Editing Cupid and Psyche (section)

===Story===
[[File:Edward Burne-Jones001.jpg|thumb|left|''Psyche's Wedding'' ([[Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood|Pre-Raphaelite]], 1895) by [[Edward Burne-Jones]]]]
There were once a king and queen,<ref>The following summary is condensed from the translation of Kenney (Cambridge University Press, 1990), and the revised translation of W. Adlington by S. Gaseless for the [[Loeb Classical Library]] (Harvard University Press, 1915), with reference to the accompanying Latin text.</ref> rulers of an unnamed city, who had three daughters of conspicuous beauty. The youngest and most beautiful was Psyche, whose admirers, neglecting the proper worship of Aphrodite (love goddess [[Venus (mythology)|Venus]]), instead prayed and made offerings to her. It was rumored that she was the second coming of Venus, or the daughter of Venus from an unseemly union between the goddess and a mortal. Venus is offended, and commissions Cupid to work her revenge. Cupid is sent to shoot Psyche with an arrow so that she may fall in love with something hideous. He instead scratches himself with his own dart, which makes any living thing fall in love with the first thing it sees. Consequently, he falls deeply in love with Psyche and disobeys his mother's order.

Although her two humanly beautiful sisters have married, the idolized Psyche has yet to find love. Her father suspects that they have incurred the wrath of the gods, and consults the [[oracle]] of [[Apollo]]. The response is unsettling: the king is to expect not a human son-in-law, but rather a dragon-like creature who harasses the world with fire and iron and is feared by even [[Jupiter (mythology)|Jupiter]] and the inhabitants of the underworld.

Psyche is arrayed in funeral attire, conveyed by a procession to the peak of a rocky crag, and exposed. Marriage and death are merged into a single rite of passage, a "transition to the unknown".<ref>Papaioannou, "Charite's Rape, Psyche on the Rock," p. 319.</ref> [[Zephyrus]] the West Wind bears her up to meet her fated match, and deposits her in a lovely meadow ''([[locus amoenus]])'', where she promptly falls asleep.

The transported girl awakes to find herself at the edge of a cultivated grove ''([[lucus]])''. Exploring, she finds a marvelous house with golden columns, a carved ceiling of [[citrus wood]] and ivory, silver walls embossed with wild and domesticated animals, and jeweled mosaic floors. A disembodied voice tells her to make herself comfortable, and she is entertained at a feast that serves itself and by singing to an invisible lyre.

Although fearful and without the proper experience, she allows herself to be guided to a bedroom where, in the darkness, a being she cannot see has sex with her. She gradually learns to look forward to his visits, though he always departs before sunrise and forbids her to look upon him. Soon, she becomes pregnant.

====Violation of trust====
[[File:Tapete KGM W-1982-59.jpg|thumb|left|''Psyche Showing Her Jewelry to Her Sisters'' ([[Neoclassicism|Neoclassical]], 1815–16), [[grisaille]] [[wallpaper]] by [[Merry-Joseph Blondel]]]]
Psyche's family longs for news of her, and after much cajoling, Cupid, still unknown to his bride, permits Zephyr to carry her sisters up for a visit. When they see the splendor in which Psyche lives, they become envious, and undermine her happiness by prodding her to uncover her husband's true identity, since surely as foretold by the oracle she was lying with the vile winged serpent, who would devour her and her child.
[[File:Giuseppe Maria Crespi - Amore e Psiche - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|''Amore e Psiche'' (1707–09) by [[Giuseppe Crespi]]: Psyche's use of the lamp to see the god is sometimes thought to reflect the magical practice of [[Lampadomancy|lychnomancy]], a form of divination or spirit conjuring.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Nelson|first=Max|date=2000|title=Narcissus: Myth and Magic|journal=Classical Journal|number=95.4|pages=364}}, citing {{cite journal|last=Lancel|first=S.|date=1961|title=''Curiositas'' et préoccupations spirituelles chez Apulée|journal=Revue de l'histoire des religions|language=fr|number=160|pages=41–45}}</ref>]]
One night after Cupid falls asleep, Psyche carries out the plan her sisters devised: she brings out a dagger and a lamp she had hidden in the room, in order to see and kill the monster. But when the light instead reveals the most beautiful creature she has ever seen, she is so startled that she wounds herself on one of the arrows in Cupid's cast-aside quiver. Struck with a feverish passion, she spills hot oil from the lamp and wakes him. He flees, and though she tries to pursue, he flies away and leaves her on the bank of a river.

There she is discovered by the wilderness god [[Pan (mythology)|Pan]], who recognizes the signs of passion upon her. She acknowledges his divinity (''[[numen]]''), then begins to wander the earth looking for her lost love.

Psyche visits first one sister, then the other; both are seized with renewed envy upon learning the identity of Psyche's secret husband. Each sister attempts to offer herself as a replacement by climbing the rocky crag and casting herself upon Zephyr for conveyance, but instead is allowed to fall to a brutal death.

====Wanderings and trials====
In the course of her wanderings, Psyche comes upon a temple of [[Ceres (mythology)|Ceres]], and inside finds a disorder of grain offerings, garlands, and agricultural implements. Recognizing that the proper cultivation of the gods should not be neglected, she puts everything in good order, prompting a [[theophany]] of Ceres herself. Although Psyche prays for her aid, and Ceres acknowledges that she deserves it, the goddess is prohibited from helping her against a fellow goddess. A similar incident occurs at a temple of [[Juno (mythology)|Juno]]. Psyche realizes that she must serve Venus herself.

Venus revels in having the girl under her power, and turns Psyche over to her two handmaids, Worry and Sadness, to be whipped and tortured. Venus tears her clothes and bashes her head into the ground, and mocks her for conceiving a child in a sham marriage. The goddess then throws before her a great mass of mixed wheat, barley, poppyseed, chickpeas, lentils, and beans, demanding that she sort them into separate heaps by dawn. But when Venus withdraws to attend a wedding feast, a kind ant takes pity on Psyche, and assembles a fleet of insects to accomplish the task. Venus is furious when she returns drunk from the feast, and only tosses Psyche a crust of bread. At this point in the story, it is revealed that Cupid is also in the house of Venus, languishing from his injury.

[[File:Giulio Romano - Psyche's Second Task (River Deity) - WGA09570.jpg|thumb|left|''Psyche's Second Task'' ([[Mannerism|Mannerist]], 1526–28) by [[Giulio Romano (painter)|Giulio Romano]], from the [[Palazzo del Tè]]]]
At dawn, Venus sets a second task for Psyche. She is to cross a river and fetch golden wool from violent sheep who graze on the other side. These sheep are elsewhere identified as belonging to [[Helios]].<ref>By the 6th-century mythographer [[Fabius Planciades Fulgentius|Fulgentius]]; Joel C. Relihan, ''Apuleius: The Tale of Cupid and Psyche'' (Hackett, 2009), p. 65.</ref> Psyche's only intention is to drown herself on the way, but instead she is saved by instructions from a divinely inspired reed, of the type used to make musical instruments, and gathers the wool caught on [[Thicket|briers]].

For Psyche's third task, she is given a crystal vessel in which to collect the black water spewed by the source of the rivers [[Styx]] and [[Cocytus]]. Climbing the cliff from which it issues, she is daunted by the foreboding air of the place and dragons slithering through the rocks, and falls into despair. Jupiter himself takes pity on her, and sends his eagle to battle the dragons and retrieve the water for her.

====Psyche and the underworld====
The last trial Venus imposes on Psyche is a [[Descent to the underworld|quest to the underworld]] itself. She is to take a box ''([[Pyxis (vessel)|pyxis]])'' and obtain in it a dose of the beauty of [[Proserpina]], queen of the underworld. Venus claims her own beauty has faded through tending her ailing son, and she needs this remedy in order to attend the theatre of the gods ''(theatrum deorum)''.

[[File:Psyche aux enfers.jpg|thumb|''Psyché aux enfers'' (1865) by [[Eugène Ernest Hillemacher]]: [[Charon (mythology)|Charon]] rows Psyche past a dead man in the water and the old weavers on shore]]

Once again despairing of her task, Psyche climbs a tower, planning to throw herself off. The tower, however, suddenly breaks into speech, and advises her to travel to [[Lacedaemon]], Greece, and to seek out the place called [[Taenarus]], where she will find the entrance to the underworld. The tower offers [[Totenpass|instructions for navigating the underworld]]:

<blockquote>The airway of [[Dis Pater|Dis]] is there, and through the yawning gates the pathless route is revealed. Once you cross the threshold, you are committed to the unswerving course that takes you to the very [[Regia]] of [[Orcus (mythology)|Orcus]]. But you shouldn't go emptyhanded through the shadows past this point, but rather carry cakes of honeyed barley in both hands,<ref>Cakes were often offerings to the gods, particularly in [[Eleusinian Mysteries|Eleusinian religion]]; cakes of barley meal moistened with honey, called ''prokonia'' (προκώνια), were offered to Demeter and Kore at the time of first harvest. See Allaire Brumfield, "Cakes in the ''liknon'': Votives from the Sanctuary of Demeter and Kore on Acrocorinth", ''Hesperia'' 66 (1997) 147–172.</ref> and transport [[Charon's obol#The catabasis of Psyche|two coins in your mouth]].</blockquote>

The speaking tower warns her to maintain silence as she passes by several ominous figures: a lame man driving a mule loaded with sticks, a dead man swimming in the river that separates the world of the living from the world of the dead, and old women weaving. These, the tower warns, will seek to divert her by pleading for her help: she must ignore them. The cakes are treats for distracting [[Cerberus]], the three-headed watchdog of [[Orcus]], and the two [[Charon's obol|coins for Charon the ferryman]], so she can make a return trip.

Everything comes to pass according to plan, and Proserpina grants Psyche's humble entreaty. As soon as she reenters the light of day, however, Psyche is overcome by a bold curiosity, and can't resist opening the box in the hope of enhancing her own beauty. She finds nothing inside but an "infernal and Stygian sleep", which sends her into a deep and unmoving torpor.

====Reunion and immortal love====
[[File:Psycheabduct.jpg|thumb|left|''The Abduction of Psyche'' by [[William-Adolphe Bouguereau]], 1895.]]

Meanwhile, Cupid's wound has healed into a scar, and he escapes his mother's house by flying out of a window. When he finds Psyche, he draws the sleep from her face and replaces it in the box, then pricks her with an arrow that does no harm. He lifts her into the air, and takes her to present the box to Venus.

He then takes his case to [[Zeus]], who gives his consent in return for Cupid's future help whenever a choice maiden catches his eye. Zeus has [[Hermes]] convene an assembly of the gods in the theater of heaven, where he makes a public statement of approval, warns Venus to back off, and gives Psyche [[ambrosia]], the drink of immortality,<ref>Apuleius describes it as served in a cup, though ambrosia is usually regarded as a food and nectar as a drink.</ref> so the couple can be united in marriage as equals. Their union, he says, will redeem Cupid from his history of provoking adultery and sordid liaisons.<ref>Philip Hardie, ''Rumour and Renown: Representations of ''Fama'' in Western Literature'' (Cambridge University Press, 2012), p. 116; Papaioannou, "Charite's Rape, Psyche on the Rock," p. 321.</ref> Zeus's word is solemnized with a wedding banquet.

With its happy marriage and resolution of conflicts, the tale ends in the manner of classic [[comedy]]<ref>Relihan, ''The Tale of Cupid and Psyche,'' p. 79.</ref> or [[Ancient Greek novel|Greek romance]]s such as ''[[Daphnis and Chloe]]''.<ref>Stephen Harrison, "Divine Authority in 'Cupid and Psyche': Apuleius ''Metamorphoses'' 6,23–24," in ''Ancient Narrative: Authors, Authority, and Interpreters in the Ancient Novel. Essays in Honor of Gareth L. Schmeling'' (Barkhuis, 2006), p. 182.</ref> The child born to the couple will be [[Voluptas]] (Greek [[Hedone]] {{lang|el|‘Ηδονή}}), "Pleasure".

====''The Wedding of Cupid and Psyche''====
[[File:Raffaello, banchetto nuziale 02.jpg|thumb|upright=1.8|''The Wedding Banquet of Cupid and Psyche'' (1517) by [[Raphael]] and his workshop, from the [[:it:Loggia di Psiche|Loggia di Psiche]], [[Villa Farnesina]]]]
[[File:Marriage of Cupid and Psyche.jpg|thumb|301x301px|Godefroy Engelmann after Raphael, ''Marriage of Cupid and Psyche'', 1825, lithograph]]

The assembly of the gods has been a popular subject for both visual and performing arts, with the wedding banquet of Cupid and Psyche a particularly rich occasion. With the wedding of [[Peleus]] and [[Thetis]], this is the most common setting for a "[[Feast of the Gods (art)|Feast of the Gods]]" scene in art. Apuleius describes the scene in terms of a festive Roman dinner party ''([[cena]])''. Cupid, now a husband, reclines in the place of honor (the [[triclinium|"top" couch]]) and embraces Psyche in his lap. Zeus and [[Hera]] situate themselves likewise, and all the other gods are arranged in order. The cupbearer of Jove (Zeus's other Roman name) serves him with nectar, the "wine of the gods"; Apuleius refers to the cupbearer only as ''ille rusticus puer'', "that country boy", and not as [[Ganymede (mythology)|Ganymede]]. [[Liber]], the Roman god of wine, serves the rest of the company. [[Volcanus|Vulcan]], the god of fire, cooks the food; the [[Horae]] ("Seasons" or "Hours") adorn, or more literally "empurple", everything with roses and other flowers; the [[Gratiae|Graces]] suffuse the setting with the scent of [[balsam]], and the [[Muses]] with melodic singing. Apollo sings to his [[cithara|lyre]], and Venus takes the starring role in dancing at the wedding, with the Muses as her chorus girls, a [[satyr]] blowing the [[aulos]] ''(tibia'' in Latin), and a young [[Pan (god)#All of the Pans|Pan]] expressing himself through the [[Pan flute|pan pipes]] ''(fistula)''.

The wedding provides [[poetic closure|closure]] for the narrative structure as well as for the love story: the mysteriously provided pleasures Psyche enjoyed in the ''[[domus]]'' of Cupid at the beginning of her odyssey, when she entered into a false marriage preceded by funeral rites, are reimagined in the hall of the gods following correct ritual procedure for a real marriage.<ref>Harrison, "Divine Authority in 'Cupid and Psyche'," p. 179.</ref> The arranging of the gods in their proper order ''(in ordinem)'' would evoke for the Roman audience the religious ceremony of the ''[[lectisternium]]'', a public banquet held for the major deities in the form of statues arranged on luxurious couches, as if they were present and participating in the meal.<ref name="autogenerated182">Harrison, "Divine Authority in 'Cupid and Psyche'," p. 182.</ref>

[[File:WLA brooklynmuseum Wedgewood-Marriage of Cupid and Psyche.jpg|thumb|left|''Marriage of Cupid and Psyche'' (c. 1773), [[jasperware]] by [[Wedgwood]] based on the 1st-century [[Marlborough gem]], which most likely was intended to depict an [[mystery religions|initiation rite]] ''([[Brooklyn Museum]])'']]

The wedding banquet was a favored theme for Renaissance art. As early as 1497, [[Giovanni Sabadino degli Arienti]] made the banquet central to his description of a now-lost Cupid and Psyche cycle at the [[Villa Belriguardo]], near [[Ferrara]]. At the [[Villa Farnesina]] in Rome, it is one of two main scenes for the Loggia di Psiche (ca. 1518) by [[Raphael]] and his workshop, as well as for the Stanza di Psiche (1545–46) by [[Perino del Vaga]] at the [[Castel Sant' Angelo]].<ref name="autogenerated182"/> [[Hendrick Goltzius]] introduced the subject to northern Europe with his "enormous" [[engraving]] called ''The Wedding of Cupid and Psyche'' (1587, 43 by 85.4&nbsp;cm),<ref>Ariane van Suchtelen and Anne T. Woollett, ''Rubens and Brueghel: A Working Friendship'' (Getty Publications, 2006), p. 60; Susan Maxwell, ''The Court Art of Friedrich Sustris: Patronage in Late Renaissance Bavaria'' (Ashgate, 2011), pp. 172, 174.</ref> which influenced how other northern artists depicted assemblies of the gods in general.<ref>Van Suchtelen and Woollett, ''Rubens and Brueghel,'' p. 60; Maxwell, ''The Court Art of Friedrich Sustris,'' p. 172.</ref> The engraving in turn had been taken from [[Bartholomaeus Spranger]]'s 1585 drawing of the same title, considered a "''[[locus classicus]]'' of [[Northern Mannerism|Dutch Mannerism]]" and discussed by [[Karel Van Mander]] for its exemplary composition involving numerous figures.<ref>Martha Hollander, ''An Entrance for the Eyes: Space and Meaning in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art'' (University of California Press, 2002), pp. 11–12.</ref>

In the 18th century, [[François Boucher]]'s ''Marriage of Cupid and Psyche'' (1744) affirmed [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] ideals with the authority figure Jupiter presiding over a marriage of lovely equals. The painting reflects the [[Rococo]] taste for pastels, fluid delicacy, and amorous scenarios infused with youth and beauty.<ref>[[Michelle Facos]], ''An Introduction to 19th Century Art'' (Routledge, 2011), p. 20.</ref>