PSYCHE AND EROS

 PSYCHE AND EROS THE GREATEST LOVE STORY IN GREEK MYTHOLOGY

 

The beautiful myth of Psyche and Eros, a touching love story of Greek mythology has inspired international artists over the centuries.

 

From Renaissance painters and sculptors to today’s filmmakers, Psyche and Eros were a great source of inspiration and have created many great and sometimes lesser works of art in many variations.

 

Psyche was apparently a girl of exceptional beauty and grace.  Her looks became legendary and many people of the then known world came to admire her. But Psyche did not marry anyone of the long list of her admirers. She wished to marry the man with whom she would fall in love.

 

Her parents, however, wanted her to get married as soon as possible and asked for an oracle hoping a suitable husband would be found for their beautiful daughter. 

 

Aphrodite the goddess of love was furious that a mortal woman was the subject of admiration of many men.  So, the jealous goddess asked her son Eros to descend to earth and poison men’s souls so they no longer desire Psyche.  However, when Eros set eyes on Psyche he fell madly in love with her.   Eros asked Apollo to give an oracle that Psyche would marry a man of incredible ugliness and he would wait for her at Mount Olympus.

 

Obviously, the oracle devasted Psyche’s parents they could not believe that the gods had such a terrible fate for their precious daughter.

 

But they could not go against the will of the gods so they began to arrange a marriage of their beautiful daughter with a very ugly man.  So Psyche did marry this man but because of his appearance, she was able to be with him only for one night.  Her husband’s looks, however, were counterbalanced by the genuine tender love he showed to her.

 

The beast’s love and devotion made Psyche very happy and realized that her dreams about true love had been fulfilled.  She told her sisters about her happiness and said she could not see his face. 

 

Her sisters, however, became madly jealous of her happiness and convinced her husband was an ugly monster and would eventually kill her and that she should kill him first to save her life.

So one night, Psyche took a knife and an oil lamp and went to commit the murder,  But when she saw the face of her ugly husband she instead saw the beautiful face of the god of love, Eros.  

Psyche was so shocked by the sudden revelation, that she spilled the lamp's oil in his face.  Eros woke up and flew away, telling her that she had betrayed him and ruined their relationship and that they could never be again as a pair.

Psyche began desperately searching for her lost love.  She even went to the goddess Aphrodite who had imprisoned Eros at the palace and begged to see him.  Aphrodite then gave Psyche three impossible tasks to accomplish in order to prove her love. 

But Psyche's love was so strong that she accomplished the first two tasks easily. The first was to sort out a huge quantity of different pulses, which she managed with no trouble.  The second was to bring the golden fleece of wild mountain sheep  Psyche accomplished that as well.  

The third, however, was the most was by far the hardest of all and also a trap.  She had to go to Hades and bring back Persephone's box with the elixir of beauty to Aphrodite, who also ordered her not to open the box.  

However, there was no elixir of beauty in the box. Aphrodite knew that inside the box instead of the elixir was Morpheus, the god of sleep and she knew that Psyche would have the curiosity to open it.   

When Eros found out what happened, he ran away from the palace and begged Zeus to save his beloved Psyche. Zeus was so moved by the true love and devotion of the pair, that he granted Psyche the gift of immortality so that the two lovers would be together for eternity. 

Over time Psyche became known, in Greek mythology, as the deity of the soul.  Today, the myth of Psyche and Eros still symbolizes the search for personal growth through learning, as well as true love, of course.  

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