Psyche was one
of the three daughters of a King. Amongst the daughters Psyche was very
beautiful so much so, that she seemed like a goddess amongst mortals and soon
became well known for her beauty. Men from far would come to witness her beauty,
and soon, people started comparing her with Aphrodite and felt that Psyche was
more beautiful than her. When Aphrodite heard about Psyche’s beauty, she was
jealous and summoned her son, Eros (also referred to as Cupid in some stories)
and ordered him to cast a spell on Psyche, so as to ensure that nobody would
want to marry her. Eros flew down to the earth to follow his mother’s
instructions.
Eros picked up one
of his magical arrows (so that his magic could work as per Aphrodite’s desire),
but at that very moment she opened her eyes. When Eros saw the beautiful
Psyche, he was so moved by her beauty, that by mistake he pricked his own self
with one of his magical arrows. As destiny would have it, he fell in love with
Psyche immediately. In love, Eros regretted what he had done, so he sprinkled a
magic potion on her eyelids to ensure that she found all the love and happiness
in life. With a heavy heart, Eros left, but not before doing what his mother
wanted him to do, albeit with a heavy heart.
Sure enough, as
Aphrodite had willed, nobody was willing to get married to Psyche. Her parents
were worried that they must have earned the wrath of the Gods, asked an Oracle
to reveal her future. The Oracle said that no mortal would marry her, but there
was a monster at the top of the mountain who would marry her and that they
should leave her there adorned in mourning clothes.
Giving in to
what was destined for Psyche, her parents along with her, headed for the
mountains. When they were close to the peak, a gentle breeze lifted Psyche and
took her to the top of mountain. On reaching the peak, she came across a
beautiful palace decorated and lit up for a wedding. The palace was all set for
a grand princely wedding but there were no guests. Psyche soon realised that
there were invisible servants waiting on her and escorting her along. At night,
when it was very dark, she felt the presence of a prince. The prince was very
gentle and nice and assured her that he would love her no matter what. He was
very romantic and Psyche instantly fell in love with him. But the prince made a
condition, that she should never insist on seeing him, and if she did, he would
have to leave. Psyche started living a life of romance and was happy in
ignorance, that the Prince was none other than Eros himself.
Needless to say
that Aphrodite was not aware of all this and Eros was happy with this
arrangement. But during the day Psyche would feel lonely and started missing
her family members. She pleaded with Eros, to allow her to get her sisters to
visit her. Though Eros warned her that it would lead to trouble, Psyche would
not hear, and Eros gave in to her request. When her sisters saw her opulence,
they were jealous. When they came to know about Psyche’s unique relationship
with her ‘husband’ and the fact that she had not even seen her husband, they were
even more worried. They revealed to her about the Oracles prophesy and
convinced Psyche that her lover was a monstrous creature. Psyche was falling
prey to all this and one night agreed to check out on her husband as suggested
by the sisters.
On the fateful
night, Psyche went to bed with a candle and a dagger. If she found out in the
light that the Prince was a monster, then she should kill him with the dagger. But
in the light of the candle when she saw that her husband was the most handsome
young man in the world, she was happy. In her delight a drop of candle fell on
Eros who woke up to find Psyche staring at him. A disappointed Eros left the
palace saying where there was no trust, there could be no love. Psyche pleaded
with him, but it was too late. Psyche, was not willing to give up and decided
that she would get him back, no matter what she had to do.
Aphrodite soon
learnt about her son’s disobedience and decided to punish Psyche by making her
suffer. Psyche by now had offered prayers to all gods to help her, decided to
approach Aphrodite directly. This further infuriated Aphrodite, who decided to
put her through trouble. On sighting Psyche, she dumped a pile of seeds of
different kinds and ordered her to separate then by sundown. The pile would
have taken Psyche hundreds of years to sort, but moved by her beauty; hordes of
ants came from nowhere and did the job in no time. On seeing the work done
meticulously, Aphrodite decided to give her a much tougher job.
This time she
ordered her to collect wool from the fiercest man-eating sheep that lived in
the midst of the thorn-bushes near the river. Psyche knew that attempting it
would mean sure death, but she decided to do this for her love, even if it
meant death. When she reached close to the thorn-bushes, she heard a voice which
told her to wait till it got dark, when the sheep would leave the bushes and
she could collect all the wool that was stuck on the thorns. When Aphrodite saw
the wool, she was very angry with Psyche’s success. Aphrodite knew that she had
been helped by some force, as both the tasks were beyond the might of a mere
mortal.
Aphrodite then
decided to test her once again. This time she was asked to fill a jar with the
dark waters of River Styx from its source, which was from a huge waterfall.
This was an impossible task, as the source was high above a mountain peak and
it would be impossible to reach up there, as the rocks were steep and slimy.
But as always, she got help here too. An eagle, supposed to be that of Zeus,
took the jar from her hand and flew up to the source and returned the jar to
Psyche.
 |
| Charon Psyche |
By now,
Aphrodite was raging in anger to see Psyche succeed in every instance, which
seemed impossible. She tried one last time to get rid of her completely. This
time she gave her a box and ordered her to take it to Persephone in the
Underworld and ask her to fill the box with some beauty potion, as Aphrodite
was worn-out and needed the potion to enhance her looks. However, Psyche was
not to open the box once Persephone had given it to her. Psyche understood that
this was her sure elimination, but she decided to give it a try. On
the way to
the Underworld, she got advised by a voice from a tower, which told her exactly
what to do. In the earth, she would find a hole and deep inside she would find
the river of death. There she would have to give a penny to Charon, the
ferryman who took the dead to the other side of the river. She was advised to
carry some bread with her as Cereberus, the three headed dog which guarded the
doors of the Underworld could be appeased only by that. Everything went as
advised, and soon she got the box with the potion and was on her way back. But
yet again the advice of not opening a box given to a woman, failed (This is Utkarsh Speaking: The Gift of Fire)! Psyche
decided to see and probably use the beauty potion for herself. When she opened
the box, she found it empty, but as soon as she opened it, she passed into a
deep slumber.
Eros who had
been silently helping Psyche right from sending the ants and advising her at
each step decided that Psyche had gone through enough. With one of his arrows
he revived her and sought the help of the gods, to win his love.
Zeus, who was aware
of everything, said that Eros had proved his love for Psyche time and again and
Psyche too had reciprocated by being patient and obedient in love, and decided
that it was time to unite them. Since Psyche was a mortal and could not live
with them like one, she was given the ambrosial nectar of the gods which made
her one of them. Aphrodite was no longer jealous of Psyche as she didn’t resent
a beautiful goddess and decided to bless the union of Eros and Psyche.
This love story of romance, patience and perseverance has
given rise to many a well-known story in later times, the most famous being,
‘Beauty and the Beast’.
One more tomorrow for the
Valentine Day! Keep reading!!
But
could find thee not
