Eros/Cupid and Psyche
They were an unlikely couple. He was a God, son of the great Goddess of Love Herself, and an expert at the art of love. She was a mortal, abandoned by her family to the Fates and a naive innocent. Eros knew all about love, no one could tell him anything new. He was good at it too, flying around all over the world and Olympus, creating havoc with his wicked little arrows. Some say his father was Ares and that he was twin sister to Eris, the Goddess of chaos, while others said that he had been fathered by Hades, when his mother had gone on a little slumming expedition to find a lost lover. But though Eros knew how to make others love, he had never experienced it for himself. Aphrodite was not a good role model as she was the original "love 'em and leave 'em" girl. She controlled all her affairs and her men. So all Eros knew was that love involved lots of sex and then running quickly away to the next pliant body. You could say that the boy had no soul.
And that is where Psyche came into the story. She was all soul and emotion and if there was a definition of vulnerability, she was it. She had grown up in a small community, the youngest of three daughters and the most beautiful girl in the whole town. Everyone said so, and they said it loud enough for Aphrodite to hear. Even though she was divine, Aphrodite seemed to have very little confidence in her own beauty. So much so she could not bear to hear that a mortal girl might rival her. In her fury, she cursed poor Psyche, so that no one could bring themselves to ask to marry her. In fact, her reputation grew and no one came calling on her sisters either. Her parents were so desperate that they consulted an oracle, who told them that Psyche was meant for a God, not a mortal man, and that they should leave her on the highest mountain to whatever the Fates would allow.
Psyche was taken in a procession accompanied by everyone in the town, who had become very uncomfortable with having such a divine creature in their midst. They took her to the very top of the highest mountain and then left her there. It must have been a terrifying time for poor gently bred Psyche. All alone in the dark, without hope or a gentle word to comfort her. Eventually she probably cried herself to sleep and there she was, when Eros flew by.
Aphrodite was still fuming over the implied insult and considered that being abandoned was not a fit punishment for the impudent girl. She ordered Eros to fly to Psyche and stab her in the heart with an arrow, to cause her to fall in love with a monstrous creature. Eros was prepared to carry out his mother's wishes, but when he saw Psyche, he was struck by her beauty and, for the first time in his life, he was sorry for her. He stabbed her in the heart, but then, lost in contemplation of her face and her plight, he turned the arrow and pierced his own heart. Even though he was a God, he could not resist the power of his own arrows and he fell deeply in love with her. He told the Zephyrs to lift her up and carry her away to his palace in a secret valley.
Psyche awoke and before she could realise where she was, she was being told by Eros' invisible servants that she was to be married that very day. She never saw her bridegroom as he was invisible. None of the stories can explain why he could not be seen; love is blind and yet, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Whatever the reason, that was a condition of their marriage, that he could not be seen. He left Psyche alone in the palace all day and returned at night, when all was dark and quiet. They discovered that when love and the soul are together, they can create passion. Perhaps that is why lovers prefer to love each other in the darkness.
Psyche was happy to live this way, forever if need be. But then she became pregnant and was filled with a wish to see her parents and her sisters once more. Eros agreed and the Zephyrs took her back to her old home. Her parents were overjoyed to see her so happy and so well, and so pregnant. But her sister were jealous. They had eventually found husbands of their own, but none that provided them with such costly jewels or such gorgeous clothes as Psyche had. They began to whisper; innocuous things at first, wondering aloud why Psyche had not seen her own husband, what did he have to hide? Psyche tried not to listen, but the more they talked, the more it occurred to her that it an was odd thing. Eventually they persuaded her that he might very well be a hideous monster and likely to devour her baby as soon as it was born. All nonsense of course, but perhaps Eros had underestimated how lonely Psyche was, left all alone all day. Those same thoughts had already entered her heart, through all the lonely hours. Her husband might not want to kill his own child, but what did he have to hide?
Psyche returned to Eros' palace with a heavy heart. He was delighted to see her again, and she would have been equally delighted, had he let her see him. But there it was, the same darkness shrouding her mysterious husband with not even the hint of a smile on his face to comfort her. That night, while Eros slept, Psyche prepared to do as her sisters had suggested and look at him. She had already hidden a small oil lamp; she carefully lit the wick and leant over her slumbering husband, to look at him in the light at last.
And what she saw was no horrible thing, but a lovely man, so beautiful that he could only be a god. She was so happy that she forgot herself and leaned closer to kiss him. At that moment, a drop of hot oil slipped out of the lamp and fell on Eros' skin. He awoke and saw his wife, looking at him, full in the face by the light of her lamp. The oil burned him. The pain of it was scarcely shaper than the pain of knowing that she had broken her promise. He flew out of the bed and up, away from the palace, into the dark sky. Not realising that, at the last moment, Psyche had grabbed onto his ankle and was clinging to him desperately.
At last, in the cold of the night air, she could no longer hold on and she fell, cushioned by the Zephyrs, and landed on the ground. There she fell asleep; cold, tired and heart-broken. When she awoke, she did not know where she was or how to get back to the palace. Once again she was lost and alone, and abandoned.
By now Aphrodite had heard all about it as Eros had flown straight to his mother. But if he had hoped for comfort or advice, he got none. Aphrodite was still holding onto her grudge and was acting more like the mother-in-law from hell than the Goddess of love. She sent Eros away, saying that she would deal with it. She had Psyche brought to her, and sitting up on her high throne while the girl sank to her knees on the floor, she pronounced judgement. Psyche was to perform certain tasks and if, if she succeeded, then Aphrodite might be persuaded to speak for her with Eros.
To begin with, Aphrodite presented Psyche with a basket full of grains, all mixed up and ordered her to sort them all out by the morning. The more she tried, the more she despaired. There were so many different kinds and some were so tiny she could barely see them. But an ant took pity on her. He rounded up his fellows and they worked through the night, each carrying the different kinds of grains and arranging them into separate piles. Aphrodite was furious to see that the task had been completed, but she had another nasty idea in mind. Now Psyche must go to a certain field and get wool from the golden sheep of the sun that lived in it. A river god, pitying the lost girl, warned her that the sheep were vicious and would kill her. But if she waited until noon, the sheep would go to lie in the shade and then she could pick the wool they had left in the brambles. She did this and took the wool to Aphrodite.
The Goddess then declared that the stress and strain of having to comfort her poor son had warn her out and she had lost some of her fabled beauty. The best thing for her to do would be to order Psyche to go to Hades and beg a little piece of beauty from Persephone. So Psyche climbed up to the top of the tallest tower, believing that the quickest way to get to Hades would be to die. She was so desperate to see Eros again, even to not see him again, if she could just live with him, that she would have willingly thrown her life away. She had learned, if she had not known it before, that the soul needs love to keep hope alive. Without love, there was no reason for her to go on living. But before she could throw herself onto the jagged rocks below, the tower itself spoke to her and told her that she could just as easily get into Hades if she went through Tanaerum. It also warned her not to eat or drink anything while she was there, if she wanted to get out alive.
The journey was perilous and she had to face Cerebus and Charon, but finally she arrived at the throne of Persephone. That gentle Goddess pitied Psyche, her own heart being torn in two every year because of love, and she gave a tiny fragment of her beauty in a plain wooden box. As she reached the world of the living again, Psyche thought that if she were to look as beautiful as a goddess, then Eros might come back to her. But Psyche did not know, though Aphrodite did, that the secret of Persephone's beauty was sleep, and as soon as the box was opened, Psyche fell into a deep sleep.
She would have lain there, on the cold ground, fast asleep forever, if not for Eros. While Psyche had suffered, so too had he, as he realised that without her, his love was hollow and pointless. He was free to dally with whoever he wanted, but without his soul, the only love he had to offer was cold and callous. His life had gone back to the way it had been, before he had looked into Psyche's eyes and knew that she was his soulmate, and he was sick of it. Defying his mother, he flew around the world, searching for her. He saw her, lying on the ground, to all appearance, dead. Eros flew down to her and gently wiped the mask of sleep from her face and she awoke, to find herself with her dearest love once again.
Eros gathered her into his arms and flew up to Olympus with her, higher than any mortal had ever flown. The two lovers stood at the foot of great Zeus' throne and begged him to help them. Zeus was surprisingly sympathetic. After all, he had been caught out by a few of Aphrodite's machinations too. He called a council of all the gods and though Aphrodite protested, he declared his intention to allow Eros and Psyche to stay together. Everyone agreed of course, so Psyche was given ambrosia to drink, which made her immortal.
Eros and Psyche flew back to their palace, no longer staffed by invisible servants and with no invisible lord in residence. Everything was visible, as plain as day. They lived very happily together, ever after and had children, who were named Love and Delight.
As with all myths, there is a moral to this story. Namely, that as the ancient Greeks knew well, physical love is all very well and we would have no children without it. But that without a close union of hearts and minds, love is fleeting. An intimate relationship is forged through adversity and struggle; that the partners in such a relationship must allow themselves to be open and vulnerable. A true marriage, or any kind of loving relationship, cannot survive if it is shrouded in darkness.