Reading Diary A: Apuleius's Cupid and Psyche

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.

(Cupid and Psyche, photo by M. Simoncini)

The Captive Woman

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?

Her Dream

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.

Psyche's Beauty

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

The Oracle of Apollo

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.”

The Magical Palace

Resplendent palace fit for a god

Invisible servants (Beauty and the Beast) and entertainment

The Mysterious Husband

The Prohibition: “don’t answer or even look in their direction, or you’ll cause me the bitterest pain and bring utter ruin on yourself.”

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”

The Jealousy of Psyche's Sisters

Zephyr and wafting

Enter jealousy

Accuse Psyche of aspiring to godliness

Keeps news of Psyche from parents and plot their revenge

Psyche's Husband Warns Her

Warnings of the sisters’ treachery

Child divine or child mortal

Sisters as Harpies, Sirens, Furies, she-wolves

Fears and Doubts

“If it takes after its father as it ought, it will be a perfect little Cupid.” foreshadowing here?

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

Psyche's Husband Revealed

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.

Psyche's Despair

(Pan and Psyche, by Edward Burne-Jones)

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).