Eros and Psyche

Eros, “the fairest among the deathless gods,” was also one of the most feared ones. Hesiod says he “unnerves the limbs and overcomes the mind and wise counsel in the breasts” of all gods and men (Theogony 120–122). However, this is not one of the stories in which his arrows bring someone happiness or doom. This is the story of how Eros himself fell in love with a mortal, and how she did everything to win him back. It is told in full only once in antiquity, by the Roman writer Apuleius in his Latin novel Metamorphoses, or The Golden Ass (4.28–6.24), where an old woman tells it to a captive girl in a robbers’ cave. There the god is called Cupid and his mother Venus; this page uses the Greek names.

Psyche, the Most Beautiful Maiden

The Youngest of the Three Daughters

In a certain city there lived a king and a queen who had three daughters, all of them beautiful. The two elder girls were so lovely that they surpassed all other women; but the beauty of the youngest, Psyche (which is Greek for “Soul”), was such that no words could describe it. People came from all over the world to admire her, and they were so struck by her “maidenly majesty” that they began to pay her the honors due to Aphrodite. Pilgrims stopped travelling to Aphrodite’s shrines at Paphos, Cnidus and Cythera, and her temples were neglected and her altars left unswept (Apuleius, Metamorphoses 4.28–29).

Aphrodite’s Revenge

Aphrodite, to say the least, was not flattered by all this. She sent for her son Eros and told him to make Psyche fall in love with “the most miserable creature living, the most poor, the most crooked, and the most vile, that there may be none found in all the world of like wretchedness” (Metamorphoses 4.30–31). Eros did not obey. In Apuleius he later tells Psyche that he had come to love her himself, having wounded his own body with his own weapons (5.24).

The Oracle’s Prophecy

Psyche’s two sisters were married to two foreign kings. But nobody asked for the hand of Psyche, who, consequently, came to hate her own beauty. Her father went to the oracle of Apollo at Miletus to ask for a husband for his youngest daughter. Apollo, though a Greek god, answered in Latin verse: Psyche’s husband “is no wight of human seed, / But serpent dire and fierce as may be thought, / Who flies with wings above in starry skies, / And doth subdue each thing with fiery flight” (Adlington’s version of Metamorphoses 4.32–33). She was to be dressed in mourning and left alone on a rocky mountaintop, from where her husband would come and fetch her.

Psyche and Eros

The Marriage of Psyche

The god described by the oracle was none other than Eros. Soon after she was left alone on the mountaintop, the frightened Psyche was lifted by Zephyrus, the West Wind, who wafted her gently down into a valley and laid her on a bed of soft, fragrant flowers. In the midst of a nearby wood, beside a clear river, Psyche came upon a palace so luxurious that it seemed built for Zeus himself: its roof was of citron wood and ivory on golden pillars, its walls were covered with silver carved with beasts, its floors were of precious stones, and nothing in it was locked or bolted. Invisible servants provided her with meals, music and every pleasure. When night came, in the darkness, she was visited by her unknown husband, who made the marriage complete and left before dawn (Metamorphoses 5.1–4).

Psyche Missing Her Family

And so the days passed, and Psyche, for a while, wished for nothing more. A baby began to grow inside her. But she began to miss her family. Her husband, who had told her never to try to see his face, warned that her sisters would come to the mountain to mourn her and that she must not answer them. When she wept, he allowed her to see them, on the condition that she should not be persuaded by them to learn what he looked like. The West Wind then carried the sisters down to the palace as he had Psyche (Metamorphoses 5.5–14).

Psyche’s Jealous Sisters

The sisters embraced Psyche, and she gave them gold and jewels to take home, but with each visit they grew more envious of her fortune. Psyche first told them that her husband was a handsome young man who spent his days hunting in the mountains; when, on a later visit, she forgot her story and confessed that she had never seen him, they told her that he must be a monstrous serpent who would devour her and her child when the child was born, and they persuaded her to kill him with a razor by lamplight (Metamorphoses 5.15–21).

Eros Flees

That night, after he fell asleep, Psyche took the lamp and the razor and approached him. She saw a beautiful god with golden hair, rosy cheeks and a neck whiter than milk, and his bow and arrows lying beside the bed. Curious, she took an arrow from the quiver and pricked herself with it, and so she fell more deeply in love with Eros. As she kissed him, a drop of burning oil fell from the lamp onto his right shoulder. The god woke, saw that she had broken her promise, and flew away without a word. Psyche caught hold of his leg and was carried up with him until she fell exhausted to the ground. Eros alighted on a cypress tree, told her that he had disobeyed his mother’s order to love her, and left, saying that her punishment would be his absence (Metamorphoses 5.22–24).

The Wanderings of Psyche

Psyche, in despair, threw herself into a river, but the river, out of respect for Eros, who burned the waters with his fire, carried her to the bank. There the god Pan consoled her and told her to win Eros back by prayer. She then went to the cities of her sisters; she told each how Eros had said he would marry the sister instead, and each ran to the mountain, leapt in the hope that Zephyrus would carry her, and was killed on the rocks (Metamorphoses 5.25–27). Psyche then wandered in search of Eros. She came to a temple of Demeter and asked her for shelter; Demeter pitied her but, out of kinship and an old friendship with Aphrodite, refused to hide her, and Hera, when asked next, refused as well (Metamorphoses 6.1–4). Meanwhile Aphrodite had learned from a gull what had happened to her son and rushed home in anger (Metamorphoses 5.28–31); she then went up to Zeus, got the use of Hermes, and had him proclaim throughout the world that whoever brought Psyche to her would be rewarded with seven kisses from Aphrodite (Metamorphoses 6.6–8). Seeing no way out, Psyche eventually went to the palace of Aphrodite herself. Furious that her son had disobeyed her, the goddess of love and beauty showed no mercy. She took Psyche violently by her hair and tore her clothes, mocking her for conceiving an illegitimate child; afterward, she handed her over to her two servant-maidens, Sorrow and Sadness, to be tortured, and then gave her impossible tasks (Metamorphoses 6.9).

The Trials of Psyche

First Task: Sorting Out a Heap of Grains

Aphrodite took a great quantity of “wheat, barley, millet, poppy seed, peas, lentils, and beans, and mingled them all together in a heap.” Psyche was to sort them into separate heaps before nightfall. Not knowing where to begin, Psyche sat silent. Fortunately, an ant took pity on her and called all the ants of the country, who finished the job in time (Metamorphoses 6.10).

Second Task: Gathering Golden Wool

Next, Aphrodite sent Psyche to bring wool from a flock of sheep with fleeces shining like gold. Psyche meant to throw herself into the river, but a green reed, divinely inspired, told her to wait until the sheep had gone to the river in the heat of the afternoon and then to gather the locks of golden fleece hanging on the briars. She brought a lapful of wool, but the goddess was not pleased (Metamorphoses 6.11–13).

Third Task: Fetching a Jar of Stygian Water

Aphrodite then sent Psyche to fill a jar with the black water that flows from a high mountain to feed the rivers Styx and Cocytus. Psyche found the place guarded by dragons; she stood frozen with fear. Then the eagle of Zeus, remembering the service Eros had done him when he brought Ganymede to heaven, took her jar, flew between the dragons and filled it for her (Metamorphoses 6.13–15). Aphrodite, however, was still not satisfied.

Fourth Task: The Underworld

Psyche was now to take a box to Persephone and ask her for a little of her beauty, enough for one day, since Aphrodite said her own had been used up in nursing her sick son (Metamorphoses 6.16). Reasoning that the way to Hades was by death, Psyche climbed a high tower, intending to throw herself down. But the tower itself spoke and told her a better way.

First, she was to go to Taenarus in Laconia, where there was an opening leading to Hades. She was to take two barley cakes soaked in honey, one in each hand, and two coins in her mouth. On the way she should ignore a lame man with a donkey, an old man swimming in the river and some old women weaving. She was to pay Charon one coin, throw one cake to the three-headed dog Cerberus, refuse the fine food that Persephone offered, sit on the ground and ask for brown bread, and say why she came. On the way back she was to give Cerberus the other cake and Charon the other coin, and never look into the box (Metamorphoses 6.17–19). Psyche did everything the tower told her and fetched the box from Persephone.

The Reunion of Eros and Psyche

The Curse of the Box

However, on her way back she disobeyed the last instruction and opened the box. Psyche had hoped that a little of the divine beauty would win back the love of Eros. But the box held no beauty, only “an infernal and deadly sleep,” and she fell on the road as if dead (Metamorphoses 6.20).

The Arrival of Eros

Eros, now recovered from his burn, escaped through a window of the room where his mother had confined him. He found Psyche, wiped the sleep from her and put it back in the box, and told her to carry the box to Aphrodite. Then he flew to Zeus and begged for his help. Zeus summoned all the gods, persuaded Aphrodite, and had Hermes bring Psyche to heaven. He gave Psyche a cup of ambrosia to make her immortal, so that Eros would have her as a wife forever, and a wedding feast was held among the gods, at which Zeus sat with Hera, Ganymede poured Zeus’ cup, Dionysus served the rest, Hephaestus cooked, the Seasons decked the hall with roses, the Muses sang, Apollo played the lyre and Aphrodite danced. In due time Psyche gave birth to a daughter, whom Apuleius calls Voluptas, “Pleasure” (Metamorphoses 6.21–24).

Eros and Psyche Sources

The earliest – and the only extended – source for this story is Apuleius’ Latin novel Metamorphoses (The Golden Ass) 4.28–6.24. Hesiod’s Theogony (120–122) is the source for Eros as the god who unnerves the limbs. The phrases quoted in English are from William Adlington’s translation of Apuleius (1566).

See Also: Eros, Psyche, Aphrodite, Persephone, Zephyrus, Demeter, Hera