hot oil, violent sheep, and sentient rivers 💦
the myth of Psyche and Eros, retold by Ellie Ireland
***** we are BACK with another guest post !!!! this one is courtesy of my dear friend Ellie who I met on a fabulous retreat in Nafplio, Greece, where we learnt about all things Greek tragedy with the one + only Edith Hall (!!) pls enjoy her mythological musings and check out her OWN substack (click where her name is there in blue) *****
***** here we are SWELTERING in the tomb of Agamemnon / gossiping about Clytemnestra 💦 over to you Ellie *****
TLDR: Greek mythology is absolutely bonkers but Psyche and Eros take it to another level.
Heyy guys,
here; this is Psyche and Eros as told by one-quarter of a Classics MA student (I did three months and then decided to save up and go travelling around Europe instead, and yes, my parents are so proud), so I know some things but certainly not all of them. Maybe like a quarter of the things.Something I did manage to see through until the end was my bachelor’s dissertation, which did in fact focus on *drumroll please* Psyche and Eros.
I love bamboozling people with this myth, it’s absolutely unhinged even by Greek mythology’s standards and includes being kidnapped by a gust of wind (it’s giving Wizard of Oz), violent sheep and talking rivers.
THE CONTEXT
The myth comes from Metamorphoses, NOT to be confused with Ovid’s version, but it’s okay because this version, written by Apuleius, has a second and more common name, ‘The Golden Ass’ which you’re probably more likely to remember. It’s from the 2nd century AD, but Psyche and Eros were around wayy before that, appearing regularly in Greek art from the 4th century BC.
Apuleius’ work is the first time we see the myth written down. It’s used in the context of mise en abyme, which is the technique of placing a copy of an image within itself, as in, Psyche and Eros’ tale reflects that of the protagonist of the main story.
See, we haven’t even got into the myth yet and your head’s already hurting! This is going to be fun guys.
THE STORY
We’re presented with Psyche, the youngest and most beautiful of three sisters, daughters to the king and queen of an unnamed city. And this girl is PRETTY, think Helen of Troy, or like, Zendaya. She’s so jaw-droppingly gorg that Aphrodite’s worshippers start worshipping Psyche INSTEAD of the literal goddess of love.
We can only assume that these defectors were either incredibly stupid or had a suicide wish, what with Aphrodite being famed for her jealous demeanour. Luckily for them, she blames Psyche for this slight against her (the gods being ✨reasonable✨ as they are) and next thing you know the goddess of love has sent Eros to shoot Psyche with an arrow, with instructions to make her fall in love with a ‘hideous being’.
Bit harsh???
Side note by the way, do we have any clarification on what actually happens when someone is shot with an arrow from Eros?? Because I’ve been watching Game of Thrones recently and the people getting shot with arrows are not matching up with the doey-eyed, love-struck mortals I’ve been hearing about. There’s certainly a lot more screaming.
Anyway.
Eros, hilariously, scratches himself on one of his arrows right before shooting Psyche. We have to assume that he’s not prone to doing this, because we don’t usually see him 1) disobeying direct orders from Aphrodite or 2) chasing around after mortals. Psyche is the next thing he sees, and bam, Eros gets a taste of his own medicine, probably fleeing the scene blushing and kicking his feet over his brand new crush.
Meanwhile, Psyche’s parents are having a bit of a mare, because while they have managed to secure her two fairly beautiful sisters husbands, Psyche with her ethereal Zendaya-like beauty is yet to marry. So Psyche’s dad does what any concerned father would do, he goes to consult the Oracle of Apollo. And the prophecy he receives is not a vibe.
On mountain peak, O King, expose the maid
For funeral wedlock ritually arrayed.
No human son-in-law (hope not) is thine,
But something cruel and fierce and serpentine.
That plagues the world as, borne aloft on wings,
With fire and steel it persecutes all things;
That Jove himself, he whom the gods revere,
That Styx’s darkling stream regards with fear.
Instead of the expected king or minor god for a son-in-law, Psyche’s father can expect a terrifying, merciless creature who is feared even by the gods above, and below.
Naturally, Psyche is then dressed up in funeral attire and marched to the top of a mountain where she is left on a big rock. And as if she wasn’t already having a less than average day, our girl is then kidnapped by a gust of wind. Personally, I’ve never been kidnapped by a wind before, but I can imagine it being pretty traumatic.
Apuleius, however, makes sure to let us know that the gentle breeze lifts her up almost imperceptibly, and carries her on his ‘tranquil’ breath. It’s such a relaxing kidnapping that when Zephyrus (that’s the wind’s name, obviously), deposits Psyche in a meadow, she settles down for a nap.
After her quick snooze Psyche goes exploring, and she finds a magnificent palace (it’s so magnificent that we get almost a whole page just to describe the grandeur), perfectly maintained, and completely empty. A disembodied voice tells her to make herself at home (so she has a quick bubble bath), then invisible servers provide a feast and a lyre seems to play itself, followed by the singing of a whole invisible choir.
Any guesses at this point about who might have brought her here??? (Hint: his name begins with E and it rhymes with Meros).
Incredibly, Apuleius’ Psyche is completely calm at this point, ‘gladly’ taking her place at the dinner table. She’s had a nap, a bath and is now getting served dinner, never mind that she’s been whisked away from her family home and all the people here are invisible. I suppose when you’re living in a time when gods regularly interfere with mortal’s lives this kind of thing becomes less terrifying???
Unfortunately it’s not about to get any less terrifying for Psyche, who after dinner is promptly led to her bed chambers by one of the invisible beings. Apuleius glosses over the consummation of this ‘marriage’ (not too sure when the ceremony took place) with one quick sentence: ‘Now there entered her unknown husband; he had mounted the bed, made her his wife, and departed in haste before sunrise.’ He then drops a quick line reassuring us that ‘the novelty of her situation became pleasurable to her by force of habit,’ before we cut back to her parents mourning their youngest daughters absence.
After a while, going a bit mad in her grand prison, Psyche gaslights her unknown, invisible husband into allowing her two sisters to come and visit, despite the fact that he severely warns her against it.
Her two sisters turn up (delivered by Zephyrus a.k.a. the West Wind Express,) and, upon seeing their younger sister’s new fabulous palace and hearing the tales of her generous but invisible husband, are overcome with crippling jealousy. They waste no time in telling her that she should absolutely stab her husband in the neck while he sleeps. After all, hadn’t the Oracle spoken of a creature ‘cruel and fierce and serpentine’??
At this point Psyche is ONLY JUST BECOMING (???) a bit suspicious and decides to heed her loving sisters’ advice. They’re whisked back home by Zephyrus (who is probably starting to feel somewhat disgruntled by his new role as taxi service) and Psyche is left to nervously contemplate her betrayal, which she plans to carry out that very same night.
After ‘engaging on the field of love’ (💀 Apuleius, pls-) that evening, the invisible lover falls asleep, and now it’s Psyche’s time to shine, literally. She grabs an oil lamp and a blade, but instead of looking upon a terrifying monster sees the most beautiful being she’s ever laid eyes on. It is, of course, Eros who lies beside her.
Now, Psyche is about to fumble the bag in quite a spectacular fashion, because in one fell swoop as she leans in for a closer look she manages to 1) pierce herself with one of Eros’ arrows and 2) spill hot oil all over her beloved. In short, it’s an absolute shambles.
She is now absolutely enamoured with the guy she’s meant to be killing (🎶I think I’ve seen this film before🎶) and has also woken him up to catch her in the act of the one thing she was not meant to do: lay eyes upon her husband.
Eros takes off without a word: Psyche manages to hang on to his ankle for a while but has to let go when she gets too tired, falling and landing next to a stream, which she immediately tries to throw herself in. The river says, ‘absolutely not’ (it’s sentient ig) and deposits her safely on its bank, which just so happens to be where the god Pan was chilling that day.
Pan takes pity on her and tells her not to throw herself in any more rivers (please) but instead to try and earn back Eros’ favour so that he might take her back.
PAUSE.
I know we’re mid-story but this is IMPORTANT. Remember when I quit my Classics MA and went travelling around Europe instead? Here’s something great and relevant I saw in Berlin.
How cool is that! More depictions of Psyche and Eros I saw around Europe and acted very normally about to come at the end.
CONTINUE.
Psyche, instead of taking Pan’s advice, decides instead to visit each of her sisters; she tells both of them the same story. All of it is true, up until the part where she says, ‘and now Eros wants to marry you instead!’ which goes down a storm with both sisters. They immediately leave their homes and families, rushing back to their parents’ city before throwing themselves straight over the edge of the cliff (as you do) where Psyche had been carried off in the first place.
About the first sister, Apuleius writes, ‘as she fell from one rocky crag to another she was torn limb from limb, and she died providing a banquet of her mangled flesh, as she so richly deserved, for the birds of prey and wild beasts.’
SO.
Eros has taken off, Psyche’s wondering around enacting vengeance, girls are throwing themselves off of cliffs, and all in the name of love. Meanwhile, all over the world, love has disappeared along with Eros (who has actually gone to his mum’s house to lie on the floor and cry). Without love, the world is descending into chaos, even more so than usual, with ‘endless squalor’ and ‘distasteful couplings.’ Aphrodite, who has been relaxing under the sea and brushing her hair (or something), catches wind of this and is Not Happy™.
She whisks home to find Eros, and ‘hardly had she passed through the door when she started to shout at him’ (go off queen). She spends a whole page admonishing her son, before going to find someone else to shout at for another page, namely Zeus and Demeter. Demeter, however, actually has the audacity to defend her son, so Aphrodite returns to under the sea, presumably to mope, worn out after an afternoon of telling people off.
Meanwhile, Psyche has stumbled across a temple of Demeter and tidies up some of the offerings (she’s unemployed), but then Demeter actually shows up??? Psyche takes the appearance of literal Demeter in her stride (she’s sick of this s**t by now) and tells the goddess her woeful story.
Demeter listens and says ‘aww’ in all the right places, but then?? The woman takes off without another word.
Psyche (at her absolute wits end) comes to the conclusion that she should probably just find Aphrodite and serve her herself, and goes to her house. Quite how she knew where Aphrodite lives is beyond me, but by now you’ve probably accepted by now that we’re just rolling with the punches.
Aphrodite is overjoyed to have Psyche under her control, and even merrier about the fact that Eros is actually just in the other room, but neither of them know it. She tortures her for a bit, just because she can, and then for no apparent reason starts setting her tasks to complete. Here they are, in order of chronology, not absurdity.
1) Aphrodite chucks a load of mixed wheat, seeds and beans all over the floor and tells Psyche to sort them out before she gets back from a wedding feast. Luckily, a bunch of ants see what’s going on and decide to help Psyche, who doesn’t have to lift a finger.
2) Psyche is sent across a river to fetch wool from the golden and notoriously violent sheep of Helios grazing on the other side. She tries to drown herself again, but the river (another talking one) politely asks her not to and tells her to stop being dramatic, because if she waits a while she can just gather the wool tangled in a thicket nearby.
3) Next, Psyche is sent to collect water from the source of the river Styx, at the summit of a mountain. Here she comes across more talking water, this time shouting things like ‘you’ll die’ and ‘go away’ at her. The task is, obviously, impossible for a mortal, but luckily Zeus’ eagle turns up and, presumably bored from eating at Prometheus’ liver every day, offers to help and collects the water for Psyche..
4) Last but not least, Aphrodite sends her to the Underworld to collect some of Persephone’s beauty. Recognising this for the suicide mission that it is, Psyche makes for the nearest large tower, which (lo and behold) speaks to her, telling her of a way to get to the Underworld without throwing herself to her death and giving her all the tips and tricks to stay safe along the way. Good job she came across that specific tower!!! Everything goes smoothly until Psyche is on her way back with the box of beauty, decides to look inside, and is instantly knocked out.
Here endeth the tasks from Aphrodite, mainly because Psyche is in a poison-induced sleep in a field somewhere. Luckily at this point Eros is feeling better, and he flies out of a window of his mum’s house to find Psyche, ‘drawing the sleep from her’ and replacing it in the box before waking her up by pricking her with one of his harmless arrows. He probably could have just shaken her awake, but I guess he was still a bit annoyed about the whole hot oil thing.
He tells her to sit tight, and flies up to Olympus to tell Zeus about the whole situation. Zeus, never one to pass up an opportunity to harass some mortal gals, gets Eros to pledge his help with anyone who takes his fancy in the future (we have to imagine Hera seething in the background here), and agrees to help.
Psyche is whisked up to Olympus, fed some ambrosia, and her and Eros have a big wedding feast with all the gods, finally united as equals. Aphrodite apparently forgets her ire against Psyche pretty quickly, presumably having found another victim to torment.
We did it! If you’re still here, I did warn you.
Now for some stuff I saw in Europe.
Here they are perched on the outside of the Kunstmuseum (careful) in Vienna, Austria, looking very studious. I should warn you I have nothing of academic value to add to these pictures, I just saw them and went EEEE. If you have any knowledge about any of these things please tell me all about it in detail immediately.
Another one from the National Gallery in Berlin here, which was right across from Pan and Psyche which I loved! This is Aphrodite and Amor (one of Eros’ Latin names) also from Reinhold Begas, and I enjoy how you can clearly hear Eros going ‘muummm, get offf.’
You can’t tell from the number of pictures I took, but I was obsessed with this one. These guys were in the Uffizi, Florence, and they honestly made the queues worth it. I need information on the markings on the back of Psyche’s wings urgently and immediately; I haven’t been able to find anything about it.
That’s all from me, thank you so much for reading! To end, here’s my favourite statue of Athena ever, which I also found in the Uffizi.
She’s so over your bs.
******
is a 22-year-old aspiring copywriter living in Bristol, UK and the author of elliewrites here on substack. She has a BA in Creative and Professional Writing and adores all things ancient. Her favourite books are the Wolf Den trilogy by Elodie Harper, and she recently went backpacking around Europe and now wants to travel the world (so if anyone has the facilities to pay her to travel and write, hit her up 💛). ******xxx
All that talk of arrows has made me look at Bon Jovi in a new light. All through that narrative I kept hearing "Shot through the heart, and you're to blame. You give love a bad name."
This was amazing! What a wild ride, super fun to read :)