Chapter Text
In Greek Mythology, love has the highest praise, coming first in everything. Psyche (meaning “soul” in Greek) was a beautiful mortal girl, said to be blessed by the goddess of love herself, Aphrodite. Psyche’s beauty was so great that men from all around tried to marry her. While her sisters, too, were beautiful, they envied Psyche’s blessing and decided to pray to Eros, who could make anyone fall in love with his arrows, to make Psyche fall in love with the vilest creature who walked on Earth. However, the moment Eros gazed upon Psyche, he was enchanted by her beauty. Unable to curse Psyche, he disappeared from the sisters.
As the years went by, Psyche remained single. While she enchanted all men, her independence from men led them to move on to another. In hopes of finding a husband for Psyche, her parents went to Delphi for guidance. There, the Oracle declared, “Psyche will climb to the peak of a high mountain alone, dressed in all black, devoid of the colors of the world, and wait for a winged serpent to come and take her as his wife.”
Having no choice but to follow his words, Psyche followed the god’s word. While waiting alone on the mountain, shaking and crying, the fresh wind Zephyrus found and carried her to the gates of a magnificent castle in the sky. There, a sickly sweet voice greeted her. Cautiously, she walked toward the voice. She was met with a veil of darkness concealing an angelic figure. The figure, Eros, does not reveal himself to her, but offers Psyche a place in the castle.
The figure was kind towards her and would give her company, and every night, Eros would come in the dark and lie beside her. While not being able to see him, she could feel that he was not a monster, but the loving husband she had always wished for. The following days passed in full joy, and Psyche was happy. However, she missed her family and felt worried about disappearing. She asked Eros to let her see them, and he granted her wish with the warning that she was not to be influenced by them; otherwise, their relationship would be destroyed. The next day, her two sisters, carried by the wind, arrived at the palace. Fueled with jealousy of their sister's prosperity, they filled her mind with lies: “Your husband doesn’t allow you to see him because he is the horrible creature the Oracle had mentioned.”
Psyche, not understanding why her husband refused to show his face to her, started to believe her sisters. Alarmed at what this could mean, Psyche devised a plan. When Eros falls asleep next to her, she would light a candle to see him, and have a knife to kill him if he was truly a monster; otherwise, she would happily fall back to sleep. When night came, and Eros fell asleep, Psyche set her plan in action; she lit a candle and grabbed her knife. However, the Fates were against her, and a drop of hot oil fell from the candle onto Eros’s face and woke him up. Heartbroken by Psyche’s actions, he immediately left after saying, “Love cannot live without trust.”
Psyche pleaded for forgiveness, “Please, wait, come back! Forgive me, I was foolish for not trusting my love.”
But it was too late, she searched everywhere for Eros but could not find him. Desperate, she appeared to his mentor, Aphrodite, and begged for her help, “Please, my lady, I am Psyche and was the lover of Eros. Fueled by fear and doubt from my sisters’ words, I betrayed his trust, leading him to disappear. I need your help.”
Aphrodite gave her three impossible tasks to follow: Sort a huge pile of mixed seeds, collect the wool of a golden-fleeced ram, and fetch the water from the Styx. With the help of animals and nature, Psyche managed to complete all three tasks and return to Aphrodite. However, Aphrodite, still angry at Psyche for not trusting Eros, had one more test, this time for Eros. She trapped Psyche in an eternal sleep; only Eros could break the spell to test whether he still loved Psyche. Knowing that Hermes witnessed this, Aphrodite waited for Hermes to send word to Eros of everything that happened. Eros was touched by Psyche’s love and will to return to him and appeared upon her to break the spell. He spoke to her for the first time in a week: “Love cannot live without trust, and you have proven your love for one you learned to trust.”
From that day on, the couple lived happily together. As a wedding gift, the Olympians gifted Psyche Ambrosia to make her immortal. Aphrodite then made her a symbol of the mortal soul and undying love, gifting Psyche a place in her temple.