Love

In the spirit of Valentine's Day I think it can only be appropriate to tell the story of a young mortal girl named Psyche. Psyche was blessed/cursed with an extraordinary beauty, so much so that even the goddess Aphrodite was jealous of the young girl. As some of us may know, Aphrodite is not one for competition and furthermore is certainly not one to play fair as seen in the story of the golden apple. Therefore, Aphrodite instructs her son Cupid to strike Psyche with his arrows and cause her to fall in love with the most vile creature on Earth.

Now, Cupid agrees to this task but as we have all learned from Dr. Sexson by now, Cupid may be a God but he is still a dumb man. Cupid not only falls in love with Psyche, but he pierces himself with his own arrows like a dolt. An oracle (we know what trouble those are) prophecies that Psyche should be left on a mountain because her beauty is too great for any man. There when night falls Cupid arrives to marry Psyche and consumate their marriage. But, Cupid does not want Psyche to know who he is but he cannot resist seeing her to 'talk' so he insists that she must leave the light off least his identity be discovered. Then something magically happens that I'm sure is no fault of Cupids and Psyche becomes pregnant.

Cupid allows for Psyche to go back to town to visit her jealous sisters whom he advises Psyche to not listen to least she do something regretable. Upon arriving Psyche's sisters inform her that the townspeople are convinced she has married a terrible serpant that will eventually devour both her and her unborn child. Her sisters believe that the only way to stop this is for Psyche to take a knife and lamp to her bed chambers that night and if it is as they say slay the horrible beast. Psyche decides to act like a dolt herself and follows this advice.

Of course Psyche sees that her husband is indeed not a serpant at all but the god Cupid and during her investigation she too pricks herself with an arrow and is overcome with desire. Her actions however, awake the sleeping god and he flies away. Psyche is of course devestated and lovesick and decides she must find her husband. But those meddling gods tell her she must appease Aphrodite who has caused this mess in the first place. So Psyche travels to Aphrodites temple where Aphrodite has her do horrible tasks that Psyche is able to complete with help from ants, talking towers, and so on.

Psyche's final task is to retrieve a box for Aphrodite from the Underworld, which she does, but Psyche cannot resist the boxes temptation and opens it becoming overwhelmed by sleep. Then at the last moment Cupid rushes in, wipes the sleep from her eyes, and saves his beloved Psyche. After all this Zeus decides that Psyche should be made a goddess.

Now, I know that story was long but if you're still with me I think we can all agree how stupidly both Cupid and Psyche acted. Psyche hardly listened to anything anyone had to say yet in the end she was rewarded beyond her wildest dreams, with immortality. Cupid on the other hand disobeys his mother, pricks himself with his own arrows, and must save his wife from death. Certainly they are a disfunctional couple if there ever was. But their dysfunctional story is the basis for many many romantic stories that are told during this time of year and will continue to be told for years to come. Μπορείτε να δοκιμάσετε πάλι.