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Cupid and Psyche is a story originally fromMetamorphoses (also calledThe Golden Ass), written in the 2nd century AD by LuciusApuleius Madaurensis (or Platonicus).[2] The tale concerns the overcoming of obstacles to thelove betweenPsyche (/ˈsaɪkiː/;Ancient Greek:Ψυχή,lit. 'Soul' or 'Breath of Life',Ancient Greek pronunciation:[psyːkʰɛ̌ː]) andCupid (Latin:Cupido,lit. 'Desire',Latin pronunciation:[kʊˈpiːd̪oː]) orAmor (lit. 'Love', GreekEros,Ἔρως), and their ultimate union in asacred marriage. Although the only extended narrative fromantiquity is that of Apuleius from the 2nd century AD, Eros and Psyche appear inGreek art as early as the 4th century BC. The story'sNeoplatonic elements and allusions tomystery religions accommodate multiple interpretations,[3] and it has been analyzed as anallegory and in light offolktale,Märchen orfairy tale, andmyth.[4]
The story of Cupid and Psyche was known toBoccaccio in c. 1370. Thefirst printed version dates to 1469. Ever since, thereception ofCupid and Psyche in theclassical tradition has been extensive. The story has been retold in poetry, drama, and opera, and depicted widely in painting, sculpture, and even wallpaper.[5]
The tale of Cupid and Psyche (or "Eros and Psyche") is placed at the midpoint of Apuleius's novel, and occupies about a fifth of its total length.[6] The novel itself is afirst-person narrative by theprotagonist Lucius. Transformed into a donkey bymagic gone wrong, Lucius undergoes various trials and adventures, and finally regains human form by eating roses sacred toIsis. Psyche's story has some similarities, including the theme of dangerous curiosity, punishments and tests, and redemption through divine favor.[7]
As a structural mirror of the overarching plot, the tale is an example ofmise en abyme. It occurs within a complex narrative frame, with Lucius recounting the tale as it in turn was told by an old woman to Charite, a bride kidnapped by pirates on her wedding day and held captive in a cave.[6] The happy ending for Psyche is supposed to assuage Charite's fear of rape, in one of several instances of Apuleius'sirony.[8][9]
Although the tale resists explication as a strictallegory of a particular Platonic argument, Apuleius drew generally on imagery such as the laborious ascent of the winged soul (Phaedrus 248) and the union with the divine achieved by Soul through the agency of thedaemon Love (Symposium 212b).[10]
There were once a king and queen,[11] rulers of an unnamed city, who had three daughters of conspicuous beauty. The youngest and most beautiful was Psyche, whose admirers, neglecting the proper worship of Aphrodite (love goddessVenus), instead prayed and made offerings to her. It was rumored that she was the second coming of Venus, or the daughter of Venus from an unseemly union between the goddess and a mortal. Venus is offended, and commissions Cupid to work her revenge. Cupid is sent to shoot Psyche with an arrow so that she may fall in love with something hideous. He instead scratches himself with his own dart, which makes any living thing fall in love with the first thing it sees. Consequently, he falls deeply in love with Psyche and disobeys his mother's order.
Although her two humanly beautiful sisters have married, the idolized Psyche has yet to find love. Her father suspects that they have incurred the wrath of the gods, and consults theoracle ofApollo. The response is unsettling: the king is to expect not a human son-in-law, but rather a dragon-like creature who harasses the world with fire and iron and is feared by evenJupiter and the inhabitants of the underworld.
Psyche is arrayed in funeral attire, conveyed by a procession to the peak of a rocky crag, and exposed. Marriage and death are merged into a single rite of passage, a "transition to the unknown".[12]Zephyrus the West Wind bears her up to meet her fated match, and deposits her in a lovely meadow(locus amoenus), where she promptly falls asleep.
The transported girl awakes to find herself at the edge of a cultivated grove(lucus). Exploring, she finds a marvelous house with golden columns, a carved ceiling ofcitrus wood and ivory, silver walls embossed with wild and domesticated animals, and jeweled mosaic floors. A disembodied voice tells her to make herself comfortable, and she is entertained at a feast that serves itself and by singing to an invisible lyre.
Although fearful and without the proper experience, she allows herself to be guided to a bedroom where, in the darkness, a being she cannot see has sex with her. She gradually learns to look forward to his visits, though he always departs before sunrise and forbids her to look upon him. Soon, she becomes pregnant.
Psyche's family longs for news of her, and after much cajoling, Cupid, still unknown to his bride, permits Zephyr to carry her sisters up for a visit. When they see the splendor in which Psyche lives, they become envious, and undermine her happiness by prodding her to uncover her husband's true identity, since surely as foretold by the oracle she was lying with the vile winged serpent, who would devour her and her child.
One night after Cupid falls asleep, Psyche carries out the plan her sisters devised: she brings out a dagger and a lamp she had hidden in the room, in order to see and kill the monster. But when the light instead reveals the most beautiful creature she has ever seen, she is so startled that she wounds herself on one of the arrows in Cupid's cast-aside quiver. Struck with a feverish passion, she spills hot oil from the lamp and wakes him. He flees, and though she tries to pursue, he flies away and leaves her on the bank of a river.
There she is discovered by the wilderness godPan, who recognizes the signs of passion upon her. She acknowledges his divinity (numen), then begins to wander the earth looking for her lost love.
Psyche visits first one sister, then the other; both are seized with renewed envy upon learning the identity of Psyche's secret husband. Each sister attempts to offer herself as a replacement by climbing the rocky crag and casting herself upon Zephyr for conveyance, but instead is allowed to fall to a brutal death.
In the course of her wanderings, Psyche comes upon a temple ofCeres, and inside finds a disorder of grain offerings, garlands, and agricultural implements. Recognizing that the proper cultivation of the gods should not be neglected, she puts everything in good order, prompting atheophany of Ceres herself. Although Psyche prays for her aid, and Ceres acknowledges that she deserves it, the goddess is prohibited from helping her against a fellow goddess. A similar incident occurs at a temple ofJuno. Psyche realizes that she must serve Venus herself.
Venus revels in having the girl under her power, and turns Psyche over to her two handmaids, Worry and Sadness, to be whipped and tortured. Venus tears her clothes and bashes her head into the ground, and mocks her for conceiving a child in a sham marriage. The goddess then throws before her a great mass of mixed wheat, barley, poppyseed, chickpeas, lentils, and beans, demanding that she sort them into separate heaps by dawn. But when Venus withdraws to attend a wedding feast, a kind ant takes pity on Psyche, and assembles a fleet of insects to accomplish the task. Venus is furious when she returns drunk from the feast, and only tosses Psyche a crust of bread. At this point in the story, it is revealed that Cupid is also in the house of Venus, languishing from his injury.
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At dawn, Venus sets a second task for Psyche. She is to cross a river and fetch golden wool from violent sheep who graze on the other side. These sheep are elsewhere identified as belonging toHelios.[14] Psyche's only intention is to drown herself on the way, but instead she is saved by instructions from a divinely inspired reed, of the type used to make musical instruments, and gathers the wool caught onbriers.
For Psyche's third task, she is given a crystal vessel in which to collect the black water spewed by the source of the riversStyx andCocytus. Climbing the cliff from which it issues, she is daunted by the foreboding air of the place and dragons slithering through the rocks, and falls into despair. Jupiter himself takes pity on her, and sends his eagle to battle the dragons and retrieve the water for her.
The last trial Venus imposes on Psyche is aquest to the underworld itself. She is to take a box(pyxis) and obtain in it a dose of the beauty ofProserpina, queen of the underworld. Venus claims her own beauty has faded through tending her ailing son, and she needs this remedy in order to attend the theatre of the gods(theatrum deorum).
Once again despairing of her task, Psyche climbs a tower, planning to throw herself off. The tower, however, suddenly breaks into speech, and advises her to travel toLacedaemon, Greece, and to seek out the place calledTaenarus, where she will find the entrance to the underworld. The tower offersinstructions for navigating the underworld:
The airway ofDis is there, and through the yawning gates the pathless route is revealed. Once you cross the threshold, you are committed to the unswerving course that takes you to the veryRegia ofOrcus. But you shouldn't go emptyhanded through the shadows past this point, but rather carry cakes of honeyed barley in both hands,[15] and transporttwo coins in your mouth.
The speaking tower warns her to maintain silence as she passes by several ominous figures: a lame man driving a mule loaded with sticks, a dead man swimming in the river that separates the world of the living from the world of the dead, and old women weaving. These, the tower warns, will seek to divert her by pleading for her help: she must ignore them. The cakes are treats for distractingCerberus, the three-headed watchdog ofOrcus, and the twocoins for Charon the ferryman, so she can make a return trip.
Everything comes to pass according to plan, and Proserpina grants Psyche's humble entreaty. As soon as she reenters the light of day, however, Psyche is overcome by a bold curiosity, and can't resist opening the box in the hope of enhancing her own beauty. She finds nothing inside but an "infernal and Stygian sleep", which sends her into a deep and unmoving torpor.
Meanwhile, Cupid's wound has healed into a scar, and he escapes his mother's house by flying out of a window. When he finds Psyche, he draws the sleep from her face and replaces it in the box, then pricks her with an arrow that does no harm. He lifts her into the air, and takes her to present the box to Venus.
He then takes his case toZeus, who gives his consent in return for Cupid's future help whenever a choice maiden catches his eye. Zeus hasHermes convene an assembly of the gods in the theater of heaven, where he makes a public statement of approval, warns Venus to back off, and gives Psycheambrosia, the drink of immortality,[16] so the couple can be united in marriage as equals. Their union, he says, will redeem Cupid from his history of provoking adultery and sordid liaisons.[17] Zeus's word is solemnized with a wedding banquet.
With its happy marriage and resolution of conflicts, the tale ends in the manner of classiccomedy[18] orGreek romances such asDaphnis and Chloe.[19] The child born to the couple will beVoluptas (GreekHedone‘Ηδονή), "Pleasure".
The assembly of the gods has been a popular subject for both visual and performing arts, with the wedding banquet of Cupid and Psyche a particularly rich occasion. With the wedding ofPeleus andThetis, this is the most common setting for a "Feast of the Gods" scene in art. Apuleius describes the scene in terms of a festive Roman dinner party(cena). Cupid, now a husband, reclines in the place of honor (the"top" couch) and embraces Psyche in his lap. Zeus andHera situate themselves likewise, and all the other gods are arranged in order. The cupbearer of Jove (Zeus's other Roman name) serves him with nectar, the "wine of the gods"; Apuleius refers to the cupbearer only asille rusticus puer, "that country boy", and not asGanymede.Liber, the Roman god of wine, serves the rest of the company.Vulcan, the god of fire, cooks the food; theHorae ("Seasons" or "Hours") adorn, or more literally "empurple", everything with roses and other flowers; theGraces suffuse the setting with the scent ofbalsam, and theMuses with melodic singing. Apollo sings to hislyre, and Venus takes the starring role in dancing at the wedding, with the Muses as her chorus girls, asatyr blowing theaulos(tibia in Latin), and a youngPan expressing himself through thepan pipes(fistula).
The wedding providesclosure for the narrative structure as well as for the love story: the mysteriously provided pleasures Psyche enjoyed in thedomus of Cupid at the beginning of her odyssey, when she entered into a false marriage preceded by funeral rites, are reimagined in the hall of the gods following correct ritual procedure for a real marriage.[20] The arranging of the gods in their proper order(in ordinem) would evoke for the Roman audience the religious ceremony of thelectisternium, a public banquet held for the major deities in the form of statues arranged on luxurious couches, as if they were present and participating in the meal.[21]
The wedding banquet was a favored theme for Renaissance art. As early as 1497,Giovanni Sabadino degli Arienti made the banquet central to his description of a now-lost Cupid and Psyche cycle at theVilla Belriguardo, nearFerrara. At theVilla Farnesina in Rome, it is one of two main scenes for the Loggia di Psiche (ca. 1518) byRaphael and his workshop, as well as for the Stanza di Psiche (1545–46) byPerino del Vaga at theCastel Sant' Angelo.[21]Hendrick Goltzius introduced the subject to northern Europe with his "enormous"engraving calledThe Wedding of Cupid and Psyche (1587, 43 by 85.4 cm),[22] which influenced how other northern artists depicted assemblies of the gods in general.[23] The engraving in turn had been taken fromBartholomaeus Spranger's 1585 drawing of the same title, considered a "locus classicus ofDutch Mannerism" and discussed byKarel Van Mander for its exemplary composition involving numerous figures.[24]
In the 18th century,François Boucher'sMarriage of Cupid and Psyche (1744) affirmedEnlightenment ideals with the authority figure Jupiter presiding over a marriage of lovely equals. The painting reflects theRococo taste for pastels, fluid delicacy, and amorous scenarios infused with youth and beauty.[25]
The story of Cupid and Psyche was readily allegorized. Inlate antiquity,Martianus Capella (5th century) refashions it as an allegory about the fall of the human soul.[27] For Apuleius, immortality is granted to the soul of Psyche as a reward for commitment to sexual love. In the version of Martianus, sexual love draws Psyche into the material world that is subject to death:[28] "Cupid takes Psyche from Virtue and shackles her inadamantine chains".[29]
The tale thus lent itself to adaptation in a Christian ormystical context, often as symbolic of the soul.[30] In theGnostic textOn the Origin of the World, the first rose is created from the blood of Psyche when she loses her virginity to Cupid.[31] To the Christian mythographerFulgentius (6th century), Psyche was anAdam figure, driven by sinful curiosity and lust from the paradise of Love's domain.[32] Psyche's sisters are Flesh and Free Will, and her parents are God and Matter.[33] ToBoccaccio (14th century), the marriage of Cupid and Psyche symbolized the union of soul and God.[32]
The allure to interpret the story as a religious or philosophical allegory can still be found in modern scholarship. Psyche by her very name represents the aspirations of the human soul—towards a divine love personified in Cupid. This simplistic interpretation overlooks the original characterisation of Cupid as a corrupter who delights in disrupting marriages (The Golden Ass IV. 30) and was "notorious for his adulteries" (VI. 23), as well as the descriptions of his sensual unions with Psyche (V. 13), the aid Jupiter offers to Cupid in return for a new girl that Jupiter may seduce (VI. 22), and the name given to Cupid and Psyche's child (Voluptas/Pleasure). However, when he admits that "I [Cupid], the famed archer, wounded myself with my own weapon, and made you [Psyche] my wife" (V. 24), having cut himself onhis own magic arrow (which induces passionate love for the first person the victim lays eyes on), the temptation for an allegorical interpretation of the story becomes somewhat complexified but not inherently contradictory or unsubstantiated. The arrows of desire make it so that the victim cannot be satisfied with anyone except the sole target of their newfound affections; thus, Cupid's former predilections no longer occupy the same prominence they once held in his character, so that he changes from a wanton homewrecker to a devoted husband by the end of the narrative.
Apuleius's novel was among the ancient texts that made the crucial transition fromroll tocodex form when it was edited at the end of the 4th century. It was known to Latin writers such asAugustine of Hippo,Macrobius,Sidonius Apollinaris, Martianus Capella, and Fulgentius, but toward the end of the 6th century lapsed into obscurity and survived what was formerly known as the "Dark Ages" through perhaps a singlemanuscript.[34] TheMetamorphoses remained unknown in the 13th century,[35] but copies began to circulate in the mid-1300s among theearly humanists ofFlorence.[36] Boccaccio's text and interpretation ofCupid and Psyche in hisGenealogia deorum gentilium (written in the 1370s and published 1472) was a major impetus to the reception of the tale in theItalian Renaissance and to its dissemination throughout Europe.[37]
One of the most popular images from the tale was Psyche's discovery of a naked Cupid sleeping, found in ceramics,stained glass, and frescos.Mannerist painters were intensely drawn to the scene.[38] In England, the Cupid and Psyche theme had its "most lustrous period" from 1566 to 1635, beginning with the first English translation byWilliam Adlington. A fresco cycle forHill Hall, Essex, was modeled indirectly after that of the Villa Farnesina around 1570,[39] andThomas Heywood'smasqueLove's Mistress dramatized the tale to celebrate the wedding ofCharles I andHenrietta Maria, who later had herwithdrawing chamber decorated with a 22-paintingCupid and Psyche cycle byJacob Jordaens. The cycle took the divinization of Psyche as the centerpiece of the ceiling, and was a vehicle for the Neoplatonism the queen brought with her from France.[40] TheCupid and Psyche produced byOrazio Gentileschi for the royal couple shows a fully robed Psyche whose compelling interest is psychological, while Cupid is mostly nude.[41]
Another peak of interest inCupid and Psyche occurred in the Paris of the late 1790s and early 1800s, reflected in a proliferation of opera, ballet,Salon art, deluxe book editions, interior decoration such as clocks and wall paneling, and even hairstyles. In the aftermath of theFrench Revolution, the myth became a vehicle for the refashioning of the self.[42] In English intellectual and artistic circles around the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, the fashion forCupid and Psyche accompanied a fascination for the ancientmystery religions. In writing about thePortland Vase, which was obtained by theBritish Museum around 1810,Erasmus Darwin speculated that the myth of Cupid and Psyche was part of theEleusinian cycle. With his interest innatural philosophy, Darwin saw the butterfly as an apt emblem of the soul because it began as an earthbound caterpillar, "died" into thepupal stage, and was then resurrected as a beautiful winged creature.[43]
In 1491, the poet Niccolò da Correggio retold the story with Cupid as the narrator.[44]John Milton alludes to the story at the conclusion ofComus (1634), attributing not one but two children to the couple: Youth and Joy.Shackerley Marmion wrote a verse version calledCupid and Psyche (1637), andLa Fontaine adapted the story into a mixed prose and verse romance namedLes Amours de Psiché et de Cupidon (The Loves of Cupid and Psyche; 1669).[44]
William Blake's mythology draws on elements of the tale particularly in the figures ofLuvah andVala. Luvah takes on the various guises of Apuleius's Cupid: beautiful and winged; disembodied voice; and serpent.Blake, who mentions his admiration for Apuleius in his notes, combines the myth with the spiritual quest expressed through the eroticism of theSong of Solomon, withSolomon and theShulamite as a parallel couple.[45]
Mary Tighe published her poemPsyche in 1805. She added some details to the story, such as placing two springs in Venus' garden, one with sweet water and one with bitter. When Cupid starts to obey his mother's command, he brings some of both to a sleeping Psyche, but places only the bitter water on Psyche's lips. Tighe's Venus only asks one task of Psyche, to bring her the forbidden water, but in performing this task Psyche wanders into a country bordering onSpenser'sFairie Queene as Psyche is aided by a mysterious visored knight and his squire Constance, and must escape various traps set by Vanity, Flattery, Ambition, Credulity, Disfida (who lives in a "Gothic castle"), Varia and Geloso. Spenser'sBlatant Beast also makes an appearance. Tighe's work influenced English lyric poetry on the theme, such as theOde to Psyche (1820) byJohn Keats.[48][citation needed]Letitia Elizabeth Landon's poemCupid and Psyche (1826) illustrates an engraving of a painting by W. E. West.
William Morris retold the Cupid and Psyche story in verse inThe Earthly Paradise (1868–70), and a chapter inWalter Pater'sMarius the Epicurean (1885) was a prose translation.[44] About the same time,Robert Bridges wroteEros and Psyche: A Narrative Poem in Twelve Measures (1885; 1894).
Sylvia Townsend Warner transferred the story toVictorian England in her novelThe True Heart (1929), though few readers made the connection till she pointed it out herself.[49] Other literary adaptations includeThe Robber Bridegroom (1942), a novella byEudora Welty;Till We Have Faces (1956), a version byC. S. Lewis narrated by a sister of Psyche; and the poem "Psyche: 'Love drove her to Hell'" byH.D. (Hilda Doolittle).[50]Robert A. Johnson made use of the story in his bookShe: Understanding Feminine Psychology, published in 1976 byHarperCollinsPublishers.
William Adlington made the first translation into English of Apuleius'sMetamorphoses in 1566, under the titleThe XI Bookes of the Golden Asse, Conteininge the Metamorphosie of Lucius Apuleius. Adlington seems not to have been interested in a Neoplatonic reading, but his translation consistently suppresses the sensuality of the original.[38]Thomas Taylor published an influential translation ofCupid and Psyche in 1795, several years before his completeMetamorphoses.[51] A translation byRobert Graves appeared in 1951 asThe Transformations of Lucius Otherwise Known as THE GOLDEN ASS, A New Translation by Robert Graves from Apuleius, published byFarrar, Straus & Giroux, New York.
Folklore scholarship has also occupied itself with the possible origin of the narrative.[52][53] Swedish folkloristJan-Öjvind Swahn [sv], who authored a long study on the story, German philologistLudwig Friedländer and Russian folkloristVladimir Propp defended the idea that it originated from a legitimate folklore source.[54][55][56]
Some scholars tend to look for a single source:Stith Thompson suggested an Italian origin,[57] while Lesky, Gédeon Huet[58] andGeorgios A. Megas [el] indicated a Greek origin.[59] FrenchÉmile Dermenghem [fr] favoured a North African source,[60] followed by French researchers Nedjima and Emmanuel Plantade, who all argue that the tale is a reworking ofBerber folklore, since Apuleius was born and lived inMadauros,Numidia, located in what is modern day Algeria.[61][62]
Another line of scholars argue for some myth that underlines the Apuleian narrative. German classicistRichard August Reitzenstein supposed on an "Iranian sacral myth", brought to Greece via Egypt.[63][64] Graham Anderson argues for a reworking of mythic material from Asia Minor (namely,Hittite: theMyth of Telipinu).[65] In a study published posthumously, Romanian folkloristPetru Caraman [ro] also argued for a folkloric origin, but was of the notion that Apuleius superimposed Graeco-Roman mythology on a pre-Christian myth about a serpentine or draconic husband, or a "King of Snakes" that becomes human at night.[66]
On the other extreme, German classicistDetlev Fehling [de] took a hard and skeptical approach and considered the tale to be a literary invention of Apuleius himself.[67]
Friedländer also listed several European tales of marriage between a human maiden and prince cursed to be an animal, as related to the "Cupid and Psyche" cycle of stories (which later became known as "The Search for the Lost Husband" and "Animal as Bridegroom").[68][69]
Bruno Bettelheim notes inThe Uses of Enchantment that the 18th-century fairy taleBeauty and the Beast is a version ofCupid and Psyche. Motifs from Apuleius occur in several fairy tales, includingCinderella andRumpelstiltskin, in versions collected by folklorists trained in the classical tradition, such asCharles Perrault and theGrimm brothers.[70] In the Grimm version, Cinderella is given the task of sorting lentils and peas from ash, and is aided by birds just as ants help Psyche in the sorting of grain and legumes imposed on her by Venus. Like Cinderella, Psyche has two envious sisters who compete with her for the most desirable male. Cinderella's sisters mutilate their own feet to emulate her, while Psyche's are dashed to death on a rocky cliff.[71] InHans Christian Andersen'sThe Little Mermaid, the Little Mermaid is given a dagger by her sisters, who, in an attempt to end all the suffering she endured and to let her become a mermaid again, attempt to persuade her to use it to slay the Prince while he is asleep with his new bride. She cannot bring herself to kill the Prince, however. Unlike Psyche, who becomes immortal, she doesn't receive his love in return, but she, nevertheless, ultimately earns the eternal soul she yearns for.
Thomas Bulfinch wrote a shorter adaptation of the Cupid and Psyche tale for hisAge of Fable, borrowing Tighe's invention of Cupid's self-wounding, which did not appear in the original.Josephine Preston Peabody wrote a version for children in herOld Greek Folk Stories Told Anew (1897).
C. S. Lewis'Till We Have Faces is a retelling of Apuleius'Cupid and Psyche from the perspective of one of Psyche's sisters.Till We Have Faces is C. S. Lewis' last work of fiction and elaborates on Apuleius' story in a modern way.
In 1634,Thomas Heywood turned the tale of Cupid and Psyche into amasque for the court ofCharles I.[72]Lully'sPsyché (1678) is a BaroqueFrench opera (a "tragédie lyrique") based onthe 1671 play byMolière, which had musicalintermèdes by Lully.Matthew Locke'ssemi-operaPsyche (1675) is a loose reworking from the 1671 production. In 1800,Ludwig Abeille premièred his four-act German opera(singspiel)Amor und Psyche, with alibretto byFranz Carl Hiemer [fr] based on Apuleius.
In the 19th century,Cupid and Psyche was a source for "transformations", visual interludes involvingtableaux vivants,transparencies andstage machinery that were presented between the scenes of apantomime but extraneous to the plot.[73] During the 1890s, whentableaux vivants or "living pictures" were in vogue as a part ofvaudeville, the 1889Psyché et l'Amour ofBouguereau was among the artworks staged. To create thesetableaux, costumed performers "froze" in poses before a background copied meticulously from the original and enlarged within a giant picture frame. Nudity was feigned by flesh-coloredbodystockings that negotiated standards of realism, good taste, and morality.[74] Claims of educational and artistic value allowed female nudes—a popular attraction—to evade censorship.[75]Psyché et l'Amour was reproduced by thescenic painter Edouard von Kilanyi, who made a tour of Europe and the United States beginning in 1892,[76] and by George Gordon in an Australian production that began its run in December 1894.[77] The illusion of flight was so difficult to sustain that thistableau was necessarily brief.[75] The performer billed as "The Modern Milo" during this period specialized in recreating female sculptures, aPsyche in addition to her namesakeVenus de Milo.[78]
Frederick Ashton choreographed aballetCupid and Psyche with music byLord Berners and decor by Sir Francis Rose, first performed on 27 April 1939 by theSadler's Wells Ballet (nowRoyal Ballet). Frank Staff danced as Cupid,Julia Farron as Psyche,Michael Somes as Pan, andJune Brae as Venus.[79]
Cupid and Psyche continues to be a source of inspiration for modern playwrights and composers. Notable adaptations include:
Viewed in terms of psychology rather than allegory, the tale of Cupid and Psyche shows how "a mutable person … matures within thesocial constructs of family and marriage".[98] In theJungian allegory ofErich Neumann (1956), the story of Psyche was interpreted as "the psychic development of the feminine".[99][100]
Cupid and Psyche has been analyzed from afeminist perspective as a paradigm of how the gender unity of women is disintegrated through rivalry and envy, replacing the bonds of sisterhood with an ideal of heterosexual love.[101] This theme was explored inPsyche's Sisters: Reimagining the Meaning of Sisterhood (1988) byChristine Downing,[102] who usesmyth as a medium for psychology.
James Hillman made the story the basis for his critique of scientific psychology,The Myth of Analysis: Three Essays in Archetypal Psychology (1983).Carol Gilligan uses the story as the basis for much of her analysis of love and relationships inThe Birth of Pleasure (Knopf, 2002).
The story of Cupid and Psyche is depicted in a wide range of visual media. Psyche is often represented with butterfly wings, and the butterfly is her frequent attribute and a symbol of the soul, though the literaryCupid and Psyche never says that she has or acquires wings. Inantiquity, an iconographical tradition existed independently of Apuleius's tale and influenced later depictions.[103]
Some extant examples suggest that in antiquity Cupid and Psyche could have a religious or mystical meaning.Rings bearing their likeness, several of which come fromRoman Britain, may have served anamuletic purpose.[108]Engraved gems from Britain represent spiritual torment with the image of Cupid torching a butterfly.[109] The two are also depicted in high relief in mass-produced Roman domestic plaster wares from the 1st to 2nd centuries AD found in excavations at Greco-Bactrian merchant settlements on the ancient Silk Road at Begram in Afghanistan[110] (see gallery below). The allegorical pairing depicts perfection of human love in integrated embrace of body and soul ('psyche' Greek for butterfly symbol for transcendent immortal life after death). Onsarcophagi, the couple often seem to represent an allegory of love overcoming death.[6]
A relief of Cupid and Psyche was displayed at themithraeum ofCapua, but it is unclear whether it expresses aMithraic quest for salvation, or was simply a subject that appealed to an individual for other reasons. Psyche is invoked with "Providence"(Pronoia) at the beginning of the so-calledMithras Liturgy.[111]
Inlate antiquity, the couple are often shown in a "chin-chuck" embrace, a gesture of "erotic communion" with a long history.[112] The rediscovery of freestanding sculptures of the couple influenced several significant works of the modern era.
Other depictions surviving from antiquity include a 2nd-centurypapyrus illustration possibly of the tale,[113] and a ceilingfresco atTrier executed during the reign ofConstantine I.[6]
Works of art proliferated after the rediscovery of Apuleius's text, in conjunction with the influence of classical sculpture. In the mid-15th century, Cupid and Psyche became a popular subject for Italian wedding chests(cassoni),[114] particularly those of theMedici. The choice was most likely prompted by Boccaccio's Christianized allegory. The earliest of thesecassoni, dated variously to the years 1444–1470,[115] pictures the narrative in two parts: from Psyche's conception to her abandonment by Cupid; and her wanderings and the happy ending.[116] With the wedding ofPeleus andThetis, the subject was the most common choice for specifying paintings of theFeast of the Gods, which were popular from the Renaissance toNorthern Mannerism.[117]
Cupid and Psyche is a rich source for scenarios, and several artists have produced cycles of works based on it, including the frescoes at theVilla Farnesina (ca. 1518) byRaphael and his workshop; frescoes atPalazzo del Tè (1527–28) byGiulio Romano;engravings by the "Master of the Die" (mid-16th century); and paintings by thePre-RaphaeliteEdward Burne-Jones (in the 1870s–90s).[114] Burne-Jones also executed a series of 47 drawings intended as illustrations for Morris's poem.[118]Cupid and Psyche was the subject of the only cycle ofprints created by the GermanSymbolistMax Klinger (1857–1920) to illustrate a specific story.[119]
The special interest in the wedding as a subject in Northern Mannerism seems to spring from a largeengraving of 1587 byHendrik Goltzius inHaarlem of a drawing byBartholomeus Spranger (nowRijksmuseum) thatKarel van Mander had brought back fromPrague, where Spranger was court painter toRudolf II.The Feast of the Gods at the Marriage of Cupid and Psyche was so large, at 16 7/8 x 33 5/8 in. (43 x 85.4 cm), that it was printed from three different plates. Over 80 figures are shown, placed up in the clouds over aworld landscape that can be glimpsed below. The composition borrows from both Raphael and Giulio Romano's versions.[120]
The most popular subjects for single paintings or sculpture are the couple alone, or explorations of the figure of Psyche, who is sometimes depicted in compositions that recall the sleepingAriadne as she was found by Dionysus.[121] The use ofnudity or sexuality in portraying Cupid and Psyche sometimes has offended contemporary sensibilities. In the 1840s, theNational Academy of Art bannedWilliam Page'sCupid and Psyche, called perhaps "the most erotic painting in nineteenth-century America".[122] Classical subject matter might be presented in terms of realistic nudity: in 1867, the female figure in theCupid and Psyche ofAlphonse Legros was criticized as a "commonplace naked young woman".[123] But during the same period, Cupid and Psyche were also portrayed chastely, as in thepastoral sculpturesPsyche (1845) by Townsend andCupid and Psyche (1846) byThomas Uwins, which were purchased byQueen Victoria and herconsort Albert, otherwise keen collectors of nudes in the 1840s and 50s.[124]
Portrayals of Psyche alone are often not confined to illustrating a scene from Apuleius, but may draw on the broader Platonic tradition in which Love was a force that shaped the self. ThePsyche Abandoned ofJacques-Louis David, probably based on La Fontaine's version of the tale, depicts the moment when Psyche, having violated the taboo of looking upon her lover, is abandoned alone on a rock, her nakedness expressing dispossession and the color palette a psychological "divestment". The work has been seen as an "emotional proxy" for the artist's own isolation and desperation during his imprisonment, which resulted from his participation in theFrench Revolution and association withRobespierre.[125]
Source:[126]
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{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)The tale [of Cupid and Psyche] has most of the elements of the present-day folk story (...) we have here what certainly appears to be a real tale of the Italian countryside during the reign ofMarcus Aurelius
Nous possêdons encore, dans l'histoire de Psyche, inserée par Apulee dans son roman desMetamorphoses, un vrai conte populaire de l'antiquité ...
Folkloristic analysis:
"Cupid and Psyche". A poem byLetitia Elizabeth Landon fromThe Literary Souvenir, 1827.| International | |
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