Cupid and Psyche Summary
"Eros and Psyche" is a story told inside The Golden Ass (also called the Metamorphoses), a novel written around the 2nd century AD by the Roman author Apuleius. English readers usually know it as "Cupid and Psyche." It is the love story of a mortal girl and the god of love, built around one promise: never try to see him.
Psyche, the youngest daughter of a king, is so beautiful that people worship her as "the new Venus," yet no man ever asks to marry her. Venus, the goddess of love and beauty, is furious that a mortal has stolen her worshippers, and she orders her son Eros (Cupid) to punish the girl. Worried about his daughter's future, the king consults the oracle of Apollo and receives a terrible answer: "Leave your daughter on a mountain crag as a bride. Her husband is a winged monster whom even the gods fear."
Left on the rock, Psyche is carried away by Zephyr, the West Wind, to a golden palace in a valley. There she lives with servants who are only voices and a husband she cannot see, who comes to her only at night. He warns her never to try to find out what he looks like. But when her two sisters visit the palace, they grow jealous of her happiness and tell her that her husband is really a huge serpent. Terrified, Psyche finally takes a lamp and a blade to look at her sleeping husband's face.
Story summary
Episode 1Too Beautiful to Be Loved — Cupid and Psyche
In the mangaEveryone worships her, but no one falls in love with her. Princess Psyche is so beautiful that she earns the jealousy of the goddess Venus. In this first episode, Psyche tells her father, "I want someone to really see me." Then the god of prophecy gives his answer: "Leave her on a mountain crag as a bride. Her husband is a winged monster."
In the original mythThe tale opens in a kingdom the author never names. A king and queen have three daughters. The two older girls are lovely in an ordinary way, the kind of beauty people can still describe. The youngest, Psyche, is so beautiful that human words fail to praise her properly.
Episode 2She Smiled on the Day She Wed a Monster — Cupid and Psyche
In the mangaPsyche is sent to a mountain crag to marry a husband who isn't human. Instead of falling apart, she comforts her weeping parents and leads the wedding procession on her own two feet. Left alone on the rock, she gives herself to the West Wind and is carried to a golden palace run by servants who are nothing but voices. Then night falls, and something comes toward her in the dark.
In the original mythPsyche is the youngest of three princesses, and she is so beautiful that people have started worshipping her as a new Venus, the goddess of love. Nobody dares to marry her, though. Her worried father asks the oracle of Apollo at Miletus for help, and the answer is chilling: dress the girl for a deathly wedding, leave her on a high mountain crag, and give up hope of a human son-in-law. Her husband will be a savage,…
Episode 3Love Him All You Want. Just Never Look. — Eros and Psyche (Cupid and Psyche)
In the mangaJust as the oracle foretold a monster for a husband, Psyche is wed in a darkened bedchamber to a man whose face and name she will never know. His voice and the warmth of his hands slowly win her heart, until one night he gives her a single warning: "Don't try to see my face." Could you keep that promise?
In the original mythBefore this part of the story begins, Psyche, the youngest of a king's three daughters, is so beautiful that people worship her as if she were Venus, the goddess of love. An oracle of Apollo orders her parents to leave her on a mountain crag to marry a frightening, monster-like being. Instead of a monster, she meets Zephyrus, the west wind, who gently carries her down into a valley. She wakes beside a palace made…
Episode 4I Shared My Joy. My Sisters Turned Green. — Eros and Psyche (Cupid and Psyche)
In the mangaPsyche's sisters weep on the cliff, sure she is dead, so she brings them to her golden palace and treats them like royalty. She only wanted to share her happiness, but little by little her sisters' eyes turn green with envy. That night, her unseen husband tells her she is carrying his child.
In the original mythThe tale of Cupid and Psyche is told in the Metamorphoses of Apuleius, a Roman-era writer of the 2nd century CE. By this point Psyche, the youngest and most beautiful of three princesses, has been left on a lonely cliff as a bride for some fearsome creature. Instead she was carried away to a magnificent palace, where a husband she is never allowed to see visits her only in the dark.
Episode 5"Your Husband's a Serpent." Now Look. — Eros and Psyche (Cupid and Psyche)
In the mangaPsyche is pregnant, and her sisters come to visit again. She tries to keep her husband's secret, but she slips and tells them a different story than last time. Jealous, the sisters whisper that her husband is a monster. That night, lying next to her sleeping husband, Psyche reaches a trembling hand toward the lamp…
In the original mythBy this point Psyche, a mortal princess famous for her beauty, lives in a palace hidden in a valley. She has married a husband who only visits at night, and she has never seen his face. He has warned her again and again that her two older sisters mean her harm and that she must never try to look at him. He also tells her she is carrying a child. If she keeps his secret, the child will be divine. If she tells it,…
Episode 6Her Monster Husband Was the God of Love — Cupid and Psyche (Eros and Psyche)
In the mangaHaunted by her sisters' words, "Your husband is a giant snake," Psyche takes a lamp and a blade to look at her sleeping husband's face. What she finds is the god of love, who has loved her all along. But at the height of her joy, a single drop of oil falls from the lamp.
In the original mythPsyche, the youngest daughter of a king, lives in a magical palace with a husband who visits only in the dark and has warned her never to try to see him. Her two jealous sisters convince her that he is really a huge serpent who will eat her, and they tell her to hide a lamp and a razor and kill him while he sleeps. In Book 5, sections 22 to 25 of Apuleius' Metamorphoses, she finally does it.