Myth of Cupid and Psyche
The myth of Cupid and Psyche (Cupid is sometimes known by his Greek name, Eros, and is sometimes called Amor, meaning “love”) is a story within the longer story of Apuleius’ The Golden Ass. This longer story is a witty, obscene, and ultimately religious tale of bodily and spiritual transformation. Within it, the story of Cupid and Psyche ends with the transformation of the human princess Psyche to goddess. Psyche was the youngest daughter of a king and queen who offended Venus, goddess of beauty and sexuality, by claiming that she is no more beautiful than their child. Venus sent her son, Cupid, to make Psyche fall in love with the worst of men, but he fell in love with her instead. Apollo’s oracle prophesied that she would marry a monster and when her parents left her on a mountaintop to meet her fate, Cupid had her brought to his palace where they lived blissfully. Psyche never saw her husband and only met him at night in bed. If she had been able to endure...
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Mills, A. (2020). Cupid and Psyche. In: Leeming, D.A. (eds) Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24348-7_23
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