Editing Cupid and Psyche (section)

====Folklore and children's literature====
[[File:Edward Burne-Jones Pan and Psyche.jpg|thumb|upright|''[[Pan (god)|Pan]] and Psyche'' (1872–74) by Edward Burne-Jones]]

=====Origins=====
Folklore scholarship has also occupied itself with the possible origin of the narrative.<ref>Walsh, Patrick G. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=9xA8AAAAIAAJ&dq=%22tulisa%22+cupid+and+psyche&pg=PA194 The Roman novel: The 'Satyricon' of Petronius and the 'Metamorphoses' of Apuleius]''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970. pp. 193-195.</ref><ref>{{cite book |doi=10.1017/9781108163767.003 |chapter=Intercultural Encounters in the Late Byzantine Vernacular Romance |title=Reading the Late Byzantine Romance |year=2018 |last1=Cupane |first1=Carolina |pages=40–68 |isbn=9781108163767 |s2cid=192357521 }}</ref> Swedish folklorist {{ill|Jan-Öjvind Swahn|sv|Jan-Öjvind Swahn}}, who authored a long study on the story, German philologist [[Ludwig Friedländer]] and Russian folklorist [[Vladimir Propp]] defended the idea that it originated from a legitimate folklore source.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Silva |first1=Francisco Vaz da |title=The Invention of Fairy Tales |journal=Journal of American Folklore |date=1 October 2010 |volume=123 |issue=490 |pages=398–425 |doi=10.5406/jamerfolk.123.490.0398 }}</ref><ref>Friedländer, Ludwig. ''Roman life and manners under the early Empire''. Vol. IV. London: Routledge. 1913. p. 102.</ref><ref>"Some scholars date the tale to this era [2nd century DC]. At the same time, Apuleius’s tale represents the first, most ancient written record of the folktale, but the tale itself is undoubtedly much more ancient. Apuleius’s text is a literary reworking, made by a thinker and philosopher." ''The Russian Folktale by Vladimir Yakovlevich Propp''. Edited and Translated by Sibelan Forrester. Foreword by [[Jack Zipes]]. Wayne State University Press, 2012. p. 190. {{ISBN|9780814334669}}.</ref>

Some scholars tend to look for a single source: [[Stith Thompson]] suggested an Italian origin,<ref>{{cite book |quote=The tale [of Cupid and Psyche] has most of the elements of the present-day folk story (...) we have here what certainly appears to be a real tale of the Italian countryside during the reign of [[Marcus Aurelius]] |last=Thompson |first=Stith |date=1977 |title=The Folktale |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |pages=281–282 |isbn=0-520-03537-2}}</ref> while Lesky, Gédeon Huet<ref>{{cite book |quote=Nous possêdons encore, dans l'histoire de Psyche, inserée par Apulee dans son roman des ''Metamorphoses'', un vrai conte populaire de l'antiquité ... |last=Huet |first=Gedeon Busken |url=https://archive.org/details/ContesPopulaires/page/n42/mode/1up?q=psyche |title=Contes populaires |location=Paris |publisher=E. Flammarion |date=1923 |pages=43 |language=FR}}</ref> and {{ill|Georgios A. Megas|el|Γεώργιος Μέγας}} indicated a Greek origin.<ref>Megas, G. 1967. ''Das Märchen von Amor und Psyche in der griechischen Volksüberlieferung (AaTh 425, 428 & 432)''. Athens</ref> French {{ill|Émile Dermenghem|fr|Émile Dermenghem}} favoured a North African source,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Herrmann |first1=Léon |title=Review of The Tale of Cupid and Psyche, Aarne-Thompson 425 and 428 |journal=Latomus |date=1955 |volume=14 |issue=3 |pages=494 |jstor=41518077 }}</ref> followed by French researchers Nedjima and Emmanuel Plantade, who all argue that the tale is a reworking of [[Berbers|Berber]] folklore, since Apuleius was born and lived in [[Madauros]], [[Numidia (Roman province)|Numidia]], located in what is modern day Algeria.<ref>Plantade, Emmanuel and Nedjima. "[https://www.academia.edu/3623771/Libyca_Psyche_Apuleius_and_the_Berber_Folktales Libyca Psyche: Apuleius and the Berber Folktales]". In: ''Apuleius and Africa''. Editors: Benjamin Todd Lee, Luca Graverini, Ellen Finkelpearl. Routledge, 2014. pp. 174-202.</ref>

Another line of scholars argue for some myth that underlines the Apuleian narrative. German classicist [[Richard August Reitzenstein]] supposed on an "Iranian sacral myth", brought to Greece via Egypt.<ref>Reitzenstein, Richard. ''[https://archive.org/details/dasmrchenvonam00reituoft/page/21/mode/1up?q=deutung Das märchen von Amor und Psyche bei Apuleius]''. Leipzig: B.G. Teubner. 1912.</ref><ref>[[Hendrik Wagenvoort|Wagenvoort, H.]] ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=yel5DwAAQBAJ&dq=%22iranian%22+cupid+and+psyche&pg=PA86 Pietas: Selected Studies in Roman Religion]''. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1980. p. 86. {{ISBN|90-04-06195-9}}.</ref> Graham Anderson argues for a reworking of mythic material from Asia Minor (namely, [[Hittite mythology and religion|Hittite]]: the [[Telipinu (mythology)|Myth of Telipinu]]).<ref>Anderson, Graham (2000). ''Fairytale in the ancient world''. Routledge. pp. 61-69. {{ISBN|978-0-415-23702-4}}.</ref> In a study published posthumously, Romanian folklorist {{ill|Petru Caraman|ro|Petru Caraman}} also argued for a folkloric origin, but was of the notion that Apuleius superimposed Graeco-Roman mythology on a pre-Christian myth about a serpentine or draconic husband, or a "King of Snakes" that becomes human at night.<ref>Repciuc, Ioana. "[https://biblioteca-digitala.ro/?volum=5097-anuarul-muzeului-etnografic-al-moldovei--xv-2015 Identificarea sursei folclorice a basmului Cupidon şi Psyché de către Petru Caraman – în contextul cercetărilor internaţionale]" [Petru Caraman's Work on Identifying the Folkloric Source of Cupidon şi Psyche Fairytale – In the Context of International Research]. In: ''Anuarul Muzeului Etnografic al Moldovei'' 15 (2015): 193, 197-205.</ref>

On the other extreme, German classicist {{ill|Detlev Fehling|de|Detlev Fehling}} took a hard and skeptical approach and considered the tale to be a literary invention of Apuleius himself.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Dowden |first1=Ken |title=Detlev Fehling: Amor und Psyche: Die Schöpfung des Apuleius und ihre Einwirkung auf das Märchen, eine Kritik der romantischen Märchentheorie. (Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur: Abhandlungen der Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaftlichen Klasse: Jahrgang 1977: Nr. 9.) Pp. 110. Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner, 1977. Paper, DM. 28. |journal=The Classical Review |date=October 1979 |volume=29 |issue=2 |pages=314 |doi=10.1017/S0009840X00233465 }}</ref>

=====Literary legacy=====
Friedländer also listed several European tales of marriage between a human maiden and prince cursed to be an animal, as related to the "Cupid and Psyche" cycle of stories (which later became known as "[[The Search for the Lost Husband]]" and "[[Animal as Bridegroom]]").<ref>Friedländer, Ludwig. ''Roman life and manners under the early Empire''. Vol. IV. London: Routledge. 1913. pp. 88-123.</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hurbánková |first1=Šárka |title=G.B. Basile and Apuleius: first literary tales : morphological analysis of three fairytales |journal=Graeco-Latina Brunensia |date=2018 |issue=2 |pages=75–93 |doi=10.5817/GLB2018-2-6 |doi-access=free }}</ref>

[[Bruno Bettelheim]] notes in ''[[The Uses of Enchantment]]'' that the 18th-century fairy tale ''[[Beauty and the Beast]]'' is a version of ''Cupid and Psyche''. Motifs from Apuleius occur in several fairy tales, including ''[[Cinderella]]'' and ''[[Rumpelstiltskin]]'', in versions collected by folklorists trained in the classical tradition, such as [[Charles Perrault]] and the [[Grimm brothers]].<ref>Harrison, "Cupid and Psyche," ''Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome,'' p. 339.</ref> In the Grimm version, Cinderella is given the task of sorting lentils and peas from ash, and is aided by birds just as ants help Psyche in the sorting of grain and legumes imposed on her by Venus. Like Cinderella, Psyche has two envious sisters who compete with her for the most desirable male. Cinderella's sisters mutilate their own feet to emulate her, while Psyche's are dashed to death on a rocky cliff.<ref>Amy K. Levin, ''The Suppressed Sister: A Relationship in Novels by Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century British Women'' (Associated University Presses, 1992), pp. 23–24 ''et passim.''</ref> In [[Hans Christian Andersen]]'s ''[[The Little Mermaid]]'', the Little Mermaid is given a dagger by her sisters, who, in an attempt to end all the suffering she endured and to let her become a mermaid again, attempt to persuade her to use it to slay the Prince while he is asleep with his new bride. She cannot bring herself to kill the Prince, however. Unlike Psyche, who becomes immortal, she doesn't receive his love in return, but she, nevertheless, ultimately earns the eternal soul she yearns for.

[[Thomas Bulfinch]] wrote a shorter adaptation of the Cupid and Psyche tale for his ''Age of Fable'', borrowing Tighe's invention of Cupid's self-wounding, which did not appear in the original. [[Josephine Preston Peabody]] wrote a version for children in her ''Old Greek Folk Stories Told Anew'' (1897).

[[C. S. Lewis]]' ''[[Till We Have Faces]]'' is a retelling of Apuleius' ''Cupid and Psyche'' from the perspective of one of Psyche's sisters. ''[[Till We Have Faces]]'' is C. S. Lewis' last work of fiction and elaborates on Apuleius' story in a modern way.