me, and I love to explore it. Cupid, the roman counterpart for Eros, is the god of love, and he is widely associated with Valentine’s day. In honor of this year’s Valentine’s day I’m going to tell you about the myth of Cupid and his love, Psyche.
(Since I am lazy and more accustomed with Greek mythology, I will be referring to Cupid as Eros.)
Psyche was a beautiful mortal princess. Aphrodite was prone to jealousy and spite towards mortals, making Psyche an obvious target. Aphrodite, being the mother of Eros, tells Eros to go make Psyche fall in love with an ugly monster, as a way of punishing Psyche for being more beautiful than her. However, since it’s Greek mythology, Eros sees Psyche’s beauty and falls in love with her. Psyche, unable to find love, goes to the Oracle and asks if she will ever find love, and the Oracle says that she will, but it will be with a monster.
Psyche goes to a cliff and waits for her monster love to find her. Zephyr, the West Wind, takes her to her monster. When she gets there, she finds that her monster is invisible, and she can never see him. Psyche lives in luxury with her true love monster guy, but decides to try to find out the identity of the monster.
That night, Psyche sneaks into her love’s room with a lantern. As soon as the lantern’s light touches him, she sees that the invisible monster is actually Eros. However, the lamp oil splashes on Eros. Eros feels betrayed and leaves Psyche and returns to Aphrodite.
Aphrodite proposes that if Psyche completes four tasks, she could be back with Eros. Of course, Aphrodite meant the tasks to be death traps and not at all help Psyche reunite with Eros.
In Psyche’s first task, she’s given a mixed bunch of grains and has to sort them by type in one day. However, a nest of ants helps Psyche sort the grains, which makes Aphrodite mad. Aphrodite tries to make Psyche’s next task more difficult.
Psyche’s second task is to get some golden fleece from a herd of sun sheep that live near the river. A nearby water spirit tells Psyche that the sheep are murderous, so instead of trying to take the fleece from the sheep, she should gather fleece that got caught on thorn bushes. Aphrodite, of course, gets even madder when Psyche completes her task.
Psyche goes to a cliff and waits for her monster love to find her. Zephyr, the West Wind, takes her to her monster. When she gets there, she finds that her monster is invisible, and she can never see him. Psyche lives in luxury with her true love monster guy, but decides to try to find out the identity of the monster.
That night, Psyche sneaks into her love’s room with a lantern. As soon as the lantern’s light touches him, she sees that the invisible monster is actually Eros. However, the lamp oil splashes on Eros. Eros feels betrayed and leaves Psyche and returns to Aphrodite.
Aphrodite proposes that if Psyche completes four tasks, she could be back with Eros. Of course, Aphrodite meant the tasks to be death traps and not at all help Psyche reunite with Eros.
In Psyche’s first task, she’s given a mixed bunch of grains and has to sort them by type in one day. However, a nest of ants helps Psyche sort the grains, which makes Aphrodite mad. Aphrodite tries to make Psyche’s next task more difficult.
Psyche’s second task is to get some golden fleece from a herd of sun sheep that live near the river. A nearby water spirit tells Psyche that the sheep are murderous, so instead of trying to take the fleece from the sheep, she should gather fleece that got caught on thorn bushes. Aphrodite, of course, gets even madder when Psyche completes her task.
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Psyche’s third task is to retrieve water from the river Styx, but Zeus decides to help her. He sends down an eagle to get the water for Psyche so she doesn’t die completing the task.
Psyche’s final task is to go to the Underworld and get Persephone to put some of her beauty in a box and return it to Aphrodite. Persephone agrees and puts some of her beauty in the box and sends Psyche on her way. Psyche, however, decides that she should use some of the beauty in the box for herself before seeing Eros again, and opens the box. If you know some other myths in Greek mythology, then you would know that boxes are death traps. As soon as Psyche opens the box she falls asleep, since the box contained not beauty, but the essence of the Underworld. Eros, who forgave Psyche while he was confined by Aphrodite, escapes to go fix the whole kinda-dead thing Psyche has going on. They get married, and Eros gives Psyche ambrosia, making her immortal. By the way, the entire time Psyche did the tasks, she was pregnant and she gave birth to her and Eros’ daughter named Hedone. The end. |