Who is psyche in roman mythology

They convinced her to take a knife and lamp to bed with her. When Eros fell asleep that night, Psyche lit the lamp and prepared to stab her husband. But instead of a monster, she saw the handsome god of love. Startled, she let a drop of hot oil from the lamp fall on Eros.

He awoke, realized that Psyche knew his identity, and flew away. Psyche fainted. When she awoke, the palace had vanished, and she found herself alone in a strange country. Psyche wandered the countryside searching for Eros. Finally she asked Aphrodite for help, and the goddess gave her a set of seemingly impossible tasks. From an early age, the princess was renowned for her beauty. People would travel from around Greece to catch a glimpse of the stunning young girl. But as Psyche grew older and more lovely, some began to say that her beauty surpassed that of even the goddess.

Some people even claimed that she was a new goddess sent to supplant Aphrodite as the most beautiful being in the universe. Like many of the Greek deities , Aphrodite was no stranger to jealousy. With a single shot from his arrows, Eros could make anyone fall desperately in love. Aphrodite planning to have Eros target Psyche. Making the beautiful young girl fall madly in love with an unsuitable man would lead to a lifetime of misery. Her parents sought the advice of an oracle.

To their dismay, they were told that their daughter was fated to marry a being so terrible that even Zeus feared him. Convinced Psyche would become the wife of a dreadful monster, her parents prepared to send her to the mountaintop where they were told her groom waited. What they, and Aphrodite, did not know was that Eros had failed in his mission to bring doom on the unfortunate girl. As he had lined up his shot, he had pricked his own finger with one of his magical arrows. Her parents prepared as if for a funeral instead of a wedding and led their daughter to the mountain.

The entire city mourned for the loss of their beautiful princess. Psyche was abandoned on the mountaintop to wait for her husband. As she sat alone and cried, Zephyrus, the West Wind, began to blow around her. The wind wrapped around her until it carried her off the ground. Gently, Zephyrus took the girl down the mountain and into a lush, peaceful valley. In a grove of trees, she saw a splendid palace.

When she entered it, she found that it was full of every type of riches she could imagine. She saw no one in the palace but could hear the whispered voices of the servants. When she wished for anything, whether it was food or music, it was brought to her as if by air. Her new husband was invisible as well. He visited her at night and spoke to her in the dark, but was always gone by morning. Eros knew that misfortune would befall them both if Psyche were to know his identity, so he made her swear that she would never try to see his face.

While Psyche was content, she began to feel lonely. She knew her family believed her dead, or worse, and she wanted nothing more than to see her sisters. Zephyrus carried them to the palace. The sisters were amazed that not only was Psyche happy and healthy, but that she lived in such a grand place. Compared to their own marriages, which had been arranged to unkind men who were much older, Psyche seemed to be very lucky. He must have been a monster after all. Psyche tried to ignore them, but after they left she began to grow more suspicious herself.

Fueled by jealousy and greed, the sisters had managed to put doubt in her mind. Psyche decided that she would see the truth for herself. That night, she hid a lantern and a knife near her bed. After her husband had fallen asleep next to her, Psyche lit the flame. She held the knife close by prepared to kill him if he was a monster after all.

She also saw the quiver of arrows he kept at the foot of the bed. Examining them, she pricked her finger on one, causing to fall more deeply in love than she already had. Eros was furious. His wife had not only disobeyed his warning, but had been prepared to kill him in his sleep.

They had never been convinced that Psyche had truly married a monster. Instead, certain that her mysterious husband would have turned her out when she tried to kill him, both sisters attempted to offer themselves as replacements.

The light did not show a monster but the most beautiful of men. Ashamed by her madness and her little confidence, Psyche fell down on her knees and thanked gods for this happiness. But while he was leaning on him, a drop of oil fell from the candle on the back of that handsome, young man. He woke up in pain and saw the light. He looked her at the eyes and, facing Psyche's distrust, he left their bedroom without uttering a single word. Psyche immediately ran after her husband.

It was dark and she could not see him, but could hear his heartbroken voice: Love can not live without trust. Those were his last words before flying to the dark sky. The god of love! He was my husband and I did not trust him. She cried and cried for days and then she decided to do anything to gain her back. She would look everywhere for him and she would prove her love. Without knowing what else to do, she went to the temple of Aphrodite and prayed to the goddess. She asked Aphrodite to speak to her son and persuade him to get Psyche back.

Aphrodite had not, of course, overcome her jealousy for Psyche and still wanted her revenge. She told the young girl that she needed to be completely sure that Psyche was the appropriate wife for her son.

Therefore, Psyche should accomplish three tasks to prove her skills. If she failed in even one of these tasks, Eros would be lost for ever. Psyche agreed and Aphrodite led her on a hill. There the goddess showed her a dune of different small seeds of wheat, poppies, millets and many others. I want you to separate these seeds by this afternoon. If you do not, I will never let you see Eros again , said Aphrodite and left.

How could see do that? How could see separate all these tiny seeds? This was a cruel task that filled her eyes with tears. That moment, a group of ants were passing by and saw her in despair. Come, feel mercy for this poor girl and let us help her , they said to each other.

They all responded to this appeal and worked hard, separating the seeds, something in which they were experts. From the big original dune, they formed several smaller dunes, each with one king of seed.

These smaller dunes saw Aphrodite and became angry. You have not finished your work she said and ordered Psyche to sleep on the ground, without giving her any food, while she leaned in her soft bed.

She thought that if she could compel Psyche to hard work for a long time, her beauty would not resist. Meanwhile, Aphrodite would not let her son to leave his room, where he was all that time mourning for Psyche's betrayal.

Next morning, Aphrodite came up with a new job from Psyche, a dangerous task. Can you see those black waters descending from the hill? That is River Estige, awful and abhorrent. Fill this bottle with its water , the goddess said. On reaching the waterfall, Psyche realized that the surrounding rocks were slippery and steep. The waters rushed through such abrupt rocks that only a winged creature could approach. And indeed, an eagle helped her. It was flying with its huge wings above the river when it saw Psyche and fell sympathy for her.

It seized the bottle from her hands with its beak, filled it with some black water and gave it back to Psyche. Venus accepted her with a cold smile. Someone helped you , she said sharply, otherwise you would not have been able to perform this task by your own. I'm going to give you another chance to prove you that you are as determined as you claim to be.

She gave a box to Psyche. Apuleius q. He makes them the hero and heroine of an old popular tradition, in which a loving couple, after a sorrowful separation, are restored to one another for ever. The love-god causes the charming Psyche, the youngest of the three daughters of a king, to be carried off by Zephyrus to a secluded spot, where he visits her at night alone, without being seen or recognised by her. Persuaded by her sisters, she transgresses his command, and wishes to see him, when the god immediately vanishes.

Amid innumerable troubles and appalling trials she seeks her lover, till at length, purified by the sufferings she has endured, she finds him again, and is united to him for ever. In the myth, as told by Apuleius, her daughter is called Voluptas.

EROS His name does not occur in Homer; but in Hesiod he is the fairest of the deities, who subdues the hearts of all gods and men. He is born from Chaos at the same time as the Earth and Tartarus, and is the comrade of Aphrodite from the moment of her birth. Hesiod conceives Eros not merely as the god of sensual love, but as a power which forms the world by inner union of the separated elements; an idea very prevalent in antiquity, especially among the philosophers. But according to the later and commoner notion, Eros was the youngest of the gods, generally the son of Aphrodite by Ares or Hermes, always a child, thoughtless and capricious.