Reading Notes: Cupid and Psyche, Part B

The first thing I noticed in reading part B is the anger that Venus feels about Cupid falling in love with Psyche. She feels betrayed that her son would do this since she feels that Psyche is her enemy or rival since the people worship her for her beauty, even though Venus is the goddess of beauty. It would be interesting if instead, she related to Psyche and felt empathy for her.

As Venus begins to assign Psyche with tasks, I wonder what would have happened if she could not complete them or had no help to complete them. Would she pass out of exhaustion? Would Venus kill her? This could lead the story in a tragic direction.

Another thing to note is if Psyche was never caught by Venus, and in turn never had to preform these tasks. Maybe Cupid escapes from his confinement, healed, to rescue her and keep her safe or to win his mother over in regards to Psyche.

As Psyche goes to the underworld to preform another task, perhaps she could get stuck down there; not dead, but only trapped until someone can rescue her. Or maybe she has to preform tasks for Hades and this just adds on to her long list.

Psyche in the Underworld

And lastly, as the story ends, I can see several different ways it could go. For one, Psyche could die leaving Cupid in a depression that his wife and child are gone, and he no longer preforms his duties leaving his mother in shambles that she ever tried to get rid of Psyche. Another way would be that Cupid grows tired of Psyche and realizes that his mother is right and lives happily without her. There are other ways that the story could end happily as well, maybe Cupid instead gives up his life to live a mortal life with Psyche, in a Disney's "Hercules" type of ending. The possibilities here are endless. 

Cupid and Psyche by Apuleius, translated by Tony Kline