The myth you are about to read describes how pleasure is conquered. Not the easy and temporary one, but the deep inner pleasure that lasts. This pleasure is born as such only when the soul seeks eros(meaning deeper love) at all costs. Eros for the body, for art, science, thought. Eros for something that will upgrade the soul. And this is a great but fascinating adventure, as you will read in the beautiful myth of the 2nd century.
Psyche(translated as Soul) was the youngest of a king's three daughters and so beautiful that those around her began to believe she was the goddess Aphrodite. The worship of the goddess was despised, her altars were deserted and her statues were left untouched. No one went to Paphos, Cnidus or Kythira to worship the goddess anymore, but everyone prayed to Psyche. The goddess became angry and decided to restore order. "Soon I will make her curse her beauty, which does not belong to her," she said, and asked her son, Eros, to make the girl fall in love with the most disgusting, unworthy and unlucky man.
Psyche was already very unhappy, for she felt terribly alone. Since everyone thought she was a goddess, they treated her like a statue. She was honored and respected, but no one dared to propose to her. So while her sisters were well married, she wasted away alone in the palace.
Her father asked Apollo of Miletus for an oracle and received the following answer: 'Adorn this girl, O king, for an eerie wedding, and lead her to the high mountain to meet the bridegroom. But do not hope to get a bridegroom from the human species, for she will marry a wild barbarous animal resembling a reptile. He flies high with his wings and rules everything and hits everything that moves with his torch and arrow. Even Zeus must be afraid of him, and the other gods do not hide their fear of him. And the rivers tremble, and the dark realms of the underworld".
The whole city accompanied the royal family in this formidable procession to the top of the mountain. Mourning and lamentation were heard everywhere, while Psyche who was adorned bride waited, trembling with fear, for the strange bridegroom. Suddenly, however, Zephyrus blew gently and carried her carefully into a beautiful garden. Among colorful flowers and lush trees and flowing water, he projected a magnificent, divine palace. Psyche wandered the corridors, dazzled by the treasures she saw around her when a voice was heard whose origin could not be matched. "This is all yours," he told her, inviting her to enjoy her bath and whatever else she wanted.
As night fell, Psyche lay down in the beautiful bedroom that the girls who had been at her service had prepared for her. And then, in the darkness, the bridegroom came to her and made her his. But before dawn, he went away before she could see his face. The same thing happened every night for a long time, and Psyche felt great every time she felt him close to her and heard his voice.
Sometime after a while, her sisters heard that their sister might have died and they went looking for her. Psyche's husband warned her that if her sisters came, she should completely ignore anything they told her. "Otherwise, you will bring untold misfortune to me and to yourself." Although Psyche promised to follow his advice, she was melancholy, thinking that her family was grieving for her and there was nothing she could do to comfort them. She persuaded her husband to let her see her sisters, to assure them that she was well, and to give them beautiful jewels, repeating her promise that she would not allow anything to alter the circumstances of this marriage. "I would rather die a hundred times than lose the supreme joy of our marriage," she said. "For I love and adore you-whoever you are-as much as my life, and I cherish you more than Eros himself," she told him tenderly.
He sent Zephyrus back to the top of the mountain, where the Psyche's sisters were tearing and screaming in search of their sister. The wind carried them close to her. Mad with joy, Psyche comforted them, showed them her magnificent palace, and took care of them. And when asked about her husband, she made up a story to avoid telling the truth, as she had promised. "He is a rich, handsome young man who likes to hunt and therefore misses most of the day," she told them, showering them with gifts of gold and precious stones. Thereupon they were then jealous of their sister's fate. They visited her again when she was pregnant and used tricks to try to get information about the groom. Psyche forgot what she had said last time, and now told them that her husband was middle-aged and engaged in trade.
And they realized that their sister had probably never seen her husband's face. They suspected that he was a god and that the child she was already carrying would also be a god.
When they met for the third time, her sisters convinced Psyche that the groom was really a terrible monster who would kill her as soon as she gave birth to his offspring. They frightened her so much that she was persuaded to kill him first. At night, as soon as her husband fell asleep, Psyche approached with a lamp in one hand and a blade in the other. As she approached, however, she saw his face and realized that the most beautiful and lovable of all the gods had loved her. He was the son of Aphrodite, Eros himself! And as she stood there staring at the handsome young man, she saw his quiver and arrows leaning against the bed. She picked up an arrow and gazed at it with admiration as the point pierced her. And then the unfortunate girl lost her mind. She fell in love with Eros with uncontrollable passion. She was so much in the turmoil that she tipped the lamp and poured a drop of hot oil on his shoulder. Eros woke up, got angry that she did not trust him and disappeared.
Psyche frantically searched for him from city to city while Eros struggled to survive in the realm of Aphrodite. The burn on his shoulder was malformed and caused him unbearable pain. His mother learned from one of her servants what had happened to him and became enraged. She locked Eros in the room and handed Psyche over to her maids Melancholia and Thlipsis(Sadness) for punishment. Exhausted from the torture, Psyche now faces Aphrodite herself, who inflicts a series of humiliating and unbelievable acts upon her.
But all nature helped her to succeed. The ants helped her to separate the mixed seeds from a huge pile. A reed gave her advice on how to get a golden tuft of the wild sheep with the deadly bite. The sacred eagle of Zeus fetched water from the spring of Stygos, which no mortal could approach.
"Now I know you are a witch," said the angry Aphrodite, as soon as Psyche returned, "for no one can do such things." And she thought of something even more difficult. She had to go down to the Underworld and ask Persephone for some of her divine cosmetics. After giving her a box, she said, "Tell her to bring it here and that I need it, for I spent mine to heal my son's wound." But whoever descended alive into Hades and came back again? It was utterly impossible. Exhausted, Psyche climbed a tower to fall and go to the Underworld once and for all. And then the tower spoke and gave her detailed instructions on what she had to do to escape the traps of Hades and reach Persephone. He also warned her not to open the box under any circumstances.
Psyche went and turned quite well, but as soon as she saw the light of the living world again, she turned her attention to the box. "Why not take just a drop of the cosmetics that the goddesses put on, to become beautiful for my beloved?" she thought and opened the box. But there were no cosmetics in the box, only the breath of death. Psyche fell unconscious, there in the strait, and life gradually drained from her body. And she would have died if Eros had not recovered in the meantime.
The winged god could not bear to be separated from his beloved, and as soon as he regained his strength, he went to the king of the gods, Zeus, and begged him for help. Zeus summoned all the gods together and told them to help the young god now and forgive him for the misfortune with which he had plagued them all so much. He sent Hermes to fetch Psyche, to make a marriage among equals and offered ambrosia to the girl. A few months later a girl named Idoni(pleasure) was born. Immortal now both Eros and Psyche lived together forever and loved each other passionately.
(This tale is a variation of a myth found in almost all ancient civilizations. It was written by the Platonist Apulius in the 2nd century)
