Reading Notes: Apuleius's Cupid and Psyche- Part B

Apuleius's Golden Ass, as translated into English by Tony Kline (2013)

Cupid and Psyche (1639–40) by Anthony van Dyck: Cupid finds the sleeping Psyche

Venus and the Goddesses: Psyche is wandering around looking for Cupid as Venus hears about what has happened. Cupid is hurt and laying in her palace without doing much. Venus comes to her son and scolds him. She basically says how much of a disgrace his is as a son and as a subject of her queen-hood. She wants to take away all of his equipment, and then even threatens to give it to a slave of hers, or destroy them all together. She even goes as far to say that she will birth a new and better son. Of course she moves on to rant about how she is the victim in this situation and how he made her look like a fool. Still angry, she leaves her silent son to get consoled by other gods. Instead of joining in her rage, they actually tell her to chill. They think there is no harm in love essentially. She obviously doesn't take into account that he is a male or his age.

Psyche's Prayer: As all of this happens, Psyche goes to a shrine hoping to please the gods and goddesses. She organizes the offerings and a goddess finally appears to her. She tries to reason with the goddess in order to get permission to stay in the shine until Venus calms down. Unfortunately, it is Venus's aunt and friend. She lets Psyche go instead of holding her captive. So she goes to the temple of Juno, who is known for her protection of ladies and pregnant women. Sadly, she cannot go against Venus either, as she is her daughter in law. No matter how much the goddesses want to help, they simply cannot.

Venus and Mercury: At this point, she has not idea what to do. No one will help her, there is no place for shelter, and she thinks her only option may be to face the inevitable sooner rather than later. Venus gives up on finding her on Earth and looks to the heavens now. She gets on a wonderful chariot and the heavens welcome her. She gets the help of the messenger god Mercury to find the girl. So Mercury goes down to Earth and tells everyone to look for her, and that if they see her, then they will be rewarded with kisses from Venus herself. Venus goes back to her home, while a servant of her's finds Psyche... declaring she has met death.

Venus and Psyche: Psyche is dragged to Venus by the servant where she is physically tormented and laughed at. Venus takes no pity on her being pregnant and doesn't want to claim the child as her grandchild. She says the baby, marriage, and girl are illegitimate, and even threatens to end the pregnancy. Venus beat her down and tore her hair and clothes. She then forces her to sort out many different items into piles and simply leaves. Psyche is so overwhelmed by the sheer amount of items, that ants take pity on her. They form into the size of working men and help to sort everything out, then vanish.

Psyche's Next Task: When Venus returned and saw how perfectly the task had been completed, she was not amused and threw bread at her to eat. Meanwhile, Cupid was locked away as well..partially to heal, and mainly so that he couldn't see his wife. When the next day came, Venus gave Psyche a new task of retrieving a special sheep's golden fleece. The sheep were most likely going to attack her and chase her away. She decided it to be best to just kill herself, but when she went to do so, she was stopped. Someone told her how to get the fleece easily with patients. She did as she was told, and was able to retrieve it without fault. But of course when she brought it to Venus, she still wasn't happy. She gave her another task to go on the top of a dangerous cliff to the waters that feed the river Styx, and to bring her back a vile of the frozen liquid.

The Third Task: As she left go climb the cliff, she could see the snakes, jagged cliffs, and steep steps. Even the water warned her to turn around or she would surely die. Thankfully, Cupid had a slight hold on the royal eagle of Jupiter. So when it saw that his wife was in distress, he swooped down to her from the heavens. He told her how even the gods were afraid of this place, and asked for the vial himself. Despite the serpents still going at the bird, the waters saw the deed as respectable overall, and gave him easy passage.

The Jar of Beauty: Again upon learning that the task was complete, Venus was unhappy. She accused her of being a witch, and sent her off to the last task. She told her to go into hell and ask Persephone to lend Venus a bit of her beauty in a jar. She thought it would be best to get into hell by just dying, and she went to the tallest place she could find to jump off. But then again something spoke to her and stopped her from actually doing it. She was told of a city in which there is a pit that leads to a tunnel. In this path will be a variety of tasks that she must ignore doing. No matter how much these people beg for help, she cannot stop. When she reaches the Goddess, she has to ask for simple peasant bread and the jar. When she leaves, she has to retrace her steps. Finally, she is warned to not open the jar under any circumstances. She is able to do exactly as she is told and reaches Persephone. She then continues on and her task is complete... but not without wanting to take some of the beauty for herself.

The Sleep of the Dead: She opened the jar and inside was not divine beauty, but sleep. She was out cold like a cadaver. Meanwhile, Cupid was feeling much better physically. But he longed to see his wife. He found her and wiped the sleep away, back into the jar. He told her to finish the task, and that he would do the rest. He went swiftly to Jove, and tried to win the support of the gods. Jupiter goes on for a while about how awful Cupid has been to every god, including himself, but that despite this, he will help him under one condition... a beautiful girl for himself.

The Wedding Feast: Finally, Jupiter told Venus that she had to chill, and that Cupid shall have his wife forever once she drank ambrosia. He would make the marriage legitimate. After she drank, they had a celebration of the wedding. All the gods danced and drank and sang. Everyone seemed to be very happy and later Psyche gives birth to a little girl named Pleasure. Now we go back to the viewpoint of the donkey. He loved the story told by the crazy old woman to the captured girl. The robbers appeared again with food. They ate and were keen on treating the animals like crap. Forcing them to work beyond injury. The poor donkey heard that they wanted to just push him over a cliff, so he worked hard and trotted fast to prove that he was worth living.

The Escape: The donkey called out to the god that turned him, saying it was perfect time to free him. The donkey instead freed himself from a harness and ran away as fast as he could. The old woman saw and grabbed the rope, but the donkey kicked her to the ground. Unfortunately, she still didn't let go, and now was dead weight as he dragged her along. Luckily, the captured girl took the opportunity to twist the robe away from the woman's hands, mount the donkey, and begin to ride away. She prayed to the gods that if she got home, she would forever give the donkey a nice life and even paint a picture of her and him riding off so that this moment may be remembered forever.