Cupid & Psyche

Psyche was a maiden so beautiful that men stopped worshiping Venus and bowed before her instead. Now, Venus was not very happy about this, and asked Cupid to avenge her.

Cupid agreed, and intended to make Psyche fall in love with a monster and men praise her beauty but not be interested in marrying her. However, he wounds himself with his own arrow while staring a Psyche, and we all know what Cupid's arrows can do.

So no man ever proposes to Psyche, and she wonders what's wrong with her. Her family could consult a priest, who tells them that her husband is a monster that awaits her on a mountaintop.

Psyche goes there, and finds herself in a wonderful palace. Her husband came to her every night and they loved each other, yet he forbade her to ever look at him.

One day Psyche invited her sisters over, and they told her that she should disobey her husband and see what he looked like. When they left, she did so, and found herself gazing at none other than Cupid!

He wakes up, and is extremely angry that she has disobeyed his order. He runs away, and Psyche goes to her sister. They're really happy about it, however, and they both jump off a cliff in the hope that Cupid will save them and marry them. Their hopes are not answered.

Anyway, Pomona is really sad and decided that the only way to win Cupid back is to get Venus to approve of her. Venus, however, is not so inclined and sets a bunch of impossible tasks for Psyche to manage.

However, all the gods take pity on her, and help her accomplish her tasks. Venus is annoyed, yet a talk with Zeus convinces her to let Cupid and Psyche marry. They do so, and they have a little daughter named Pleasure together.

Isn't Cupid supposed to be a little boy? I don't know why, but I've always pictured him as a little cherub wandering around shooting people. I guess not though, or else Psyche would have been nastily suprised when she first saw him.

I really think I'm getting sick of all these myths. I can muster no pleasure when I open that way-too-long book, and I do not feel the least bit of enthusiasm when I write these blogs. All tose myths are so similar! They're all either people who fall in love and either get turned into potatoes or live happily ever affter, or people who annoy a god and get punished. That's it! I don't see why we have to read five thousand stories with the same basic plot.