Story: Cupid and Psyche

Once upon a time, there was a beautiful princess. She was so beautiful that every man in her village wanted to be her husband. Her beauty was compared to Aphrodite and statues were erected in her honor. The princess was called Psyche. Any time she left her castle, she would be bombarded by men who wanted her and would propose to her. It was overwhelming, so she chose to spend all of her time in her room.

Her sister was also beautiful, but not nearly compared to Psyche. She had a husband and lived her life happily outside the castle without any extra attention. Psyche became very envious of her sister. She would sit at her window and watch her laugh with her husband and children. Her jealousy grew until she began to have hatred for her.

"Why must beauty come with such a price?" she would ask herself. "I have no friends, and any man who wants me wants me only for my looks. No one knows me for my true self. I watch my sister live her life happily with a man who truly loves her. It isn't fair that I must spend my life away in this castle while she walks freely!"

With this anger, Psyche prayed to the Gods for assistance."Gods, please hear my prayer. Help me escape this fate of beauty. I don't wish to have this while my sister lives happily. I can't stand to see her outside the castle while I am stuck!"

Venus, Goddess of beauty herself, normally didn't answer such prayers. But, she felt jealousy of Psyche and her beauty. She didn't like that the villagers worshiped her for it when Venus was the only one they should be worshiping. So she sent her son, Cupid, to answer Psyche's prayer. However, her plan wasn't to help her, but instead she wanted Cupid to kill her.

During the night, Psyche heard a noise by her window. Startled, she approached the window to peak out. Her room was high in the sky, so it didn't make sense that someone could be there. But when she looked out, she saw something that left her awestruck. It was a winged creature, a boy, carrying a bow. She was shocked by his beauty and knew immediately that he must be a God. The winged boy approached the window and then entered the room.

"Hello, Psyche." he said. "I am Cupid, God of love and desire. I have come to help you. My mother has heard your prayer."

"I never thought my problem would be worthy of a Gods help.. How will you help me?" she asked.

Cupid found himself struggling with his words in sight of this beauty. His intentions were to kill her, but suddenly he couldn't make himself. He knew his mother would be angry, but he now knew that he had to find another way to help Psyche.

By the next morning, Cupid and Psyche had already become great friends. They had talked all night long and Cupid now felt that he knew everything about her. He understood her hatred for her sister and felt that he had the perfect idea to end Psyche's suffering.

Suddenly, he went to the window, and began to fire arrows at the towns people. Arrows began to rain from the sky as every person was struck. At first Psyche was horrified, but then, she noticed that instead of dying; the towns people were love struck. They were suddenly filled with desire, but not for her, for her sister. Her sister was surrounded by everyone in the village and everyone was admitting their love for her. She ran from the streets into the castle.

"Cupid." Psyche whispered. "I'm free."

"Yes." he answered. "You're free to leave this place."

And with that, Cupid flew away back to his home. He never forgot Psyche, though, and visited her often. Their friendship became strong and eventually they were married. Venus, who originally wanted her dead, was still happy to welcome such a beauty into her family and Psyche was granted immortality, to live happily ever after with Cupid. Her sister remained in the castle for all of her life, with her husband and children, too afraid of the towns people to ever leave.

Cupid and Psyche

Author's Note: In the original story of Cupid and Psyche, Psyche is also a beautiful girl and she is doomed to a bad marriage from an oracle. She weds to a strange man who doesn't show his face (Cupid), and although she is happy with him, her sisters get jealous of her wealth and remind her that the oracle said she was doomed. So Psyche plans to kill Cupid, but as she shines a light on him she sees how beautiful he is and she realizes she loves him. While admiring him she accidentally burns him and he leaves her, angry that she betrayed him. The story ends by Psyche being put through difficult tasks by Venus, Cupids mother, who hates Psyche because of her beauty. In the end, Psyche passes all the tasks and is granted immortality with Cupid to be with him forever. In this story, I eliminated the oracle but instead made her feel like she was in her own prison and instead of her sisters being jealous of her, I made her jealous of her sister. This makes Psyche into somewhat of a villain because she wants to plot against her sister. I didn't want to change the love that Cupid and Psyche have because I really like that part of the story, but I wanted it to be an easier love, one where there isn't so much turmoil but instead happiness between the two from beginning to end. I decided to make the sister have a sad ending because it shows that Cupid would rather strike a whole town with arrows than kill Psyche, and it shows a more wicked side of Psyche that the original story did not. 

Original story: Cupid and Psyche by Apuleius