Apuleius's Cupid and Psyche
Since the entries are a continuous flow, I chose to take a small amount of notes on each, highlighting my favorite parts.
Lucius=Ass (funny narrator)
Crying girl (kidnapped for ransom by thieves)
Old woman (travels with/cares for thieves)
“Even to an ass like me, she seemed a girl to covet.” Did “ass” have a similar connotation during
this time period?
Mother crying
Lover murdered
“dreams that come in daytime are always said to prove untrue, and secondly a nightmare often signifies the opposite” This is a promising premise for a story.
Old woman attempts to "comfort" the kidnapped girl with a cautionary tale.
Old woman attempts to "comfort" the kidnapped girl with a cautionary tale.
3 sisters
Youngest (Psyche) is the fairest
Venus
herself or a new incarnation
Invokes Venus’ jealousy and rage
Sends
Cupid to cause her to love an unfortunate man
Venus’s throngs in the sea gather to watch
It’s lonely on the pedestal. Psyche’s perfection does not
encourage suitors
The king seeks out the Miletian oracle that issues a dark
prophecy
A fatal marriage
“Too late you see the blow that falls is dealt by wicked Envy.”
Resplendent palace fit for a god
Invisible servants (Beauty and the
Beast) and entertainment
he assented to her pleas and allowed her to see her sisters
“But he warned her… never to yield if her sisters gave her bad advice or urged her to investigate his appearance”
Zephyr and wafting
Enter jealousy
Accuse Psyche of aspiring to godliness
Keeps news of Psyche from parents and plot their revenge
Warnings of the sisters’ treachery
Child divine or child mortal
Sisters as Harpies, Sirens, Furies, she-wolves
From young man to middle-agedà
Psyche trips up on her husbands appearance
The sisters’ the oracle’s prophesy to lend credibility to
their contrived story
Beautiful description in this
passage. I also like the
anthropomorphism of the lamp.
In Cupid’s dialogue I see the
familiar theme of ignorant bliss.
Be a good little girl Psyche and do not question your husband.
Meet Pan-“caressing Echo the mountain goddess, teaching her to repeat tunes in a thousand modes.”
I love the image for this entry. The setting portrayed by the descriptive imagery also compliments all of my conceptions of Pan. He’s one of my favorites.
Psyche devises a clever plan to revenge herself upon her sisters using their own jealousies against them. They vainly fling themselves from the cliff thinking Zephyr will bring them to Cupid but instead fall to their deaths.
Story source: Apuleius's Golden Ass, as translated into English by Tony Kline (2013).