Eros and Psyche - A Greek Mythology Love Story

Long ago a king had three daughters, and the youngest the most exquisite girl the world had seen. Her name was Psyche. As soon as Aphrodite spotted the girl, jealousy struck her, for this was a girl whose beauty was comparable to her own. Aphrodite ordered her son to strike Psyche with one of his arrows so that she would fall in love with a monster. As Eros leaned over the sleeping girl to do his work, she suddenly awakened, and the startled Eros accidentally scratched himself. He, who had never felt love, suddenly fell in love with Psyche. Psyche could not see Eros, and fell back asleep, while Eros stood watching her. Eros promised himself, as he flew back to Mt. Olympus without shooting one of his arrows at the girl, that he would never let anyone harm Psyche.

When Eros told his mother what had happened, she was enraged. They feuded and fought and finally, Eros said that he would no longer shoot arrows of love for his mother, and people stopped falling in love. Aphrodite was so enraged that she put up an invisible barrier between Psyche and the world so that no suitors came near her. The king, Psyche's father, was very upset and Psyche grew very lonely. Aphrodite finally gave in to Eros and asked him what he wanted. Eros replied that he only wanted Psyche and would start shooting his arrows again if he could have her to be his wife. An agreement was reached and there was love in the world once again.

In the castle where Psyche lived, there was still sorrow, for now the world was filled with love, but no one wanted to marry Psyche. An oracle said that Psyche was not meant for mortal men and that she should be taken to a mountain top and left there for a winged creature. Her family wept but knew that it was true and so they left Psyche alone on the peak of a mountain. From the mountain top, Zephyr, the west wind picked her up and carried her to a well built and beautiful castle. She entered and invisible servants treated her like a queen, bathing her, grooming her and feeding her. After she had eaten dinner in an enormous dining room, and voice talked to her without a person there to speak the words. The voice belonged to Eros, but he could not allow her to see him, or know who he was. For a long time Psyche and Eros were happy together, with each other only at night due to Eros' duties as a god. Finally, Psyche grew lonely and asked that her sisters could visit the castle. Eros said that they would only cause trouble, but could not resist Psyche's pleas.

When the two sisters arrived, they were jealous of all the riches that their sister had. To try to get revenge on their sister, they made Psyche suspicious of her husband that only came to her at night and never showed himself. The sisters told Psyche that he must be a horrible monster, and by the time they left, Psyche was convinced. That night when Eros came home, Psyche was going to find a way to see her husband. One Eros was asleep that night, Psyche crept into his room and let the light of a candle show his face. Psyche was amazed to see that her husband was actually Eros, the son of Aphrodite. Psyche started to cry with relief and awoke Eros with her tears. Eros cursed her for not believing in him and he disappeared never to love Psyche again. The instant that Eros left the castle, the whole building agreed with him and Psyche was left standing in weeds. Psyche searched for Eros but did not find him until Aphrodite called her servants to bring the girl to her. Pysche begged Aphrodite to help her but the goddess only laughed at her and told her that she could have Eros back when she completes a few tasks. If she didn't do the tasks, she would die.

The first thing Psyche had to do was to separate a mixture of sand and small seeds into two different piles by dawn. She started to work at this, but then weeping bitterly, gave up in dismay. But an army of ants came along and began to separate the mixture. Finally, Aphrodite came in the room, expecting to see the mixture still there. Instead, she saw the two separate piles and assigned a much more difficult task to Psyche. This time, she was to gather wool from the golden sheep of Helios. She was about to go and cut some right off the sheep, but a voice told her that they were fierce and would kill her. She should wait and gather the wool after they were asleep by picking bits off the bushes. She did this and once again disappointed Aphrodite. The next task for Psyche was to fill a bottle with water from the river Styx. Psyche did not know how dangerous this task was so she went to the river. But the water was rushing by so fast and the rocks were so slippery, it seemed as if she woul die if she attempted to fill the bottle. Just then, an eagle flew by and grabbed the bottle with its talons. After dipping the bottle in the river and filling it, it dropped it back into Psyche' hand. When Psyche gave Aphrodite the bottle, the goddess was more annoyed than ever. Then she gave Psyche a task that she was sure the girl would never survive from.

"Take this box to the underworld and ask Persephone to give me some of her beauty."

Poor Psyche did not know what to do. But a voice once again told her what to do. "Go to the river Styx and wait for Charon. Don't forget that you will need two coins and four loaves of bread. Give Charon one coin to ferry you over and you will see hands in the river, reaching for you. Throw one loaf of bread to them. Then, you must give Ceberus a loaf of bread at the gate. After getting Persephone's beauty go out and give Ceberus a loaf of bread again to let you pass. Then give Charon your other coin and throw the last loaf of bread to the hands."

Psyche followed the instructions, but when she came back out she thought to herself, "If I use a bit of this beauty on myself, perhaps I can win Eros back." She opened the box but a black mist came out and she fell to the ground, unconscious.

Meanwhile, Eros, Psyche, whom he loved more than ever. Being a god, he was able to help her with all her other tasks and knew what had happened to her. He flew to her side and closed the box. Psyche finally woke up and when she saw her husband, her joy could not be contained. Zeus granted his wife immortality and even Aphrodite was convinced to accept Psyche as her daughter in law. Psyche became the goddess of desire and helped Eros with his tasks.



Another version of this myth says that Psyche searched for Eros, but never found him and Aphrodite turned her into an owl, forever wandering the forest...