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Psyche is the divine goddess of the human soul. She was born the prettiest, loveliest, fairest, finest and most extremely beautiful mortal in the world to a unnamed Greek King and Queen and was loved by many, including Eros, the God of Romantic Love, who eventually became her husband. She was turned into an immortal goddess by Zeus according to Greek Mythology.

Genealogy and Family[]

Psyche was born into an unnamed Greek royal family, she had two older sisters named Aglaura and Cidippe. With her husband, Eros she had a daughter named Hedone.

Role and Significance[]

Myth[]

In the Tale of Eros and Psyche by Apuleius, Psyche was a supremely beautiful girl born to an unnamed Greek King and Queen. So beautiful in fact that people considered her the successor of the Goddess of Beauty, Aphrodite herself, even worshipping her in Aphrodite's place.

Noticing a lack of visitors to her temple, because of the new obsession with Psyche, an angry and jealous Aphrodite commanded her son, Eros, to make Psyche fall in love with the most hideous monster in revenge, and so Eros visited the princess' bedroom at night whilst she was sleeping and planned to complete his mother's command's but Psyche was accidentally saved from this harsh fate, as Eros' arrow missed Psyche and shot into him instead, causing him to fall in love with (the first person he saw after the arrow plunged into him) Psyche.Eros then removed the romantic love of all the human men towards Psyche, which left her without any suitors. This made Psyche's concerned parents visit the Oracle at Delphi to find out why unlike their two older daughters, nobody wanted to marry their youngest child, Psyche. And after a lengthy and tiring prayer, the couple were told that Psyche was destined to marry a monster and were instructed to leave their daughter at the edge of a mountain. But the soothsayer's words were not literal and the monster he referred to was actually Eros. However due to the Oracular Apollo's rivalry and strife with Eros, he referred to him as a monster to his Soothsayer at the Oracle.

After Psyche is left at the edge of a mountain by her parents who bided her farewell she is left alone, where she is lifted and sent to her new marital home by Zephyrus, the god of the west wind, where she reaches a beautiful palace with plenty of amenities and comfort. Her mysterious husband, Eros, the god of love, visits Psyche every night, whilst it is dark, so she is unable to see him and Eros warns Psyche that she can never look at him, lest she be shocked.

One day Psyche's older sisters visit her in her new estate, and they talk. Psyche tells the two that as her husband only visits her at the darkness of night, she has never seen his face. Her sisters then warn Psyche and advise her, after the couple go to bed, to hide a lamp under her bed so she could see her husband's identity whilst he was asleep. Psyche carries out this advice but the melted wax in her candle, accidentally drops and lands on an unconscious Eros, awakening him in pain from his sleep.

Angry and feeling betrayed by Psyche for revealing his identity, Eros leaves her. Psyche tries to catch up with him, but he escapes too far with his wings. She then decides to track down Eros the next day and hopefully reunite with him, realising how much she loves him. Along the way, she comes across Pan, the god of the wild and shepherds and honours him, and also visits temples of Hera and Demeter, rearranging sacrifices to them, in hopes they could help her, to find both goddesses tell her they cannot help her when another goddess (Aphrodite) is against her.

Psyche then reaches Aphrodite's temple, where she asks her for a chance to reunite with Eros, but Aphrodite, has her whipped by her servants, Worry and Sadness and mocks her for her pregnancy. Aphrodite determined to keep her son and Psyche separate, sets Psyche four very difficult-almost impossible tasks, that she has to pass to reunite with Eros. Including sorting out a huge pile of grains into different piles, where Eros commanded ants to help her organise this, collecting the wool of golden sheep, where she was advised by a river god to collect the sheep's leftover wool from the bushes instead of touching the aggressive flock and filling up a container of water from a dragon infested place, where Zeus sent his eagle to fill the container for her. Psyche passed the first three tasks thanks to the help of other gods, but in the last task, she fell to death from opening Persephone's box of beauty, hoping for just a small amount of the substance intended for Aphrodite, but she is found and saved by Eros, who revived her and forgave her, after the two reunite, Zeus allows them to get married in Mount Olympus, where Psyche becomes the Goddess of the Human Soul. A few months later, Psyche gives birth to their daughter, Hedone.

Appearance[]

Psyche is depicted as a supremely and immensely beautiful, lovely, youthful, stunning, elegant, alluring and exquisite and drop dead gorgeous woman, with very fair and flawless skin and long flowing, wavy golden blonde hair, when turned into a goddess she appears with Butterfly wings on her back.

Personality[]

Psyche is cautious, brave, empathetic, sincere, emotional and loyal. She regretted betraying Eros and burning him, feeling genuine remorse for her actions and during their time together in secret fell in love with him so much so that she risked her life to reunite with Eros and completed numerous tasks set by Aphrodite in the hopes she could see him again. During the one of the tasks, she also tried to commit suicide feeling unable to complete it and in a heartbroken state of possibly never seeing her love again, but some of the Gods such as Zeus and a river god, realised her genuine feelings and felt so sorry for her that they helped her through her hardships. She was euphoric when she finally got to unite with Eros and marry him for real.

Relationships[]

Parents- Psyche seemed to have a loving relationship with her parents and them vice versa especially. Both of them were concerned when she got no suitors and even went to the Oracle at Delphi, where they poured their hearts into their consultation with the soothsayer, to find the answer as to why nobody was interested in marrying Psyche after they were told that Psyche was to be married to a monster and to leave her at the edge of the mountain, the two followed their instructions, with Psyche accompanying them obediently, even though it was very bitter and harsh for the parents. The two before leaving their daughter to await her fate, gave her a heartfelt farewell and even grieved for their daughter's life after they left her on the mountain edge.

Sisters- Psyche's sisters by Greek Myths, seemed to treat Psyche with a lot of resentment and jealousy due to the widespread fame and admiration for her beauty. When both of the sisters had chosen their groom from their many suitors, they boasted to Psyche about their matches, as if to belittle her despite her glory for being the only daughter left without any suitors. The sisters were also very plotting and deceitful, towards Psyche who trusted them, and under the guise of kind and caring sisters, advised her to light up a lamp to see and discover her husband's true identity once and for all at night, even though Psyche's husband, Eros explicitly told her not to ever look at his face in the light or find out his identity beforehand, after Psyche saw his face by shining a lit lamp whilst he was sleeping, Eros feeling betrayed (as well as burnt from the hot wax that dropped from Psyche's candle) angrily flew away and left her. Psyche, the next day in a grieving state, met up with her big sisters and told them what had happened after she uncovered Eros' identity, in hopes of them comforting her but instead of sympathising with Psyche and helping her, they threw themselves off a mountain, offering themselves as brides to the god, Eros, expecting to be caught and saved by Zephyrus God of the West Wind, but when he didn't, the two fell down to a gruesome death.

Eros- Eros is Psyche's husband. Eros and Psyche are a very loving and loyal couple to one another and were not recorded to have any extramarital affairs according to the accounts

Aphrodite

Powers[]

Symbols[]

Psyche's symbol is the butterfly.

Names and Epithets[]

No epithets or titles for the goddess were recorded.

Trivia[]

Many cultures relate butterflies to the human soul. In ancient Greek the word for butterfly is "psyche" which means "soul"

Psyche's name is still used as a word for the human soul, mind or spirit and was also given to the modern word- Psychology, which refers to the scientific study of the human mind.

Gallery[]

Psyche has been depicted in art singularly but also alongside Eros in both paintings and sculptures:

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