Page 49 - Yellow Feather Book 2

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by Apuleius
The Story of Cupid and Psyche
English translation of the marriage of Cupid and Psyche from the Latin Metamorphoses
OnCe upon a time, there was a king who had three breathtakingly beautiful daughters. The youngest, Psyche, was much more beautiful than her two older sisters and looked like a goddess among mere mortals. Her beauty was so great that any words spoken to describe her sounded empty and meaningless. The fame of her beauty spread throughout the entire kingdom and men from all walks of life came to her palace not to vie for her affection, but to admire and worship her. When people would see her, they’d say that not even Venus herself could compete with Psyche’s beauty. The more people got to know Psyche, the less they would remember the goddess of love and beauty. The temples of Venus were abandoned; her altars covered with cold ashes and the sculptors were no longer hewing statues for her. All the honors reserved for her were being attributed to a simple, mortal girl.
It wasn’t long before Venus got word of what was happening but she would not stand for such an upfront. “Shall I who am judged the fairest among the immortal goddesses be challenged by an earthly girl? This Psyche will have little joy from her loveliness” she exclaimed angrily. Venus immediately beckoned her son Cupid to her. He was the winged god who flew at night, armed with bows and arrows, inflicting the pain of love upon unsuspecting mortals. They traveled together to the faraway kingdom where Psyche lived to observe her. “Look at her” she told him in distress, “This worthless mortal dares to overshadow my beauty?” “I pray you beloved, use your power and make this little shameless girl to fall in love with the vilest and the most despicable creature who has ever walked the Earth.” Cupid, seeing his mother so forlorn, agreed to do so but the moment he laid his gaze upon her and prepared to carry out his mother’s wishes, he himself felt his heart pierced by one of his own arrows. He couldn’t make that charming maiden fall in love with a horrible creature
The Yellow Feather Literature Third Course