Editing Cupid and Psyche (section)

====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.