Cupid and Psyche - PBworks

Jasmine Marion

 Characters:
 Psyche- inquisitive, disobedient,

disingenuous
 Cupid-forgiving, affectionate, treacherous
 Venus- envious, irrational, bothersome
 Zephyrus- allegiant, slavish, judicious

 Symbols: Significant Concepts:
 Snake Jealousy
 Candle Curiosity
Faith
Deception

 Venus, the god of love, had a son named Cupid. Venus
was envious and jealous of a mortal woman named
Psyche. Venus told Cupid to use his golden arrows to
make Psyche fall in love with the vilest creature on
Earth.

 Everyone talks of Psyche’s beauty but none desire to
marry her. Her parents consult an oracle who advises
them to leave her on a mountain because she wasn’t
meant for men. Her parents abide by the oracle’s
advice. Zephyrus, the west wind, carries Psyche away
to a fair valley and a magnificent palace.

 In the process of going to fulfill his mother’s wishes
Cupid falls in love with Psyche. Cupid and Psyche’s
marriage is consummated although she doesn’t know
who he is. Psyche’s jealous sisters convinced her that
she had married an evil serpent who planned to
devour her and her unborn child.

 Later that night Psyche had a knife and a candle to see who her
husband was and if need be kill him and saw that it was Cupid.
Psyche was amazed and ecstatic until a drop of candle wax
accidentally spilled on Cupid. He woke up and frowned upon her
for her curiosity then flew away never to return. Psyche became
melancholy about the loss of her husband and told her sisters the
story. Her sisters then went to the mountain expecting Zephyrus
to fly them away so they can be with Cupid; they fell off the
mountain and died.

 Psyche searched night and day for her husband and wandered
into a temple hoping he’d be there. Seeing everything out of
order in the temple, she put everything in its right place. Ceres,
another god, told her to go to Venus to her displeasure. Venus
gave her 3 tasks to do. Psyche succeeded at the first two tasks.
On the third she was asked to retrieve a box of beauty from
Proserpine and not to look into it but give it to Venus.
Overwhelmed by curiosity again she opened the box and fell into
a deep sleep. Cupid who had seen enough came to get her and
begged the Gods to let him marry her; the gods agreed and gave
her immortality.

 “Comus” John Milton
 "Celestial Cupid, her famed son, advanced,
Holds his dear Psyche sweet entranced,
After her wandering labours long,
Till free consent the gods among
Make her his eternal bride

“Until her pining soul and weeping eyes

Had learned to seek him only in the skies;

Till wings unto the weary heart were given,

And she became Love's angel bride in
heaven!”- T.K Harvey

 O Goddess! hear these tuneless numbers, wrung
 “By sweet enforcement and remembrance dear,
 And pardon that thy secrets should be sung
 Even into thine own soft-conched ear:
 Surely I dreamt to-day, or did I see
 The winged Psyche with awaken'd eyes?
 I wander'd in a forest thoughtlessly,
 And, on the sudden, fainting with surprise,
 Saw two fair creatures, couched side by side
 In deepest grass, beneath the whisp'ring roof
 Of leaves and trembled blossoms, where there

ran
 A brooklet, scarce espied:”- John Keats

 Often times in the pursuit of relieving
curiosity we find that what we wanted to
know is better off not knowing. Describe an
instance in which you discover something
that may have seemed hidden but found that
you would have been better off not knowing.

 Write down on a slip of paper a time where
you were jealous of someone or curious
about something, why u were jealous of that
person or curious, and how you solved the
situation.

 Place it in the green box

 Sources:
 Apuleius, Lucius. "Cupid and Psyche." Cupid

and Psyche 23 Jan 2001 16 Jan 2009
<http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/cupid.html>.
 Jalic Inc., "Cupid and Psyche." Cupid and
Psyche 2002 16 Jan 2009
<http://www.online-
mythology.com/cupid_psyche/>.
 "Cupid and Psyche." Wikipedia. Wikimedia
Foundation, Inc.. 16 Jan 2009
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cupid_and_Ps
yche>.