Cupid and Psyche
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| Banquet of Amor and Psyche by Giulio Romano Source |
psyche looks for cupid who is in his mom's room in pain from his shoulder burn- a seagull finds Venus in the ocean while she swam and bathed and told her that Cupid had been burned and in so much pain and in poor health the word of this spread and gave her family a bad reputation
- rumors said that they abandoned their posts to play in the mountains and sea. all of the charm of love was gone, no nuptials, no gatherings, no love of children just mass confusion
- a bird teases Venus about her son's girlfriend and she is upset but asks about the nymph that seduced him assuming its a divine creature
- the bird tells that it is not sure but he heard Cupid was madly in love with a mortal girl named Psyche
- this infuriates Venus who goes home and yells at him about how she could never love the girl who mocks her as a daughter in law and that Cupid disrespected his mother and queen and did this knowing she is too old to bear more children
- she threatens to make a slave boy her new son and give him all of cupid's gadgets including his wings
- she reminds him his father Vulcan doesn't do anything for him and that he was brought up bad and insults her without fearing his step father Mars (who isn't really a stepfather since Venus is Married to Hephaestus... i digress)
- cupid is quiet but she plans to get psyche to impose the punishment and shave his hair and ruin his belongings
- she goes to Ceres and Juno to get them to do something but they say that she is a sensible woman and shouldn't meddle with her son's affairs and to let it go and they won't get involved and this makes Venus more angry
- While this is happening Psyche wanders day and night for Cupid and finds a temple thinking he may be there.
- she finds a shrine with offerings that were all messy so she organized them out of respect for any deity
- Ceres sees her caring for her shrine and tells her of Venus's plan and asks why she is not concerned with her safety
- Psyche sobs and asks for help from the goddess who says she wishes she could help but that she is not only family but friends with Venus and cannot offend her and asks Psyche to leave
- Psyche keeps going and finds another temple with offerings and goes to pray for help from Juno who says she wishes she could help but she can't offend her daughter-n-law who she loves as her own
- Psyche is crushed and decides to find Venus and surrender herself to her
- meanwhile Venus takes the chariot she was given by Vulcan as a wedding gift and goes to Jove's palace and demanded to borrow Mercury. Jupiter said no so she takes Mercury and heads to earth she tells him she is looking for a runaway servant and to make Psyche's appearance known to all and offer a reward for whoever finds her
- she heads home while Mercury does his job and claims the reward to be 7 sweet kisses from Venus and 1 Passionate kiss
- all mortal men are driven by this and Psyche is no longer hesitant but is caught and turned in by a servant of Venus
- the servant drags Psyche by the hair. Venus mocks her for visiting her "mother in law" or is she just looking for cupid and she slaps her around and says "don't worry ill entertain you like a fine daughter in law deserves.
- Venus gets Anxiety and Sorrow to beat Psyche. she then mocks Psyche and her baby saying that that won't make her any softer being a grandmother in one's youth and not to think she is happy just because it is her son's child because it is only a servant's child.she also says the wedding happened with no witnesses and outside of the law and the child is illegitimate if she even lets it live
- Venus beat her again and calls her hideous and says she will only get a lover through hard work and tasks her to sort a pile of wheat, millet, lentils, beans, barely, poppy seeds, and lentils by evening and leaves to attend a wedding
- Psyche is shook when an ant comes by and calls upon his friends to help Psyche as the love of Love itself and then they sort the pile and vanish.
- venus returns drunk and angry claiming that this was not psyche's work and that cupid helped her then throws bread at her for supper.
- cupid was still under close watch so that he didn't make his injury worse and so he couldn't see Psyche
- Venus tasks Psyche with getting the fleece of one of the golden sheep in any way she pleases.
- psyche leaves not to do that but to kill her self but then a reed reminds her not to pollute sacred waters with her suicide and tells her to avoid the sheep now because they are angered by the heat and will kill anyone but to wait until afternoon when the sun fades and then to explore the trees where the wool will be hanging on the branches for her
- she does this but gains no favor from Venus who then asks her to get freezing water from the dark water that feeds the Styx and gives her a vial
- Psyche goes out again deciding to kill herself if she fails again when she sees how dangerous the path to the water is
- there are snakes on either side of the gorge and they and the water itself were telling her to leave
- Psyche completely froze up, Providence saw her in trouble and Jupiter's eagle was there to save her recalling that Cupid one time asked him to carry the cup-bearer Ganymede to Jupiter
- he asks if Psyche really thinks that she can get water from the Styx as even the gods swear by its power and fear it. so he takes the vial and swerves between the serpents and gathers some of waters
- She returns to Venus who knows Psyche can't be doing this on her own and gives her a jar and tells her to go to the underworld and ask Proserpine for some of her beauty on behalf of Venus
- Venus tells her Proserpine has none since she has been caring for her sick son
- she goes to kill herself so she can go to the land of the dead when a turret says that there is a breathing whole she can crawl through that will lead her to Pluto's palace but not to go without bringing in each hand a barley cake soaked in honey-wine and two coins in her mouth
- when she has completed that she will meet a lame donkey who will ask you to hand him sticks from his fallen load but to ignore him and keep going, then she will meet the Ferryman of the Dead Charon. there let him take the toll from her mouth with his own hand. once across the river some old women will ask for help weaving but to ignore them too since all of them are traps set by Venus and to not lose the cakes.
- then she will come across Cerberus he can do no harm and to throw one cake to distract him and then she will be greeted by Proserpine and she will tempt you with a feast and comfort but you are to squat on the ground and eat common bread then tell her why you are there and to collect the goods and head back bribing the dog with the other cake and giving the ferryman the other coin but to not look at the jar shes tied to her waist
- she does this but upon reaching the mortal world she thinks that it would be silly if she didn't take a little beauty for herself
- she opens the jar which only had Stygian sleep and she fell asleep motionless like the dead
- cupid now feeling better misses Psyche so much and escapes and flies to Psyche and seeing her he wiped away the sleep and put it back in the jar. he reminds her how once again she almost ruined herself with curiosity and to quickly finish the task and he will take care of the rest
- He flies to Jove and seeks support who says that cupid has always caused trouble and has shown no respect but he says he is nice and remembers baby cupid fondly and agrees to help him if he finds him some other girl of outstanding beauty
- Jupiter orders Mercury to call an impromptu gathering of the gods with a fine of 100 gold for not attending. sure enough they attend. he tells them we have to let cupid marry her that way he cannot be running around doing foolish things anymore. he assured Venus not to worry her reputation because he will make it legitimate in accordance with civil law
- he asks Mercury to fetch Psyche and bring her to the heavens once there he handed her a cup of ambrosia and said to drink it and she will be immortal and then she and Cupid can be married forever
- they then had a glorious wedding feast and when her term was due Psyche gave birth to a girl we call Pleasure
- now we cut back to the robbers
- they robbers returned with loot after a skirmish and left some of the men there to rest while taking Lucius and the other horse to reclaim some loot they hid in a cave
- the robbers complained that Lucius and the horse were lame and that when they were done fetching loot they would throw them off a cliff for vulture food. then they called for the injured friends and returned to get the rest of the loot themselves impatient with the slowness of Lucius and the horse
- Lucius instead of waiting for death uses his human courage to break the halter he was on and run as fast as he could but the old woman caught him and held him back but kicked her and ran dragging her along as she called for help
- the only one who helped was the girl who calmed the donkey and took the rope from the old woman and mounted the donkey and spurred him onward
- Lucius was not only driven by his will to escape but by the will to rescue the girl and sped like a racehorse showing her affection along the way
- the girl called to the gods for help and promised the donkey that she will groom and feed him and treat him well and will hang a painting of his heroic act and perhaps the ass contains a deity or human
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