Writing Notes: Cupid and Psyche (Part A)

Cupid and Psyche

  1. The Captive Woman: 
    • Preface to Captive Women:
      • The story is written from the perspective of an old woman who is the storyteller 
        • The old woman is part of a band of robbers
        • band of robbers had an ex-human donkey with them that is the hero of the story: Lucius 
        • is told for the purpose of comforting a kidnapped young girl
    • Tired donkey is eating in the middle of the night while robbers wake and leave to get goods 
      • come back with nothing other than a girl from a known family
    • robbers are holding the girl hostage and blame their proverty for this profession
      • girl wept while old woman tried to comfort
    • written in an easy tone but with many descriptive words
    • girl begins to fall asleep but wakes up in a panic, mentions she has no hope of rescue
      • illudes to wanting a sord to kill herself 
        • this made the old woman angry thinking she could cheat the robbers of their ransom
        • threatens her if she harms herself 
  1. Her Dream: 
    • Preface: 
      • the young women explains she was kidnapped on her wedding day 
      • she had a dream about the kidnapping before she was kidnapped 
        • made her more upset to begin with 
        • old woman begins the story of Cupid and psyche 
    • young women explains she was set to marry her childhood best friend 
      • she was kidnapped while their two families were gathered in ceremony 
    • had a dream that she was taken and her lover was hit over the head with a rock, dead
    • the old women says nightmares are more true than daydreams 
  2. Psyche's Beauty:
    • Begins a story
    • King and Queen had three daughters 
      • two were pretty, the third was of unmatchable beauty 
      • people spoke so highly of her beauty that the goddess Venus came to see 
      • people came from all over
    • People began to neglecting Venus but showering girl with praise 
    • questions why someone of her stature is being shadowed by "earthly pollution" 
      • questions if the girl has to die for people to favor Venus again
        • threatens she will regret ever making people forget her beauty 
    • Summons Cupid, her headstrong wrongdoing son 
      • told him to make her love the worst man on earth 
        • with no rank, money or health 
    • Venus then kissed Cupid goodbye, returned to the ocean was was welcomed back like the god she was 
      • mentions Neptune's wife, troops of Triton, Portunus 
  3. The Oracle of Apollo: 
    • Psyche- The third most beautiful sister
      • gazed on by all, but no one wished to marry her
    • sisters were engaged to royal suitors 
      • made Psyche ill with loneliness
    • Psyche's father talked to an oracle of Apollo asking for a man to marry his daughter
      • Apollo responded that any child of hers will be disastrous and she needs to be lead to her fatal marriage (killed?) 
        • said the gods are terrified 
    • King and Queen wept, soon got Psyche ready for her death
      • wore all red, the whole city was grieving 
    • Psyche said this should be a relief for you all, don't waste your life grieving, but think of all who loved my beauty 
      • fell silent and walked to her death, a cliff 
    • everyone left her to die on the cliff, the wind washed her down to her flowery deathbed 
  4. The Magical Place:
    • Psyche peacefully woke to a wooded grove
    • center of the grove was a magnificent god like house 
      • it began to lure her in, she approached and the house was unlocked
    • A voice spoke to her and told her that it is all her and she is free to enjoy
      • her servants are there too, but only voices no bodies were around 
      • invisible choir played
  5. The Mysterious Husband:
    • It was all great but Psyche went to bed frightened as she was scared of what she didn't know
      • she went to bed a virgin but was not one before the sun came up
    • word of her "death" got to her sisters and they went to comfort their parents who had aged 
    • her invisible husband told her that her sisters will be at the cliff top grieving
      • she is not allowed to look at them or her life is ruined 
    • she was upset about not being dead and not being able to see them
      • husband got mad at her for crying all night 
      • threatens her to remember if she messes up she's done 
    • She seduced him into bringing her sisters there 
      • if she doesn't mention his appearance
  6. The Jealousy of Psyche's Sisters:
    • The sisters came to the cliff and Psyche yelled to them, the wind then blew them down to her 
      • she welcomed them into her home 
    • they indulged but then began to question how everything was happening 
      • She lies to them about her husband's looks and hobbies
      • gave them jewels and sent them home with the wind 
        • made them jealous 
    • thinks they were exiled to foreign countries and are poor, but they are royal 
      • one husband is old and frail 
      • they will return to their husbands to plan Psyche's punishment 
  7. Psyche's Husband Warns Her: 
    • He warns her that danger is coming and that sisters are plotting 
      • tells her to not engage with her sisters, or they will bring danger
      • if she does not she will be able to have a divine child 
    • warns her again as her sisters are coming back 
    • however she seduces him again to allow her sisters to come down 
  8. Fears and Doubts: 
    • Sisters returned and jumped off the cliff
      • faked a sisterly embrace 
    • They asked psyche of her husband and she gave them a different description 
      • sent them on their way 
    • They picked up she was lying and needed to dig deeper
      • think she doesn't know what he looks like and is carrying a deity
    • They return in the morning and confront her 
      • Psyche broke her promise and spilled her guts 
      • asked to be saved 
      • Sisters told her to kill her husband in his sleep 
  9. Psyche's Husband Revealed: 
    • She went along with the plan to kill her husband only to find her husband was Cupid
      • he was handsome, and she fell in love with him as she further examined his beauty 
    • hot oil from the lamp woke him up and saw he had been betrayed, flew away
      • told her that he disobeyed his mother and shot himself with the arrow
        • he loves her
        • said he will take his revenge on her sisters 
  10. Psyche's Despair:
    • Psyche, when dropped from holding on the Cupid flying away landed on a river bank,
      • saw a Pan the god of the wild 
        • told her to pray to Cupid and worship him to earn his favour 
      • Psyche found her way to both her sisters villages, told a tale
        • tricked her sisters into thinking Cupid wanted them now
          • they jumped off a cliff and both died 

Apuleius. “Mythology and Folklore UN-Textbook.” Greek Myth: Apuleius's Cupid and Psyche, 
           mythfolklore.blogspot.com/search/label/Unit%3A%20Cupid%20and%20Psyche.


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