The story of Cupid and Psyche is one of the most beautiful narratives of Latin antiquity. It has come down to us thanks to Apuleius, a writer of the 2nd century AD, who placed it at the heart of his novel The Metamorphoses, also known as The Golden Ass. In the novel the tale is told by an old woman to a young captive of brigands, to comfort her. But beneath the form of a fairy tale lies a profound story: the heroine's name, Psyche, means "soul" in Greek, and her story is the soul's journey towards union with divine love.
The beauty that offends Venus
Psyche is the youngest of a king's three daughters. She is so beautiful that people begin to worship her as a new Venus, neglecting the goddess's temples. Venus, offended, orders her son Cupid, that is Love, to make the girl fall in love with the most wretched and despicable of beings.
Meanwhile an oracle of Apollo declares that Psyche must be taken to a crag and abandoned, dressed as for a funeral, to a monstrous husband. Her family obeys in tears. But the west wind Zephyr gently lifts the girl and sets her down in a flowering valley, before a marvellous palace.
The invisible husband
In the palace Psyche is waited on by invisible voices. Every night a mysterious husband comes to her in the dark and leaves before dawn. It is Love himself, who has fallen in love with her instead of carrying out his mother's order. He asks only one thing of her: never to try to see his face.
Psyche's sisters, envious of her happiness, convince her that her husband is a monster and urge her to uncover him. One night Psyche lights a lamp and takes up a knife. By its light she sees the most beautiful of the gods. Shaken, she pricks herself on one of his arrows and falls hopelessly in love with him. But a drop of hot oil falls on the god's shoulder; he wakes and flies away.
The meaning of the lamp
The lamp is the centre of the story, as the glance is in the myth of Orpheus. Psyche wants to know, wants to see with her own eyes what she has been asked to accept in the dark. Her act is both a fault and a necessary step. Before that moment Psyche lives in unknowing happiness; afterwards she knows love, but loses it and must win it.
In inner terms the lamp represents the passage from innocence to awareness. There is no going back: once seen, a thing can no longer be ignored.
The four trials
Psyche wanders in search of her husband and finally presents herself to Venus, who treats her harshly and sets her a series of impossible tasks:
- Sorting the seeds. In a single night she must separate a huge heap of wheat, barley, millet, poppy seed, chickpeas, lentils and beans. The ants help her.
- The golden wool. She must gather wool from sheep with golden fleece, aggressive and dangerous. A reed advises her to wait until the afternoon and collect the tufts caught on the brambles.
- The water of the Styx. She must fill a flask at the spring of an infernal river, guarded by dragons. Jupiter's eagle accomplishes the task for her.
- The descent to the underworld. She must go down to Proserpina and ask for a little box containing some of her beauty.
For the last trial a tower gives her precise instructions: take two coins for the ferryman and two barley cakes for Cerberus, and do not let herself be detained by those who ask for help along the way, such as a man with a lame donkey or some old women weaving.
The box and the sleep
Psyche makes the descent and returns to the light with the box. But, driven once again by curiosity and by the wish to be more beautiful for her beloved, she opens it. Inside there is no beauty, only a sleep like death, which envelops her.
Love, now healed of his wound, flies to her, gathers up the sleep and puts it back in the box. Then he turns to Jupiter, who summons the gods, makes Psyche immortal and celebrates the wedding. From their union a daughter is born, named Pleasure.
The initiatory reading
Psyche's trials have been interpreted in many ways. A few elements stand out clearly:
- Each trial requires a different quality: order and discernment with the seeds, patience and cunning with the wool, a view from above with the eagle, steadfastness in the descent.
- Psyche never succeeds alone: she is helped by ants, a reed, an eagle, a tower. The seeking soul finds allies in the most unexpected places.
- Knowing how to say no is part of the path: in the descent she must refuse to help those who would distract her from her task.
- The final fall shows that even after the hardest trial the soul remains fragile, and that salvation comes as a gift.
In short
- The tale appears in Apuleius' Metamorphoses; Psyche means "soul" in Greek.
- The invisible husband is Love, who asks never to be seen.
- The lamp marks the passage from innocence to awareness, with the loss that follows.
- Venus's four trials demand discernment, patience, vision and steadfastness.
- Psyche's immortality represents the final union of the soul with divine love.
