Psyche. A young maiden whose beauty was the object of universal admiration, Psyche aroused the jealousy of Venus (Aphrodite), who instructed Cupid (Amor) to make Psyche fall in love with an ugly monster. However, on seeing Psyche, Cupid himself fell in love with her. He had Zephyr carry her to his palace, where he visited her only in the dark and forbade her to look at him. Hearing from her jealous sisters that Cupid was a terrible creature who would devour her, Psyche determined to see him. She stole into the god’s chamber while he slept and was struck by his comeliness. A drop of hot oil falling from her lamp awakened him and, angered by her disobedience, he left her.
    Psyche wandered the earth in search of Cupid, performing various tasks set for her by Venus. The last of these entailed a journey to the Underworld to retrieve from Proserpine (Persephone) a box of beauty. Out of curiosity, Psyche opened the box and found instead a deadly sleep. She quickly fell under its spell until the remorseful Cupid begged Jupiter (Zeus) to allow him to marry her. His wish was granted, and Psyche was brought to Olympus by Mercury (Hermes) to be united with her lover.
    The tale of Cupid and Psyche has become an allegory for the voyages of the soul on earth, its trials and tribulations, and its final union with the divine after death. The word “psyche” in Greek means “soul,” and a link between Psyche and Eros, the Greek deity from whom the Roman Cupid was adapted, was suggested by Plato in his Phaedrus. Psyche was depicted as a human woman in the fifth century bce; before then, the soul was equated with a bird or butterfly. Hellenistic sculptures show Eros and Psyche as male and female in romantic poses.' Postclassical treatments of the story derive from Apuleius’s Golden Ass of the second century CE.
   
    Classical Source. Apuleius, The Golden Ass 4—6.
   
    Further Reference.
    Bonilla y San Martin, Adolfo. 1908. El mito de Psyquis Barcelona: Henrich.
    Neumann, Erich. 1956. Amor and Psyche: A Commentary on the Tale of Apuleius New York.
    Haight, Elizabeth Hazelton. 1963. Apuleius and His Influence New York: Cooper Square.
    Vertova, Louisa. 1979. “Cupid and Psyche in Renaissance Painting before Raphael,” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 42: 104—21.