EP 61 — In Love's Crosshairs: Psyche & Eros

What happens when Eros, the mischievous son of the goddess Aphrodite, sees Psyche, the most beautiful woman in the world? Star-crossed love, of course! 

Travel in our time machine back to ancient Greece and follow the timeless story of these two lovers.

If you love this podcast, you'll also enjoy Garner's audible novel about the gods, Homo Divinitas, available on Amazon.com and Audible.com.

Transcript

PODCAST #61 — IN LOVE’S CROSSHAIRS: Psyche & Eros 

It’s been too many episodes since we stepped into our time machine and traveled backward into the golden age of Greek gods and legends.

Let’s do it again. Our chariot awaits us. It’s fueled with mythological propellant. All we have to do is whisper into the small microphone here on the dashboard. 

Our machine needs no more than for us to utter our destination. That seems simple enough. 

And where are we bound? 

To a small Greek kingdom that is described by ancient sources as simply "a certain city.” But it’s not the city nor even the location that interests us. 

Hardly. We want to see the startlingly beautiful young woman named Psyche. Her story has been told for thousands of years with many variations, and has even become a movie. The names change, but the tale is the same.

…

Welcome to episode 61 of GARNER'S GREEK MYTHOLOGY. We have listeners from over 188 countries ... So welcome to everyone, wherever you are.

I'm your host, mythologist PATRICK GARNER. Remember to visit AMAZON to check out my four books about the GREEK GODS in the contemporary world. 

They’re part of THE NAXOS QUARTET, and include THE WINNOWING, CYCLADIC GIRLS, HOMO DIVINITAS and ALL THAT LASTS.

My novels have been best sellers and are a fun read.

Who are the characters in these books? Your favorite GREEK GODS, of course ... 

As an aside, HOMO DIVINITAS is also available on Amazon as an audio book. I’m the narrator and I’m pleased to report that it’s received great reviews. 

Be sure to visit PATRICK GARNER BOOKS DOT COM. My site is packed with information about the Greek gods, my books and this podcast.

Then link over to AMAZON and treat yourself!

…

In the second century AD, a Roman author named Apuleius wrote a book called The Metamorphosis. In it the protagonist is turned into a donkey. 

Because of this, the book became commonly known as The Golden Ass. 

But Apuleius didn’t invent Psyche’s love story. He adapted the story from a Greek original by an otherwise unknown author named "Lucius of Patras.” Apuleius simply put the legend into words for Romans of the time.

Apuleius’s version became wildly popular, partly because he included the love story of Psyche and Eros. Psyche’s great beauty made her unapproachable by besotted suitors.

Her beauty also put her in the crosshairs of Aphrodite, who considered herself the world’s most beautiful woman.

Psyche’s name means soul in Greek. Unsurprisingly, the story came to be seen by some religions as an allegory of the soul’s journey through life toward a mystic union with the divine. 

Our young Psyche was human. Her husband-to-be was Eros. And Eros, as the son of the goddess Aphrodite, was divine. 

What Apuleius rewrote for the Romans was repeatedly retold by later authors. Perhaps the most popular retelling that we know is that of Beauty and The Beast, written by a French novelist in 1740. 

The French version was so popular that subsequent authors in Britain and Italy created variants in 1756 and 1889.

That’s the literary background. But we’re not interested in European variations, are we? We want the real thing. We want to know what the Greeks knew. We want the original story.

Let’s tell our machine what we seek. All I need to do is whisper into the microphone, "Take us to the kingdom in Greece where the lovely Psyche lives.”

…

Responding to our command, our time machine hums beautifully. Its engine sounds like a tuning fork. We climb into its compartment and close the door. There’s a tiny shudder as it lifts off the ground. Then there’s a small flash.

Seconds pass in darkness. Suddenly light floods the time machine. We squint and look out the windows.

Below us we see an ocean. It must be the Aegean Sea. As we speed along, we see several small fishing boats plying the waters beside the shore.

Turning, our craft descends over land. Then it hovers over a grassy field. No one seems to notice. Our landing gear extracts and we settle down. The door to the machine opens.

As we step out, we check our clothing. We wear a thin wool robe and leather sandals. Reassuringly, we look the same as the natives of this place.

The time machine vanishes and we smile. We know that it will reappear whenever we need it.

Good. Now it’s time to find the lovely Psyche. And to learn the details of her story. A walled city lies to our right. A wide dirt road leads to a gate. We hurry over to follow the path.

But is this where Psyche lives? A tall man with a walking stick rests beside a shade tree just outside the walls.

We walk up and ask, "Kind sir, is this the city where the beautiful Psyche lives?”

He looks amused and responds, saying, "By Zeus, I have never seen her, but all who have say she is breathtakingly lovely.”

He pauses, smiling. "And to your question, yes, this is that city. She lives within those walls with her two sisters.”

Trying to glean as much information as possible, we ask, "And who are her parents?”

"Ah,” the man says. "Her parents are the king and queen.”

We nod, thanking him, and walk toward the city gate. There are no guards and we pass through without challenge.

…

That night, sitting at a small tavern nestled in the maze of twisting roads within the city, we eat a meal of wine, stewed lamb and mashed barley.

Fortuitously, a rough-looking man sits nearby speaking with another equally rugged man. They’re both slaves, and one says to the other, "The king is seeking household help. It’s not for the likes of us. But, his highness says he’s looking for a scholar. Someone to teach his daughters how to count.”

"Count?” the other says.

They laugh out loud, as if nothing is funnier. Sensing an opportunity, we move closer and catch their eye.

One of them says gruffly, "What?!”

We respond quickly, saying, "How does one apply for such a job? We may be candidates. We know geometry, the names of stars and of all the flowers that bloom in spring.”

They look us over. One says to the other, "If we recommend this visitor to the king, it might go well for us.”

He turns to us and says hoarsely, "Are you a free man?”

"Yes,” we say.

"Good, the king will have none other. Meet us outside this place in the morning. Dawn. Be clean. If you’re lucky we might give you introductions.”

...

The next morning we wait nervously in the street. The two men arrive, look us over and nod in the direction of the citadel in the city’s center.

Silently, we follow them as they saunter toward the stronghold. As the road rises we walk along, aware that the two slaves appear to know everyone. 

In a short time, we enter a second set of gates. These are larger and stronger than the city gates. On the word of the slaves, guards wave us in.

We are led to a waiting room and sit. After the sun rises higher, an attendant appears, half-bows and says, "Follow me.”

We expect to meet either the king or the queen, but that doesn’t happen. Instead, we are ushered into the rear of the citadel. There a woman, attended by guards, introduces herself as the king’s oldest daughter. 

She asks us a number of questions, which we apparently answer to her satisfaction as, in a short time, she announces that we shall begin our work that afternoon. It appears that we have been appointed the official teacher for the king’s daughters.

We ask deferentially if all three sisters will attend. She says with a smile, "Yes, of course.”

...

And so we begin our time in the small kingdom famous because of only one thing: Psyche’s beauty ...

Luckily, our work is undemanding. With the three sisters always in attendance, we recite the Greek alphabet, explain the intricacies of astrology and run the three through basic geometry, explaining it to be the very foundation of philosophy.

The girls are swift learners and seem excited by our lessons. The best afternoons though are when the two older sisters excuse themselves early.

On those afternoons we are left with Psyche, who seems largely unaware of her allure. Yet her beauty is indeed overwhelming. 

If we merely glance at her, we falter, stumbling over the simplest things. She giggles at how disconcerted we become. 

She insists that we focus on the lessons, saying, "Don’t be like the others. I’m not as pretty as you think.”

We are given breaks. During our occasional time off, we wander around within the walls of the kingdom. 

Within a few days we learn that the fame of Psyche’s beauty is so broad that people travel from all over simply to gaze upon her.

When they see her, they become so overwhelmed by her loveliness that they pay her honors equal to those usually given to Aphrodite, the goddess of love. 

The girl is showered with offerings. Heaps of presents—bunches of flowers, gold coins, lovely woven cloaks, sweets and other gifts—are left at the entrance to the palace.

We also quickly learn that the goddess Aphrodite is all too aware of these offerings. The goddess thinks they should be paid to her. People whisper that Aphrodite is becoming angry.

Yet the sweet Psyche seems oblivious to the commotion. Her innocence does her no good. Aphrodite wants revenge. She sends down her son, the mischievous Eros, to avenge her honor.

How is he to do this? Aphrodite commands Eros to make Psyche fall in love with some completely worthless man. The goddess suggests that Eros find a hideous local fellow who can barely rub two brain cells together.

Her divine son nods, grinning as his mother becomes more and more excited at her plan. "Yes, that’s it,” Eros agrees. "That’ll teach the uppity Psyche!”

Soon after Aphrodite sends Eros to the kingdom, we are conducting one of our lessons with the girls. At a knock on the door, Psyche’s older sister opens it cautiously.

A handsome young man steps into the room and looks about. He bows and smiles, saying, "Excuse my interruption. I have been sent by a goddess who must remain unnamed. I am to deliver a message.”

Psyche’s older sister says, "Who is this goddess?”

The young man looks apologetic and smiles. "I cannot say.”

As he looks around at the four of us, he freezes at the sight of Psyche, mesmerized by her face. He falls to his knees, saying, "Oh my. I wasn’t warned. You’re prettier than the goddess herself.” 

…

The older sister says angrily, "What impertinence! You’re a stranger in this kingdom. Get out or we’ll call the guards!”

Eros lowers his forehead to the ground, beginning to weep. He says, "I have failed my mother. I am paralyzed. I cannot go on as I have been ordered! How could I have known?”

The three sisters look at each other in confusion. Then the older sister points at the door, saying loudly to the man, "Leave or you’ll be tossed into the sea!”

Eros stands, looking longingly at Psyche. His face is flushed and his hands tremble. He nods, slinking out the door in defeat.

Psyche turns to us and asks, "What do you think that was about?”

We quietly reply, "It’s clear that the young man fell in love.”

"With me?” she whispers. 

"Yes,” we say. "He seemed astonished at what he saw ...”

...

Indeed, no one could doubt that Eros had fallen head over heals. He could no more execute Aphrodite’s orders than a pig could fly. Instead, he slunk off, able to do no more than dodge his mother and watch Psyche from afar.

Time passed and Psyche’s two elder sisters were married off and moved away. But Psyche herself remained unmarried. 

She was so amazingly beautiful that eligible bachelors dared not approach her. In despair her father went to Apollo’s oracle at Miletos and asked where he might find a husband for the girl.

Eros, aware of his every maneuver, intervened before the oracle could speak. He made the oracle tell her father that Psyche’s fate was to marry an evil spirit, one feared even by the gods, and that the spirit would come to take her away as she stood on a mountain top.

The royal family reluctantly obeyed. Within the week an armed party carried her by horseback up the mountain slope and left her by herself.

As Psyche stood in abject fear of what she might encounter, Eros continued to carry out his plan. First, Zephyros, the gentle West Wind, lifted her up and wafted her down to a flowery valley.

There she found a fairy-tale palace, one far grander than her father’s. It was filled with beautiful things and pleasant smells. She was waited upon by unseen servants until night came and it was time for bed.

In the darkness that first night, Eros came and made the girl his wife. Afterward, she lay pleased with her unseen husband, convinced that the oracle had lied about an evil spirit. Nothing, she thought to herself, could be better than this.

Weeks and months passed. During the day she was alone. But at night Eros would fill her evenings with love, yet always vanish as the sun arose.

Still, she missed her family and finally persuaded her husband to allow her sisters to visit. Before he granted her wish, he warned Psyche that they would try to destroy her happiness—that they would try to make her find out what he looked like.

She swore she would remain faithful to his commands and never look upon his face. When the two sisters arrived, they became wildly jealous of Psyche’s palace and her obvious good luck.

After some hours they wondered why they hadn’t met her husband. What did he look like? Psyche admitted that she had no idea. 

Scheming in their meanness, they terrified her by saying that, if he wouldn’t allow her to look at him, she must be married to a monster. 

Worse, they whispered, the monster would undoubtedly devour her on some dark, dark night. Their almost hysterical advice was to kill him before he killed her.

...

That night poor Psyche, half-convinced of their prediction, waited until her husband was asleep. She lit a small lamp and approached him, carrying a knife.

At once she recognized him as the young man who had interrupted our lesson in her father’s palace.  She saw his arrows and bow lying beside their bed. Instantly, she knew that the man in her bed was the divine Eros. 

She drew one of the arrows from the quiver. As she did, the tip pricked her thumb. It was coated with a love potion that made her fall even more madly in love with the god.

Hearing her cry of shock, Eros awoke. When he saw that his wife had broken her promise and now knew the truth, he spread his wings and flew away, just as he warned her he would do.

She was suddenly alone. He did not return the next night nor the next. Time went by. Her despair grew deeper. In desperation she left the palace to search  for her beloved.

She found her way to each sister’s home and told what had happened. Each sister in turn, burning for Eros’s love, went to the mountain crag where Zephros had wafted Psyche to her new home. 

There, confident the West Wind would carry them to that magnificent palace, each sister jumped. But Zephros failed to catch them. Instead they were dashed to pieces on the rocks below.

Unaware of her sister’s tragic end, Psyche continued searching for her darling Eros. She visited temples, praying to the god or goddess there. No divinity would help, afraid of offending Aphrodite.

And Aphrodite by now had heard that her son had crossed her and become Psyche’s husband. Furious, Aphrodite confronted Psyche, promising to relieve her pain if she performed a series of almost impossible tasks.

Eros himself stayed hidden, terrified of his mother. Psyche had no choice but to agree to Aphrodite’s terms. 

The tasks were inconceivably difficult. Yet the girl worked through them one by one. She was able to succeed because she had unexpected, supernatural help.

Her last task, one she realized was intended to send her to her death, was to retrieve a day’s worth of beauty cream from the goddess of darkness, Persephone.

Psyche was to enter Hades, find her way through the thousands of dead who lingered there, and persuade Persephone to give her a small container of this magical elixir. 

This was Aphrodite’s final command and Psyche expected to fail. To her knowledge, only Heracles had gone to Hades and returned. Psyche was a mere young woman.

Yet, once again, she had supernatural help. Eros still watched over her, although hidden, thwarting every difficult task his mother assigned.

...

When Psyche entered Hades, she was prepared. She paid Charon, the boatman, a coin to cross into the dark vapors of Hades.

She threw bread to the three-headed dog, Kerberos. When she finally found the goddess Persephone, Psyche was deferential and she was welcomed as royalty. The two visited for hours. When it was time to leave, Psyche was given the coveted box of beauty cream.

Before entering Hades, Psyche had been warned not to open the box. As she wound her way out of the darkness and back to the light of the living, her curiosity got the better of her.

She lifted the lid, intending to use a little of the beauty potion on herself, thinking it might win back Eros’s love.

But the box contained something else instead. Out of the box crept the god Hypnos, the dark deity of sleep. Hypnos instantly surrounded her in a black fog and she fell to the ground as if dead.

Eros had watched every moment of her ascent from Hades. Now, seeing her overpowered, he flew to her aid and brushed aside the cloud of sleep.

She awoke with a start and stood, unaware that Eros had saved her from a sleep from which she would never wake up. Now, she thought, she could deliver the box to Aphrodite.

While she left to find the goddess, Eros flew to his father Zeus and confessed his endless love for the beautiful girl.                                        

The king of the gods listened, eventually giving his blessing to their union. Sweetening the deal, Zeus made Psyche immortal. Now, in Aphrodite’s eyes, Psyche had become Eros’s equal. Aphrodite begrudgingly accepted the match.

The gods held a great party to celebrate.

Eros had become his own man by spurning his mother and choosing Psyche for himself. And Psyche proved to be as beautiful on the inside as she was on the outside.  

As observers from a distant time—and as we watched this all unfold—we too reveled in the couple’s happiness.

Knowing that we had seen what we came for, we bid our new Greek friends goodbye and found our trusty time machine. It was waiting there in the same grassy meadow where we had been dropped off when our adventure began.

Leaning in toward the machine’s microphone, we whisper, "Take us home,” and watch as the machine silently rises above the ancient Aegean Sea.

Psyche’s tale is a lovely story. No wonder it spread across the western world, a favorite of children and adults everywhere.

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JOIN ME ... FOR ANOTHER EPISODE OF GARNER'S GREEK MYTHOLOGY. REMEMBER THAT THE WINNOWING & MY OTHER NOVELS ARE ALL AVAILABLE ON AMAZON.

VISIT PATRICK GARNER BOOKS DOT COM FOR MORE INFORMATION.

By the way, speaking of children’s favorites, IF YOU HAVE YOUNGSTERS IN YOUR LIFE, THERE'S A CHILDREN'S BOOK YOU HAVE TO GET.

IT'S CALLED READ-ALOUD STORIES FOR YOUNG LISTENERS, BY D.K. GARNER. THERE ARE NO GREEK GODS, BUT ANIMALS—ALWAYS PART OF GREEK LIFE—PLAY AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN THESE CHARMING STORIES. 

THEY TALK WITH THE CHILDREN AT THE MOMENT A LITTLE HELP IS NEEDED. Like my books, it’s available on Amazon.  

AND THANKS FOR LISTENING ... THIS IS YOUR HOST, PATRICK GARNER.