Apuleius's Cupid and Psyche Part B
Completing the story and final thoughts
On completing the story, everything seemed to flow better in the second half. My favorite things to analyze were these tasks that Venus, the mother of Cupid, had requested Psyche to do for her in order to torment the girl. The imagery to couple the immense work she'd have to endure was very well done in my book. The author would use words that would make the end goal seems to worthy and magical like golden, sweet, pure, etc. It brought back into perspective that although Psyche is having to commit to these dangerous tasks that would normally be asked by some sort of beast or vile being, they are being asked by the Goddess of Beauty. A goddess that is loved by most all. When the author begins to use imagery words like dangerous, fierce, death, and other words of the sort it causes the reader to think about how human even an immortal god can feel. The reason behind Venus wanting to hurt Psyche so much is because she didn't want to feel outcasted by someone who the people deem to be more beautiful than she. She also has stolen the heart of her son and all these things created torment for Venus due to her own vanity. You can be a god with supernatural abilities but there's nothing that says you can't have raw and vulnerable emotions. Not everything about you needs to be pure and perfect. Considering she is also the goddess of infidelity. While going forward with the story, I was also more impacted by Cupid's love for Psyche. Everything seemed so rushed before that without knowledge of him being pricked by an arrow, it was hard to understand how much he already loved his bride. After being apart and hearing of his wife endure sure distress and pain he was able to accept his new-found health and resolve these issues as quickly as you can say, Hermes. Overall, this was a good read and had sweet resolve, no matter how quickly it all seemed to happen.
Image: Cupid finds Psyche (Wikipedia)
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