Miscellaneous Myths: Eros and Psyche

This is a true story Last spring, during my 3 quarters of Greek thought and literature, I took a course on love ;) My professor was an absolutely AMAZING guy with a wonderful accent and the most piercing eyes, and one of the things that taught us was that for the Greeks, love had many different meanings: there was Agape, absolute love for people, Philia, platonic love for friends, Storge, love for family, and Eros. Of these four, Eros is undoubtedly the most famous. It is the deep and passionate love that one feels for a romantic and/or sexual partner. And not by chance, he is also the name of the Greek god of love.

Eros, as far as gods go, has gone through many reincarnations. One version of Eros is an ancient divinity older than the gods themselves, and in this reincarnation Eros is characterized as a being more powerful than Zeus. She can play with him like a puppet, which is every myth where Zeus couldn't keep it in his pants, aka ALL

myths

... There is a version where Eros is the son of Aphrodite and represents love as a consequence of the beauty. and then this is Cupid. We don't like to talk about him. Typically, these first two representations exist simultaneously. Eros will be both the son of Aphrodite and a powerful force that even the gods fear.

I said "typically", but in reality there is only one such case... There is an important legend about Eros. That is the myth of Eros and Psyche. Psyche is a princess, but not just any princess, but a beautiful princess. Plot twist? But she's not just any beautiful princess, she's a beautiful lonely princess! Plot twist?! But she is not just any beautiful lonely princess, but a beautiful lonely princess who is even more beautiful than Aphrodite! Oh, that's not good... Actually, because Psyche is so incredibly beautiful, people started worshiping her instead of Aphrodite. God, that's like the middle... Those of us who know Aphrodite through the golden apple, Illia, or just Greek mythology in general, know that she has a hard time dealing with people who are prettier than her .

But Aphrodite has a plan to overthrow Psyche! He makes her fall in love with a hideous monster. Aphrodite, you are a goddess. Why don't you kill her? Aphrodite knows exactly who to call and summons her son Eros to force Psyche to fall in love with something disgusting. Eros descends to the mortal world to do so, but when he sees the beautiful Psyche, he is struck by her beauty and accidentally pierces himself with one of her arrows. Good job mate. But meanwhile, in the mortal world, Psyche is (remember part 2 of her characterization) very, very alone. She is beautiful, but in a way that people from far away adore her.

She wants to be loved, but she is too beautiful for this sinful world and it is getting on her nerves. She then goes to the fortune teller and asks if she will ever find true love and the fortune teller says yes! She alee...she falls in love with a terrible monster that even the gods fear. Psyche ends up on a large haunted cliff and is left there for her monster friend to find. And Zephyr, the west wind, will take her to the luxurious palace of her monster friend. The Greeks have monsters with MUCH classier than us...

Anyway, her friend's monster turns out to be invisible and tells her that she will be perfectly safe here and that her invisible servants will take care of her, but she can't. never seen Even if they do the same. Psyche is perfectly fine with her life of luxury and her invisible monster friend, but one day her two sisters come to visit her. (By the way, she has two sisters) Who envy her and convince her to find out the true identity of her monster boyfriend and if he really is a monster to kill him before he kills her and her unborn child (She has a son to be born along the way) So that same night, Psyche sneaks into her monster friend's room with a flashlight to see him and a dagger to possibly kill him.

But once the light touches him, she sees that her invisible monster friend is actually a very visible super handsome friend, none other than Eros himself. Surprised by her genius, Psyche (tell me now) is accidentally pierced by one of Eros's arrows. Damn, that's hard to say. And that's why she is now doubly in love with him. Ay... oil in the lamp also thinks that Eros is very cute and wants to get a little closer to her senpai, and she ends up spraying him. That's not hyperbole, that's what she says in the book. I mean...except for the senpai part, but so what?

Eros wakes up because he au and flies away due to the betrayal, leaving Psyche alone, regretting her life decisions. Eros flies back to Aphrodite to treat her small burn and feel sorry for himself and Aphrodite is now twice as angry with Psyche, so he approaches her and tells her that if she wants her boyfriend back she must complete four tasks for the that he has it ready. . (Her sisters fell off a cliff and died by the way) Psyche agrees and after Aphrodite plays with her a bit to make her feel better, she gives Psyche her first task.

She throws a mixture of grains on the floor and tells Psyche that she has one day to sort them. This is nonsense, of course, but Psyche is basically a typical Disney princess, so while she sits there thinking about the stupidity of her situation, the nearby ants feel sorry for her and fix it. Aphrodite is obviously upset that Psyche accomplished this, so she makes the next task even more difficult and tells him to find golden wool from the solar sheep that live across the river. While Psyche is busy trying to drown (she's trying to commit suicide, by the way), the local spirit tells her that the sheep will kill her if she's not careful, so instead of trying to tear off a piece of wool from them, she should pick up the one that's stuck. into the nearby bushes, which she does, and Aphrodite is even more upset, so she tells Psyche to take this cup and go get water from the River Styx, which is a little problematic because there's a cliff. and some dragons along the way, but this time Zeus himself helps her and sends an eagle to fly around the dragons and bring her water. (The gods can't help her directly, even though they all agreed that Aphrodite is a horrible bitch, by the way) Last but not least, Aphrodite loses her subtlety and literally sends Psyche to hell, specifically to bring a decorative box to the underworld, took part of Persephone's beauty, put it in a box, brought it and gave it to Aphrodite.

By the way, Eros is perfectly fine now and forgave Psyche for all her betrayal a long time ago, but Aphrodite doesn't really care and she keeps him in her palace while she seeks revenge. Again, with the help of various objects and landmarks, Psyche reaches the underworld and gives the box to Persephone, who does something with it and returns it. Psyche leaves the underworld with the box, but when she realizes that the box contains pure beauty and she must return to see her friend, she is able to use the box's magic to refresh herself a bit. Unfortunately for her, once she opens the box, it turns out that the only thing in there is a murder.

Then Psyche dies. But Eros escapes from Aphrodite's palace while her mother is distracted and flies to Psyche, quickly solving her death and flying to Olympus with Psyche so they can marry for real. Zeus is perfectly fine with this and tells Aphrodite to finally back off and gives Psyche ambrosia that will turn her into an immortal goddess. She and Eros are devoted as equals, and when her child is born on time, they name her Hedone, which roughly translates to Joy (by the way, Psyche represents the human soul). Happy Valentines Day! “Psyche” means “soul,” so this whole story is a metaphor for the union of love and the human soul, and how happiness gave life. "Love" as we see it today is actually a "putto", which is the little fat ones.

Little angels in Renaissance art. They are sometimes called "cherubs," but this name is inaccurate because cherubs are terrifying four-headed, winged monsters. Psyche's sisters fell off a cliff because they were trying to get Zephyr to take them to Eros, but he didn't like it very much and let them fall without catching them. There is a Balkan folk tale called "The Crab" and it is very similar to Eros and Psyche, except that Eros is a crab. And of course there's "Beauty and the Beast," where a woman marries a "monster." In fact, the story of "the girl who married a monster/beast/demon who ended up becoming a handsome boy" is quite repetitive.

Psyche with butterfly wings is the most classic representation, although I'm not sure why.