Cupid and Psyche

Ba ckg round o f th e Au th o r :
 Lucius Apuleius was born about c. 124 C.E
 He was an African, an excellent follower of Plato
his sect, born in Madaura, a Countrey sometime
inhabited by the Romans, and under the jurisdiction
of Syphax, scituate and lying on the borders of
Numidia and Getulia, whereby he called himself half
a Numidian and half a Getulian.
 After he went to Rome, and studied there the
Latine tongue, with such labor and continually study,
that he achieved to great eloquence, and was known
and approved to be excellently learned, whereby he
might worthily be called Polyhistor, that is to say, one
that knoweth much or many thing.
LUCIUS APULEIUS

 The account of Cupid and
Psyche is presented in his novel
The Golden Ass (also titled The
Metamorphoses) as an "old wive's
tale" told by an old woman to
comfort a young woman who has
been abducted by a band of
robbers and is being held for
ransome.

SETTINGS
Cupid’s Palace
The Underworld
Mount Olympus

CHARACTERS
AND
CHARACTERIZATION

CUPID
The Roman god of love and
desire; son of Venus; the
beautiful winged youth.

PSYCHE
The Greco-roman goddess of
the soul; youngest daughter of
the king; the most lovely maiden
exist that surpass the beauty of
Venus.

VENUS
The Roman goddess of love and
beauty; also called Aprodite in
Greek; mother of Cupid

APOLLO
The god of Greek
prophecy and healing.

ZEPHYR
The sweetest and
mildest of winds.

CERBERUS
The three-headed dog.

CERES
(Mercury)
The goddess of
agriculture, grain crops,
fertility and motherly
relationships.

PERSEPHONE
(PROSERPINE)
the goddess queen of the
underworld ; wife of the god
Hades.

JUPITER
(ZEUS)
The god of the sky
and ruler of the
Olympian gods.

The Stor y of Cupid and
P s yc h e….

There was a king who had three daughters, all lovely maidens…

But the
youngest,
Psyche,
excelled her
sisters so
greatly.

The fame of her surpassing beauty over the earth, and everywhere
men journeyed to gaze upon her..

Venus was enraged
by this and sent her
son Cupid to make
the girl fall in love
with the vilest and
the most
despicable creature
there is in the
whole world.

Venus showed
Psyche to Cupid. As
he looked upon her
it was as if he had
shot one of his
arrows into his own
heart. He said
nothing to his
mother.

Psyche did not fall in love at all.
Apollo told her father that his daughter was doomed in a
prophecy. He commanded the girl to be left at the edge of a cliff.
Psyche waited there for her doom.

On the hilltop in the
darkness Psyche sat,
waiting for she knew
not what terror. There
she wept and trembled,
a soft breath of air came
through the stillness to
her, the gentle breathing
of Zephyr, the sweetest
and mildest of winds.
She felt it lift her up.

Psyche woke up beside a bright
river and on it’s bank was a
mansion stately and beautiful as
though built for a god, with
pillars of gold and walls of
silver and floors inlaid with
precious stones.

Throughout the day, except for
the strange companionship of
the voices, she was alone, but in
some inexplicable way she felt
sure that with the coming of the
night her husband would be
with her. And so it happened.
When she felt him beside her
ear, all her fears left her. She
knew without seeing him that
there was no monster or shape
of terror, but the lover and
husband she had longed and
waited for.

One night, he warned
her that her sisters were
coming to visit her. She
promised to do as he
asked but eventually
begs him to allow her to
see her sisters. He
relents and the next day
they are carried to the
house by the same
wind. They saw her
wealth and were
immediately jealous.

Psyche asked Cupid the
next night if she might see
her sisters again and he
gives in to her but warns
her that they are planning
evil. When they came, they
reveal the oracle of Apollo
and convince her that her
husband was not a man,
but the fearful serpent.

When he lay sleeping
quitely, she summoned all
her courage and lit the
lamp. She tiptoed to the
bed and holding the light
high above, she gazed at
what lay there. The relief
and the rapture that filled
her heart. NO
MONSTER WAS
REVEALED, BUT THE
SWEETEST AND
FAIREST OF ALL
CREATURES.

Some of the oil fell from the lamp upon his shoulder. He started
awake: he saw the light and knew her faithlessness, and he fled
from her.
She rushed out after him into the night. She could not see him,
but she heard his voice speaking to her. “LOVE CANNOT
LIVE WHERE THERE IS NO TRUST.”

“The god of Love!” he
was my husband and I
wretch, that I am could
not keep faith with him.
“I can spend the rest of
my life searching for him.
If he has no more love left
for me, at least. I can
show him how much I
love him.”
And she started on her
journey. She had no idea
where to go; she knew
only that she would not
give up looking for him.

Psyche came into Venus’s
presence the goddess laughed
aloud and asked her scornfully
if she was seeking a husband
since the one she had had
would have nothing to do with
her because he had almost died
of the burning wound she had
given him.
Venus gave some tasks to
Psyche.

P s y c h e ’ s F i r s t Ta s k
Venus took a great quantity of the
smallest of the seeds; wheat and poppy
and millet and so on and mixed them all
together in a heap.
Psyche was heartbroken and could not
start her task, but a group of ants
performed the task for her. And mass
lay all ordered, every seed with its kind.
This was what Venus found when she
came back, and very angry she was to
see it.

Second Task
The next morning, she devised another
task. Down the riverbank, where the
bushes grow thick, are sheep with fleeces
of gold. Psyche must fetch some of their
shining wool. And Psyche accomplished
this by pulling the wool from the sharp
briars.
Venus received it with evil smile. And said
that, someone helped her.

Thi rd Ta sk
Next, Venus made her get a vile of black water from terrible
which is called hateful, the River Styx.
This time her savior was an eagle, who poised on his great
wings beside her, seized the flask from her with his beak, and
brought it back to her full of the black water.

Venus kept on and one cannot but
accuse Psyche of some stupidity.
The only effect of all that had
happened was to make her try
again.
Venus gave Psyche a box which
she was to carry to the underworld
and ask Persephone (Proserpine)
to fill with some of her beauty.

Psyche found her
directions how to get
to Persephone’s
palace, first through a
great hole in the earth,
where she must give
the ferry man,
Charon, a penny to
take her across.

From there, the road
led straight to the
palace, Cerberus, the
three-headed dog,
guarded the doors,
but if she gave him a
cake he would be
friendly and let her
pass.

Proserpine was willing to do Venus
a service, and Psyche greatly
encouraged. Bore back the box,
returning far more quickly than
she had gone down.
Her next trial she brought upon
herself through her curiosity and
still more, her vanity. She felt that
she must see what that beauty-charm
in the box was; and
perhaps, use a little of it herself.
She was unable to resist the
temptation and opened the box.
To her sharp disappointment she
saw nothing there.

Immediately, however, a
deadly languer took
possession of her and she fell
into a heavy sleep.
At this juncture, the god of
Love himself stepped
forward.
Cupid was healed of his
wound by now and longing
for Psyche.
She was lying beside the
palace, and he found her at
once. He had wiped the sleep
from her eyes and put it back
into the box.

Then waking her with
just a prick from one of
his arrows, and scolding
her a little for her
curiosity, he bade her
take Proserpine’s box to
his mother and he
assured her that all
thereafter would be well.

While the joyful Psyche hastened on her errand, the god
flew up to Olympus. He wanted to make certain that
Venus would give them no more trouble, so he went
straight to Jupiter. The father of gods and men consented
at once to all that Cupid asked.

Jupiter called a full asssembly of the gods, announced to all,
including Venus, that Cupid and Psyche were formally married
and that he proposed to bestow immortality upon the bride.

Mercury brought Psyche
into the palace of the gods,
and Jupiter himself gave
her the ambrosia to taste
which made her immortal.
This of course changed
the situation.
So all came to a most happy
end. Love and the Soul (for
that is what Psyche means)
had sought and, after sore
trials, found each other; and
that union could never be
broken.

Theme:
“Love cannot live where there is no trust.”
As in the story of Cupid and Psyche, Cupid, the god of desire and
love, falls in love himself, you’ll guess that the major theme of the story is
romance. Of course, it wouldn't be much of a story if Cupid and Psyche just
fell in love and everything was immediately happy ever after. But when Psyche
shows distrust in Cupid and gets a glimpse of what he looks like against his
wishes, Cupid abandons her, showing that love cannot survive if there is no
trust between two people. After determinedly completing a series of tasks,
however, Psyche eventually regains Cupid and finds eternal bliss, perhaps
teaching the lesson that lasting love can only be attained through dedication
and struggle.

Impl i c a t ions of the s tor y :
The story implies that in a relationship, in order to have a
harmonious relationship with your partner you must have love. Love is the
most important ingredient in a relationship. Without love, your
relationship has no direction. And the other thing is trust. If you really
love your partner have trust on her/him. Nothing can be taken from you
if you trust each other. Especially, now a days, what so-called Long
distance relationship in engaging in this kind of relationship, trust is the
primary value to be projected by the two lovers. They don’t know what the
other one is doing because they are not right beside each other, so the
important thing to do is you trust one another. To build a strong and long
lasting relationship you need love with a trust. “Love cannot live where
there no trust”, as what the theme of this story.

THANK YOU FOR WATCHING
AND LI STENING. . 
Reported by:
GROUP 5
Arandilla, John
Cristal, Frinces Mae
Cortez, Mary Jo
Cuachon, Rona Mae
Decena, Cyril
Despi, Leizel A.
Edollantes, Mary Joy

Cupid and Psyche

More Related Content

What's hot

Similar to Cupid and Psyche

More from Leizel Despi

Cupid and Psyche