Cupid and Psyche

Cupid and Psyche is a story originally from

Metamorphoses (also called The Golden Ass), written
in the 2nd century AD by Lucius Apuleius Madaurensis
(or Platonicus).[2] The tale concerns the overcoming
of obstacles to the love between Psyche (/ˈsaɪkiː/;
Greek: Ψυχή, Greek pronunciation: [psyː.kʰɛ̌ː],
"Soul" or "Breath of Life") and Cupid (Latin Cupido,
"Desire") or Amor ("Love", Greek Eros, Ἔρως), and
their ultimate union in a sacred marriage. Although
the only extended narrative from antiquity is that of
Apuleius from 2nd century AD, Eros and Psyche appear
in Greek art as early as the 4th century BC. The
story's Neoplatonic elements and allusions to mystery
religions accommodate multiple interpretations,[3]
and it has been analyzed as an allegory and in light of
folktale, Märchen or fairy tale, and myth.[4]

Psyche and Amor, also known as Psyche Receiving Cupid's First

Kiss (1798), by François Gérard: a symbolic butterfly hovers
over Psyche in a moment of innocence poised before sexual
awakening.[1]
The story of Cupid and Psyche was known to
Boccaccio in c. 1370, but the editio princeps dates
to 1469. Ever since, the reception of Cupid and
Psyche in the classical tradition has been extensive.
The story has been retold in poetry, drama, and
opera, and depicted widely in painting, sculpture, and
even wallpaper.[5] Though Psyche is usually referred to
in Roman mythology by her Greek name, her Roman
name through direct translation is Anima.

In Apuleius

Psyche Honoured by the People (1692–1702)

from a series of 12 scenes from the story by
Luca Giordano
The tale of Cupid and Psyche (or "Eros and Psyche")
is placed at the midpoint of Apuleius's novel, and
occupies about a fifth of its total length.[6] The
novel itself is a first-person narrative by the
protagonist Lucius. Transformed into a donkey by
magic gone wrong, Lucius undergoes various trials and
adventures, and finally regains human form by eating
roses sacred to Isis. Psyche's story has some
similarities, including the theme of dangerous
curiosity, punishments and tests, and redemption
through divine favor.[7]

As a structural mirror of the overarching plot, the

tale is an example of mise en abyme. It occurs within
a complex narrative frame, with Lucius recounting the
tale as it in turn was told by an old woman to
Charite, a bride kidnapped by pirates on her wedding
day and held captive in a cave.[6] The happy ending
for Psyche is supposed to assuage Charite's fear of
rape, in one of several instances of Apuleius's
irony.[8][9]

Although the tale resists explication as a strict

allegory of a particular Platonic argument, Apuleius
drew generally on imagery such as the laborious ascent
of the winged soul (Phaedrus 248) and the union with
the divine achieved by Soul through the agency of the
daimon Love (Symposium 212b).[10]
Story

Psyche's Wedding (Pre-Raphaelite, 1895) by

Edward Burne-Jones

There were once a king and queen,[11] rulers of an

unnamed city, who had three daughters of conspicuous
beauty. The youngest and most beautiful was Psyche,
whose admirers, neglecting the proper worship of
Aphrodite (love goddess Venus), instead prayed and
made offerings to her. It was rumored that she was
the second coming of Venus, or the daughter of Venus
from an unseemly union between the goddess and a
mortal. Venus is offended, and commissions Cupid to
work her revenge. Cupid is sent to shoot Psyche with
an arrow so that she may fall in love with something
hideous. He instead scratches himself with his own
dart, which makes any living thing fall in love with
the first thing it sees. Consequently, he falls deeply in
love with Psyche and disobeys his mother's order.

Although her two humanly beautiful sisters have

married, the idolized Psyche has yet to find love. Her
father suspects that they have incurred the wrath of
the gods, and consults the oracle of Apollo. The
response is unsettling: the king is to expect not a
human son-in-law, but rather a dragon-like creature
who harasses the world with fire and iron and is
feared by even Jupiter and the inhabitants of the
underworld.
Psyche is arrayed in funeral attire, conveyed by a
procession to the peak of a rocky crag, and exposed.
Marriage and death are merged into a single rite of
passage, a "transition to the unknown".[12] Zephyrus
the West Wind bears her up to meet her fated match,
and deposits her in a lovely meadow (locus amoenus),
where she promptly falls asleep.

The transported girl awakes to find herself at the

edge of a cultivated grove (lucus). Exploring, she finds
a marvelous house with golden columns, a carved
ceiling of citrus wood and ivory, silver walls embossed
with wild and domesticated animals, and jeweled
mosaic floors. A disembodied voice tells her to make
herself comfortable, and she is entertained at a feast
that serves itself and by singing to an invisible lyre.
Although fearful and without the proper experience,
she allows herself to be guided to a bedroom where, in
the darkness, a being she cannot see has sex with her.
She gradually learns to look forward to his visits,
though he always departs before sunrise and forbids
her to look upon him. Soon, she becomes pregnant.

Violation of trust

Psyche's family longs for news of her, and after much

cajoling, Cupid, still unknown to his bride, permits
Zephyr to carry her sisters up for a visit. When they
see the splendor in which Psyche lives, they become
envious, and undermine her happiness by prodding her
to uncover her husband's true identity, since surely as
foretold by the oracle she was lying with the vile
winged serpent, who would devour her and her child.

Psyche Showing Her Jewelry to Her Sisters

(Neoclassical, 1815–16), grisaille wallpaper
by Merry-Joseph Blondel

One night after Cupid falls asleep, Psyche carries out

the plan her sisters devised: she brings out a dagger
and a lamp she had hidden in the room, in order to see
and kill the monster. But when the light instead
reveals the most beautiful creature she has ever seen,
she is so startled that she wounds herself on one of
the arrows in Cupid's cast-aside quiver. Struck with a
feverish passion, she spills hot oil from the lamp and
wakes him. He flees, and though she tries to pursue,
he flies away and leaves her on the bank of a river.

There she is discovered by the wilderness god Pan,

who recognizes the signs of passion upon her. She
acknowledges his divinity (numen), then begins to
wander the earth looking for her lost love.

Amore e Psiche (1707–09) by Giuseppe

Crespi: Psyche's use of the lamp to see the
god is sometimes thought to reflect the
magical practice of lychnomancy, a form of
divination or spirit conjuring.[13]

Psyche visits first one sister, then the other; both

are seized with renewed envy upon learning the
identity of Psyche's secret husband. Each sister
attempts to offer herself as a replacement by climbing
the rocky crag and casting herself upon Zephyr for
conveyance, but instead is allowed to fall to a brutal
death.

Wanderings and trials

In the course of her wanderings, Psyche comes upon a

temple of Ceres, and inside finds a disorder of grain
offerings, garlands, and agricultural implements.
Recognizing that the proper cultivation of the gods
should not be neglected, she puts everything in good
order, prompting a theophany of Ceres herself.
Although Psyche prays for her aid, and Ceres
acknowledges that she deserves it, the goddess is
prohibited from helping her against a fellow goddess.
A similar incident occurs at a temple of Juno. Psyche
realizes that she must serve Venus herself.

Venus revels in having the girl under her power, and

turns Psyche over to her two handmaids, Worry and
Sadness, to be whipped and tortured. Venus tears her
clothes and bashes her head into the ground, and
mocks her for conceiving a child in a sham marriage.
The goddess then throws before her a great mass of
mixed wheat, barley, poppyseed, chickpeas, lentils,
and beans, demanding that she sort them into
separate heaps by dawn. But when Venus withdraws
to attend a wedding feast, a kind ant takes pity on
Psyche, and assembles a fleet of insects to accomplish
the task. Venus is furious when she returns drunk from
the feast, and only tosses Psyche a crust of bread. At
this point in the story, it is revealed that Cupid is
also in the house of Venus, languishing from his injury.

Psyche's Second Task (Mannerist, 1526–28)

by Giulio Romano, from the Palazzo del Tè

At dawn, Venus sets a second task for Psyche. She is

to cross a river and fetch golden wool from violent
sheep who graze on the other side. These sheep are
elsewhere identified as belonging to Helios.[14]
Psyche's only intention is to drown herself on the
way, but instead she is saved by instructions from a
divinely inspired reed, of the type used to make
musical instruments, and gathers the wool caught on
briers.
For Psyche's third task, she is given a crystal vessel in
which to collect the black water spewed by the source
of the rivers Styx and Cocytus. Climbing the cliff
from which it issues, she is daunted by the foreboding
air of the place and dragons slithering through the
rocks, and falls into despair. Jupiter himself takes
pity on her, and sends his eagle to battle the dragons
and retrieve the water for her.

Psyche and the underworld

The last trial Venus imposes on Psyche is a quest to

the underworld itself. She is to take a box (pyxis) and
obtain in it a dose of the beauty of Proserpina, queen
of the underworld. Venus claims her own beauty has
faded through tending her ailing son, and she needs
this remedy in order to attend the theatre of the
gods (theatrum deorum).

Psyché aux enfers (1865) by Eugène Ernest

Hillemacher: Charon rows Psyche past a dead
man in the water and the old weavers on
shore

Once again despairing of her task, Psyche climbs a

tower, planning to throw herself off. The tower,
however, suddenly breaks into speech, and advises her
to travel to Lacedaemon, Greece, and to seek out the
place called Taenarus, where she will find the entrance
to the underworld. The tower offers instructions for
navigating the underworld:

The airway of Dis is there, and

through the yawning gates the
pathless route is revealed. Once
you cross the threshold, you are
committed to the unswerving
course that takes you to the
very Regia of Orcus. But you
shouldn't go emptyhanded
through the shadows past this
point, but rather carry cakes of
honeyed barley in both
 hands,[15] and transport two
coins in your mouth.

The speaking tower warns her to maintain silence as

she passes by several ominous figures: a lame man
driving a mule loaded with sticks, a dead man
swimming in the river that separates the world of the
living from the world of the dead, and old women
weaving. These, the tower warns, will seek to divert
her by pleading for her help: she must ignore them.
The cakes are treats for distracting Cerberus, the
three-headed watchdog of Orcus, and the two coins
for Charon the ferryman, so she can make a return
trip.
Everything comes to pass according to plan, and
Proserpina grants Psyche's humble entreaty. As soon
as she reenters the light of day, however, Psyche is
overcome by a bold curiosity, and can't resist opening
the box in the hope of enhancing her own beauty. She
finds nothing inside but an "infernal and Stygian
sleep", which sends her into a deep and unmoving
torpor.

The abduction of Psyche by William-Adolphe

Bouguereau, 1895.
Reunion and immortal love

Hermes and Psyche in Palais Garnier at Paris.

Above Psyche's head there is a butterfly.
Their names are in Greek, ΨΥΧΗ (Psyche)
and ΕΡΜΗΣ (Hermes).

Meanwhile, Cupid's wound has healed into a scar, and

he escapes his mother's house by flying out of a
window. When he finds Psyche, he draws the sleep
from her face and replaces it in the box, then pricks
her with an arrow that does no harm. He lifts her into
the air, and takes her to present the box to Venus.
He then takes his case to Zeus, who gives his consent
in return for Cupid's future help whenever a choice
maiden catches his eye. Zeus has Hermes convene an
assembly of the gods in the theater of heaven, where
he makes a public statement of approval, warns Venus
to back off, and gives Psyche ambrosia, the drink of
immortality,[16] so the couple can be united in
marriage as equals. Their union, he says, will redeem
Cupid from his history of provoking adultery and
sordid liaisons.[17] Zeus's word is solemnized with a
wedding banquet.

With its happy marriage and resolution of conflicts,

the tale ends in the manner of classic comedy[18] or
Greek romances such as Daphnis and Chloe.[19] The
child born to the couple will be Voluptas (Greek
Hedone ‘Ηδονή), "Pleasure".

The Wedding of Cupid and Psyche

The Wedding Banquet of Cupid and Psyche (1517) by Raphael and his workshop,
from the Loggia di Psiche, Villa Farnesina

Godefroy Engelmann after Raphael, Marriage of Cupid and

Psyche, 1825, lithograph
The assembly of the gods has been a popular subject
for both visual and performing arts, with the wedding
banquet of Cupid and Psyche a particularly rich
occasion. With the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, this
is the most common setting for a "Feast of the
Gods" scene in art. Apuleius describes the scene in
terms of a festive Roman dinner party (cena). Cupid,
now a husband, reclines in the place of honor (the
"top" couch) and embraces Psyche in his lap. Zeus and
Hera situate themselves likewise, and all the other
gods are arranged in order. The cupbearer of Jove
(Zeus's other Roman name) serves him with nectar,
the "wine of the gods"; Apuleius refers to the
cupbearer only as ille rusticus puer, "that country
boy", and not as Ganymede. Liber, the Roman god of
wine, serves the rest of the company. Vulcan, the god
of fire, cooks the food; the Horae ("Seasons" or
"Hours") adorn, or more literally "empurple",
everything with roses and other flowers; the Graces
suffuse the setting with the scent of balsam, and the
Muses with melodic singing. Apollo sings to his lyre,
and Venus takes the starring role in dancing at the
wedding, with the Muses as her chorus girls, a satyr
blowing the aulos (tibia in Latin), and a young Pan
expressing himself through the pan pipes (fistula).

The wedding provides closure for the narrative

structure as well as for the love story: the
mysteriously provided pleasures Psyche enjoyed in the
domus of Cupid at the beginning of her odyssey, when
she entered into a false marriage preceded by funeral
rites, are reimagined in the hall of the gods following
correct ritual procedure for a real marriage.[20] The
arranging of the gods in their proper order (in
ordinem) would evoke for the Roman audience the
religious ceremony of the lectisternium, a public
banquet held for the major deities in the form of
statues arranged on luxurious couches, as if they were
present and participating in the meal.[21]

Marriage of Cupid and Psyche (c. 1773),

jasperware by Wedgwood based on the 1st-
century Marlborough gem, which most likely
was intended to depict an initiation rite
(Brooklyn Museum)

The wedding banquet was a favored theme for

Renaissance art. As early as 1497, Giovanni Sabadino
degli Arienti made the banquet central to his
description of a now-lost Cupid and Psyche cycle at
the Villa Belriguardo, near Ferrara. At the Villa
Farnesina in Rome, it is one of two main scenes for
the Loggia di Psiche (ca. 1518) by Raphael and his
workshop, as well as for the Stanza di Psiche (1545–
46) by Perino del Vaga at the Castel Sant'
Angelo.[21] Hendrick Goltzius introduced the subject
to northern Europe with his "enormous" engraving
called The Wedding of Cupid and Psyche (1587, 43
by 85.4 cm),[22] which influenced how other northern
artists depicted assemblies of the gods in general.[23]
The engraving in turn had been taken from
Bartholomaeus Spranger's 1585 drawing of the same
title, considered a "locus classicus of Dutch
Mannerism" and discussed by Karel Van Mander for
its exemplary composition involving numerous
figures.[24]

In the 18th century, François Boucher's Marriage of

Cupid and Psyche (1744) affirmed Enlightenment
ideals with the authority figure Jupiter presiding over
a marriage of lovely equals. The painting reflects the
Rococo taste for pastels, fluid delicacy, and amorous
scenarios infused with youth and beauty.[25]
As allegory

Psyche in the grove of Cupid, 1345

illustration of the Metamorphoses,
Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana [26]

The story of Cupid and Psyche was readily allegorized.

In late antiquity, Martianus Capella (5th century)
refashions it as an allegory about the fall of the
human soul.[27] For Apuleius, immortality is granted
to the soul of Psyche as a reward for commitment to
sexual love. In the version of Martianus, sexual love
draws Psyche into the material world that is subject
to death:[28] "Cupid takes Psyche from Virtue and
shackles her in adamantine chains".[29]

The tale thus lent itself to adaptation in a Christian

or mystical context, often as symbolic of the soul.[30]
In the Gnostic text On the Origin of the World, the
first rose is created from the blood of Psyche when
she loses her virginity to Cupid.[31] To the Christian
mythographer Fulgentius (6th century), Psyche was an
Adam figure, driven by sinful curiosity and lust from
the paradise of Love's domain.[32] Psyche's sisters are
Flesh and Free Will, and her parents are God and
Matter.[33] To Boccaccio (14th century), the
marriage of Cupid and Psyche symbolized the union of
soul and God.[32]
The temptation to interpret the story as a religious
or philosophical allegory can still be found in modern
scholarship. Psyche by her very name represents the
aspirations of the human soul – towards a divine love
personified in Cupid. But this misses the
characterisation of Cupid as a corrupter who delights
in disrupting marriages (The Golden Ass IV. 30) and
is himself "notorious for his adulteries" (VI. 23), the
marked sensuality of his union with Psyche (V. 13),
the help Jupiter offers him if he provides a new girl
for Jupiter to seduce (VI. 22) and the name given to
Cupid and Psyche's child – Voluptas (Pleasure).

Classical tradition
Apuleius's novel was among the ancient texts that
made the crucial transition from roll to codex form
when it was edited at the end of the 4th century. It
was known to Latin writers such as Augustine of
Hippo, Macrobius, Sidonius Apollinaris, Martianus
Capella, and Fulgentius, but toward the end of the
6th century lapsed into obscurity and survived what
was formerly known as the "Dark Ages" through
perhaps a single manuscript.[34] The Metamorphoses
remained unknown in the 13th century,[35] but copies
began to circulate in the mid-1300s among the early
humanists of Florence.[36] Boccaccio's text and
interpretation of Cupid and Psyche in his Genealogia
deorum gentilium (written in the 1370s and published
1472) was a major impetus to the reception of the
tale in the Italian Renaissance and to its
dissemination throughout Europe.[37]
One of the most popular images from the tale was
Psyche's discovery of a naked Cupid sleeping, found in
ceramics, stained glass, and frescos. Mannerist
painters were intensely drawn to the scene.[38] In
England, the Cupid and Psyche theme had its "most
lustrous period" from 1566 to 1635, beginning with
the first English translation by William Adlington. A
fresco cycle for Hill Hall, Essex, was modeled indirectly
after that of the Villa Farnesina around 1570,[39] and
Thomas Heywood's masque Love's Mistress
dramatized the tale to celebrate the wedding of
Charles I and Henrietta Maria, who later had her
withdrawing chamber decorated with a 22-painting
Cupid and Psyche cycle by Jacob Jordaens. The cycle
took the divinization of Psyche as the centerpiece of
the ceiling, and was a vehicle for the Neoplatonism
the queen brought with her from France.[40] The
Cupid and Psyche produced by Orazio Gentileschi for
the royal couple shows a fully robed Psyche whose
compelling interest is psychological, while Cupid is
mostly nude.[41]

Orazio Gentileschi exposed the erotic

vulnerability of the male figure in his Cupid
and Psyche (1628–30)

Another peak of interest in Cupid and Psyche occurred

in the Paris of the late 1790s and early 1800s,
reflected in a proliferation of opera, ballet, Salon art,
deluxe book editions, interior decoration such as
clocks and wall paneling, and even hairstyles. In the
aftermath of the French Revolution, the myth became
a vehicle for the refashioning of the self.[42] In English
intellectual and artistic circles around the turn of the
18th and 19th centuries, the fashion for Cupid and
Psyche accompanied a fascination for the ancient
mystery religions. In writing about the Portland Vase,
which was obtained by the British Museum around
1810, Erasmus Darwin speculated that the myth of
Cupid and Psyche was part of the Eleusinian cycle.
With his interest in natural philosophy, Darwin saw
the butterfly as an apt emblem of the soul because it
began as an earthbound caterpillar, "died" into the
pupal stage, and was then resurrected as a beautiful
winged creature.[43]
Literature

In 1491, the poet Niccolò da Correggio retold the

story with Cupid as the narrator.[44] John Milton
alludes to the story at the conclusion of Comus
(1634), attributing not one but two children to the
couple: Youth and Joy. Shackerley Marmion wrote a
verse version called Cupid and Psyche (1637), and La
Fontaine a mixed prose and verse romance (1699).[44]

William Blake's mythology draws on elements of the

tale particularly in the figures of Luvah and Vala.
Luvah takes on the various guises of Apuleius's Cupid:
beautiful and winged; disembodied voice; and serpent.
Blake, who mentions his admiration for Apuleius in his
notes, combines the myth with the spiritual quest
expressed through the eroticism of the Song of
Solomon, with Solomon and the Shulamite as a
parallel couple.[45]

Cupid and Psyche (1817) by Jacques-Louis David: the

choice of narrative moment—a libertine adolescent Cupid
departs Psyche's bed with "malign joy"[46]—was a new
twist on the well-worn subject[47]

Mary Tighe published her poem Psyche in 1805. She

added some details to the story, such placing two
springs in Venus' garden, one with sweet water and
one with bitter. When Cupid starts to obey his
mother's command, he brings some of both to a
sleeping Psyche, but places only the bitter water on
Psyche's lips. Tighe's Venus only asks one task of
Psyche, to bring her the forbidden water, but in
performing this task Psyche wanders into a country
bordering on Spenser's Fairie Queene as Psyche is
aided by a mysterious visored knight and his squire
Constance, and must escape various traps set by
Vanity, Flattery, Ambition, Credulity, Disfida (who
lives in a "Gothic castle"), Varia and Geloso.
Spenser's Blatant Beast also makes an appearance.
Tighe's work influenced English lyric poetry on the
theme, such as the Ode to Psyche (1820) by John
Keats.[48] Letitia Elizabeth Landon's poem Cupid and
Psyche (1826) illustrates an engraving of a painting
by W. E. West.

William Morris retold the Cupid and Psyche story in

verse in The Earthly Paradise (1868–70), and a
chapter in Walter Pater's Marius the Epicurean
(1885) was a prose translation.[44] About the same
time, Robert Bridges wrote Eros and Psyche: A
Narrative Poem in Twelve Measures (1885; 1894).

Sylvia Townsend Warner transferred the story to

Victorian England in her novel The True Heart
(1929), though few readers made the connection till
she pointed it out herself.[49] Other literary
adaptations include The Robber Bridegroom (1942),
a novella by Eudora Welty; Till We Have Faces
(1956), a version by C.S. Lewis narrated by a sister
of Psyche; and the poem "Psyche: 'Love drove her to
Hell'" by H.D. (Hilda Doolittle).[50] Robert A. Johnson
made use of the story in his book She: Understanding
Feminine Psychology, published in 1976 by
HarperCollinsPublishers (http://www.harpercollins.co
m/search-results?contributor=robert-a-johnson) .

Translations

William Adlington made the first translation into

English of Apuleius's Metamorphoses in 1566, under
the title The XI Bookes of the Golden Asse,
Conteininge the Metamorphosie of Lucius Apuleius.
Adlington seems not to have been interested in a
Neoplatonic reading, but his translation consistently
suppresses the sensuality of the original.[38] Thomas
Taylor published an influential translation of Cupid
and Psyche in 1795, several years before his complete
Metamorphoses.[51] A translation by Robert Graves
appeared in 1951 as The Transformations of Lucius
Otherwise Known as THE GOLDEN ASS, A New
Translation by Robert Graves from Apuleius, published
by Farrar, Straus & Giroux, New York.

Folklore and children's literature

Pan and Psyche (1872-74) by

Edward Burne-Jones

Origins

Folklore scholarship has also occupied itself with the

possible origin of the narrative.[52][53] Swedish
folklorist Jan-Öjvind Swahn, who authored a long
study on the story, and German philologist Ludwig
Friedländer defended the idea that it originated from
a legitimate folklore source.[54][55]

Some scholars tend to look for a single source: Stith

Thompson suggested an Italian origin,[56] while
Lesky, Gédeon Huet[57] and Georgios A. Megas
indicated a Greek origin.[58] French Émile Dermenghem
favoured a North African source,[59] followed by
French researchers Nedjima and Emmanuel Plantade,
who all argue that the tale is a reworking of Berber
folklore, since Apuleius was born and lived in
Madauros, Numidia, located in what is modern day
Algeria.[60]

Another line of scholars argue for some myth that

underlines the Apuleian narrative. German classicist
Richard August Reitzenstein supposed on an "Iranian
sacral myth", brought to Greece via Egypt.[61][62]
Graham Anderson argues for a reworking of mythic
material from Asia Minor (namely, Hittite: the Myth
of Telipinu).[63] In a study published posthumously,
Romanian folklorist Petru Caraman also argued for a
folkloric origin, but was of the notion that Apuleius
superimposed Graeco-Roman mythology on a pre-
Christian myth about a serpentine or draconic
husband, or a "King of Snakes" that becomes human
at night.[64]

On the other extreme, German classicist Detlev Fehling

took a hard and skeptical approach and considered the
tale to be a literary invention of Apuleius himself.[65]
Literary legacy

Friedländer also listed several European tales of

marriage between a human maiden and prince cursed
to be an animal, as related to the "Cupid and Psyche"
cycle of stories (which later became known as "The
Search for the Lost Husband" and "Animal as
Bridegroom").[66][67]

Bruno Bettelheim notes in The Uses of Enchantment

that the 18th-century fairy tale Beauty and the
Beast is a version of Cupid and Psyche. Motifs from
Apuleius occur in several fairy tales, including
Cinderella and Rumpelstiltskin, in versions collected by
folklorists trained in the classical tradition, such as
Charles Perrault and the Grimm brothers.[68] In the
Grimm version, Cinderella is given the task of sorting
lentils and peas from ash, and is aided by birds just as
ants help Psyche in the sorting of grain and legumes
imposed on her by Venus. Like Cinderella, Psyche has
two envious sisters who compete with her for the
most desirable male. Cinderella's sisters mutilate their
own feet to emulate her, while Psyche's are dashed to
death on a rocky cliff.[69] In Hans Christian
Andersen's The Little Mermaid, the Little Mermaid is
given a dagger by her sisters, who, in an attempt to
end all the suffering she endured and to let her become
a mermaid again, attempt to persuade her to use it
to slay the Prince while he is asleep with his new
bride. She cannot bring herself to kill the Prince,
however. Unlike Psyche, who becomes immortal, she
doesn't receive his love in return, but she,
nevertheless, ultimately earns the eternal soul she
yearns for.

Thomas Bulfinch wrote a shorter adaptation of the

Cupid and Psyche tale for his Age of Fable, borrowing
Tighe's invention of Cupid's self-wounding, which did
not appear in the original. Josephine Preston Peabody
wrote a version for children in her Old Greek Folk
Stories Told Anew (1897).

C.S. Lewis' Till We Have Faces is a retelling of

Apuleius' Cupid and Psyche from the perspective of
one of Psyche's sisters. Till We Have Faces is C.S.
Lewis' last work of fiction and elaborates on
Apuleius' story in a modern way.
Anna Koliber's' Faceless Lover is a 21st century
version of Cupid and Psyche shown as a modern-day
Intagram model/influencer and a flying contemporary
dancer with tattoed wings.

Performing arts

In 1634, Thomas Heywood turned the tale of Cupid

and Psyche into a masque for the court of Charles
I.[70] Lully's Psyché (1678) is a Baroque French opera
(a "tragédie lyrique") based on the 1671 play by
Molière, which had musical intermèdes by Lully.
Matthew Locke's semi-opera Psyche (1675) is a
loose reworking from the 1671 production. In 1800,
Ludwig Abeille premièred his four-act German opera
(singspiel) Amor und Psyche, with a libretto by Franz
Carl Hiemer based on Apuleius.

Psyche et L'Amour (1889) by

Bouguereau

In the 19th century, Cupid and Psyche was a source

for "transformations", visual interludes involving
tableaux vivants, transparencies and stage machinery
that were presented between the scenes of a
pantomime but extraneous to the plot.[71] During the
1890s, when tableaux vivants or "living pictures"
were in vogue as a part of vaudeville, the 1889
Psyché et l'Amour of Bouguereau was among the
artworks staged. To create these tableaux, costumed
performers "froze" in poses before a background
copied meticulously from the original and enlarged
within a giant picture frame. Nudity was feigned by
flesh-colored bodystockings that negotiated
standards of realism, good taste, and morality.[72]
Claims of educational and artistic value allowed
female nudes—a popular attraction—to evade
censorship.[73] Psyché et l'Amour was reproduced by
the scenic painter Edouard von Kilanyi, who made a
tour of Europe and the United States beginning in
1892,[74] and by George Gordon in an Australian
production that began its run in December 1894.[75]
The illusion of flight was so difficult to sustain that
this tableau was necessarily brief.[73] The performer
billed as "The Modern Milo" during this period
specialized in recreating female sculptures, a Psyche in
addition to her namesake Venus de Milo.[76]

Frederick Ashton choreographed a ballet Cupid and

Psyche with music by Lord Berners and decor by Sir
Francis Rose, first performed on 27 April 1939 by
the Sadler's Wells Ballet (now Royal Ballet). Frank
Staff danced as Cupid, Julia Farron as Psyche, Michael
Somes as Pan, and June Brae as Venus.[77]

Modern Adaptations

Cupid and Psyche continues to be a source of

inspiration for modern playwrights and composers.
Notable adaptations include:
Psyche (symphonic poem) by César Franck
(1888)[78]
"Psyché:poème dramatique en trois actes," (play)
by Gabriel Mourey, Paris, Mercure de France,
1913. "Syrinx" was composed by Claude Debussy
as incidental music for the play.[79]
Eros and Psyche (opera) with libretto by Jerzy
Żuławski, composed by Ludomir Różycki
(Wroclaw, Poland, 1917) [80]
Psyche: An Opera in Three Acts (opera) based on
the novel Psyche by Louis Couperus, composed by
Meta Overman (1955) [81][82]
Metamorphoses (play) by Mary Zimmerman,
adapted from the classic Ovid poem
Metamorphoses, including the myth of Eros and
Psyche (Northwestern University, 1996; Circle in
the Square Theatre, Broadway, NYC 2002)
The Golden Ass (play) by Peter Oswald, adapted
from Apuleius, commissioned for Shakespeare's
Globe (London, England 2002) [83]
Cupid and Psyche (musical) by with book and lyrics
by Sean Hartley and music by Jihwan Kim (New
York City, NY 2003).[84]
Cupid and Psyche (verse drama) by Joseph Fisher
(Stark Raving Theatre, Portland, OR 2002;
Staged Reading: Oregon Shakespeare Festival,
2002) [85]
Amor & Psyche (pastiche opera) arranged by Alan
Dornak (Opera Feroce (http://www.operaferoce.co
m/) , part of Vertical Player Repertory, New York
City, 2010)[86][87]
Cupid and Psyche: An Internet Love Story (play) by
Maria Hernandez, Emma Rosecan and Alexis
Stickovitch (YouthPLAYS, 2012) [88]
Psyche: A Modern Rock Opera (rock opera) by
Cindy Shapiro (Greenway Court Theater, Los
Angeles, CA, 2014) [89][90]
Cupid and Psyche (verse drama) by Emily C. A.
Snyder (Turn to Flesh Productions (http://www.tu
rntoflesh.org) [TTF], New York City, NY,
2014).[91] As part of the Love and Death Trilogy
(Staged Reading, TTF, New York City, NY 2018)
[92]
 Amor and Psyche (In Times of Plagues) (Short
film) by VestAndPage (2020) [93]

Psychology

Psyche showing her Sisters her Gifts from Cupid,

Painting by Jean-Honoré Fragonard

Viewed in terms of psychology rather than allegory,

the tale of Cupid and Psyche shows how "a mutable
person … matures within the social constructs of
family and marriage".[94] In the Jungian allegory of
Erich Neumann (1956), the story of Psyche was
interpreted as "the psychic development of the
feminine".[95][96]
Cupid and Psyche has been analyzed from a feminist
perspective as a paradigm of how the gender unity of
women is disintegrated through rivalry and envy,
replacing the bonds of sisterhood with an ideal of
heterosexual love.[97] This theme was explored in
Psyche's Sisters: Reimagining the Meaning of
Sisterhood (1988) by Christine Downing,[98] who
uses myth as a medium for psychology.

James Hillman made the story the basis for his

critique of scientific psychology, The Myth of
Analysis: Three Essays in Archetypal Psychology
(1983). Carol Gilligan uses the story as the basis for
much of her analysis of love and relationships in The
Birth of Pleasure (Knopf, 2002).
Fine and decorative arts

The story of Cupid and Psyche is depicted in a wide

range of visual media. Psyche is often represented
with butterfly wings, and the butterfly is her frequent
attribute and a symbol of the soul, though the
literary Cupid and Psyche never says that she has or
acquires wings. In antiquity, an iconographical
tradition existed independently of Apuleius's tale and
influenced later depictions.[99]

Ancient art

On this fragment from a sarcophagus used in the early 4th

century, Cupid and a butterfly-winged Psyche frame a
portrait of the deceased, carried on an eagle with a
cornucopia and spilling basket of fruit[100] (Indianapolis
Museum of Art)
 Eros and Psyche plaster medallion (1st
century A.D.)[101] excavated in Begram,
collections of National Museum of
Afghanistan;[102] on exhibit at British
Museum, London.[103]

Some extant examples suggest that in antiquity Cupid

and Psyche could have a religious or mystical meaning.
Rings bearing their likeness, several of which come
from Roman Britain, may have served an amuletic
purpose.[104] Engraved gems from Britain represent
spiritual torment with the image of Cupid torching a
butterfly.[105] The two are also depicted in high relief
in mass-produced Roman domestic plaster wares from
1st-2nd centuries AD found in excavations at Greco-
Bactrian merchant settlements on the ancient Silk
Road at Begram in Afghanistan[106] (see gallery
below). The allegorical pairing depicts perfection of
human love in integrated embrace of body and soul
('psyche' Greek for butterfly symbol for transcendent
immortal life after death). On sarcophagi, the couple
often seem to represent an allegory of love
overcoming death.[6]

A relief of Cupid and Psyche was displayed at the

mithraeum of Capua, but it is unclear whether it
expresses a Mithraic quest for salvation, or was
simply a subject that appealed to an individual for
other reasons. Psyche is invoked with "Providence"
(Pronoia) at the beginning of the so-called Mithras
Liturgy.[107]
In late antiquity, the couple are often shown in a
"chin-chuck" embrace, a gesture of "erotic
communion" with a long history.[108] The rediscovery
of freestanding sculptures of the couple influenced
several significant works of the modern era.

Other depictions surviving from antiquity include a

2nd-century papyrus illustration possibly of the
tale,[109] and a ceiling fresco at Trier executed during
the reign of Constantine I.[6]

Modern era

Cupid and Psyche (1867) by Alphonse Legros,

criticized for rendering female nudity as
"commonplace"
Works of art proliferated after the rediscovery of
Apuleius's text, in conjunction with the influence of
classical sculpture. In the mid-15th century, Cupid
and Psyche became a popular subject for Italian
wedding chests (cassoni),[110] particularly those of
the Medici. The choice was most likely prompted by
Boccaccio's Christianized allegory. The earliest of
these cassoni, dated variously to the years 1444–
1470,[111] pictures the narrative in two parts: from
Psyche's conception to her abandonment by Cupid;
and her wanderings and the happy ending.[112] With
the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, the subject was
the most common choice for specifying paintings of
the Feast of the Gods, which were popular from the
Renaissance to Northern Mannerism.[113]
Cupid and Psyche is a rich source for scenarios, and
several artists have produced cycles of works based on
it, including the frescoes at the Villa Farnesina (ca.
1518) by Raphael and his workshop; frescoes at
Palazzo del Tè (1527–28) by Giulio Romano;
engravings by the "Master of the Die" (mid-16th
century); and paintings by the Pre-Raphaelite Edward
Burne-Jones (in the 1870s–90s).[110] Burne-Jones
also executed a series of 47 drawings intended as
illustrations for Morris's poem.[114] Cupid and Psyche
was the subject of the only cycle of prints created by
the German Symbolist Max Klinger (1857–1920) to
illustrate a specific story.[115]

The special interest in the wedding as a subject in

Northern Mannerism seems to spring from a large
engraving of 1587 by Hendrik Goltzius in Haarlem of
a drawing by Bartholomeus Spranger (now
Rijksmuseum) that Karel van Mander had brought
back from Prague, where Spranger was court painter
to Rudolf II. The Feast of the Gods at the Marriage
of Cupid and Psyche was so large, at 16 7/8 x 33
5/8 in. (43 x 85.4 cm), that it was printed from
three different plates. Over 80 figures are shown,
placed up in the clouds over a world landscape that
can be glimpsed below. The composition borrows from
both Raphael and Giulio Romano's versions.[116]

The most popular subjects for single paintings or

sculpture are the couple alone, or explorations of the
figure of Psyche, who is sometimes depicted in
compositions that recall the sleeping Ariadne as she
was found by Dionysus.[117] The use of nudity or
sexuality in portraying Cupid and Psyche sometimes
has offended contemporary sensibilities. In the
1840s, the National Academy of Art banned William
Page's Cupid and Psyche, called perhaps "the most
erotic painting in nineteenth-century America".[118]
Classical subject matter might be presented in terms
of realistic nudity: in 1867, the female figure in the
Cupid and Psyche of Alphonse Legros was criticized as
a "commonplace naked young woman".[119] But during
the same period, Cupid and Psyche were also
portrayed chastely, as in the pastoral sculptures
Psyche (1845) by Townsend and Cupid and Psyche
(1846) by Thomas Uwins, which were purchased by
Queen Victoria and her consort Albert, otherwise keen
collectors of nudes in the 1840s and 50s.[120]
Portrayals of Psyche alone are often not confined to
illustrating a scene from Apuleius, but may draw on
the broader Platonic tradition in which Love was a
force that shaped the self. The Psyche Abandoned of
Jacques-Louis David, probably based on La Fontaine's
version of the tale, depicts the moment when Psyche,
having violated the taboo of looking upon her lover,
is abandoned alone on a rock, her nakedness expressing
dispossession and the color palette a psychological
"divestment". The work has been seen as an
"emotional proxy" for the artist's own isolation and
desperation during his imprisonment, which resulted
from his participation in the French Revolution and
association with Robespierre.[121]
Sculpture

Cupid and Psyche (from an original of 2nd century BC)

Cupid and Psyche (ca. 150 AD)

Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss (1793) by Antonio

Canova
Amor (Cupid) kisses Psyche by Antonio Canova, Louvre

Cupid and Psyche by Clodion (d. 1814)

Psyche by Bertel Thorvaldsen (d. 1844)

[122]
Paintings

Amor and Psyche (1589) by Jacopo Zucchi

Cupid and Psyche (1639–40) by Anthony van Dyck:
Cupid finds the sleeping Psyche.
Landscape with Psyche Outside the Palace of Cupid (The
Enchanted Castle) (1664) by Claude Lorrain
Amor and Psyche (1767) by Louis-Jean-François
Lagrenée
Cupid and Psyche in the nuptial bower (1792-93) by
Hugh Douglas Hamilton
Allegory of Love, Cupid and Psyche (between 1798 and
1805) by Goya
Psyche Lifted Up by Zephyrs (Romantic, c. 1800) by
Pierre-Paul Prud'hon

Cupid and Psyche (1808) by Benjamin West PRA

Psyche Abandoned (c. 1817) by François-Édouard Picot

Cupid and Psyche (1843) by Jean-Pierre Saint-Ours

Cupid and Psyche (1843) by William Page

Cupid and Psyche (1850–55) by Károly Brocky

Cupid Flying Away from Psyche (between 1872 and
1881) by Edward Burne-Jones
Psyche Receiving the Casket Back (between 1872 and
1881) by Edward Burne-Jones

Psyche (1890) by John Reinhard Weguelin

Cupid and Psyche (1891) by Annie Swynnerton

Psyche Opening the Golden Box (1903) by John William

Waterhouse
Cupid and Psyche (1907) by Edvard Munch

See also
Visual arts
portal

Beauty and the Beast – French fairy tale

Graciosa and Percinet – French literary fairy tale
written by Madame d'Aulnoy
 East of the Sun and West of the Moon – Norwegian
fairy tale
Tulisa, the Wood-Cutter's Daughter (Indian myth)
Snow-White and Rose-Red – German fairy tale
Pride and Prejudice

References
1. Dorothy Johnson, David to Delacroix: The Rise of
Romantic Mythology (University of North Carolina
Press, 2011), pp. 81–87.
2. Lewis, C. S. (1956). Till We Have Faces: A Myth
Retold (https://archive.org/details/tillwehavefacesm
00lewi_0) . Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. p. 311 (http
s://archive.org/details/tillwehavefacesm00lewi_0/pa
ge/311) . ISBN 0156904365.
3. Stephen Harrison, entry on "Cupid," The Oxford
Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome (Oxford
University Press, 2010), p. 338.
4. Wagenvoort, H. (1980). "Cupid and Psyche". Pietas.
pp. 84–92. doi:10.1163/9789004296688_007 (h
ttps://doi.org/10.1163%2F9789004296688_00
7) . ISBN 9789004296688.
5. Harrison, "Cupid and Psyche," in Oxford Encyclopedia
of Ancient Greece and Rome, p. 339.
6. Harrison, "Cupid and Psyche," Oxford Encyclopedia of
Ancient Greece and Rome, p. 338.
7. Entry on "Apuleius", in The Classical Tradition
(Harvard University Press, 2010), pp. 56–57.
8. E.J. Kenney, Apuleius: Cupid and Psyche (Cambridge
University Press, 1990), pp. 22–23
 9. Papaioannou, Sophia (1 January 1998). "Charite's
Rape, Psyche on the Rock and the Parallel Function of
Marriage in Apuleius' Metamorphoses". Mnemosyne.
51 (3): 302–324.
doi:10.1163/1568525982611506 (https://doi.or
g/10.1163%2F1568525982611506) .
JSTOR 4432843 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/44
32843) . ProQuest 1299144271 (https://search.pr
oquest.com/docview/1299144271) .
10. Jane Kingsley-Smith, Cupid in Early Modern
Literature and Culture (Cambridge University Press,
2010), p. 164.
11. The following summary is condensed from the
translation of Kenney (Cambridge University Press,
1990), and the revised translation of W. Adlington
by S. Gaseless for the Loeb Classical Library (Harvard
University Press, 1915), with reference to the
accompanying Latin text.
12. Papaioannou, "Charite's Rape, Psyche on the Rock,"
p. 319.
13. Max Nelson, "Narcissus: Myth and Magic," Classical
Journal 95.4 (2000), p. 364, citing S. Lancel,
"Curiositas et préoccupations spirituelles chez
Apulée," Revue de l'histoire des religions 160
(1961), pp. 41–45.
14. By the 6th-century mythographer Fulgentius; Joel C.
Relihan, Apuleius: The Tale of Cupid and Psyche
(Hackett, 2009), p. 65.
15. Cakes were often offerings to the gods, particularly in
Eleusinian religion; cakes of barley meal moistened
with honey, called prokonia (προκώνια), were
offered to Demeter and Kore at the time of first
harvest. See Allaire Brumfield, “Cakes in the liknon:
Votives from the Sanctuary of Demeter and Kore on
Acrocorinth,” Hesperia 66 (1997) 147–172.
16. Apuleius describes it as served in a cup, though
ambrosia is usually regarded as a food and nectar as a
drink.
17. Philip Hardie, Rumour and Renown: Representations
of Fama in Western Literature (Cambridge University
Press, 2012), p. 116; Papaioannou, "Charite's Rape,
Psyche on the Rock," p. 321.
18. Relihan, The Tale of Cupid and Psyche, p. 79.
19. Stephen Harrison, "Divine Authority in 'Cupid and
Psyche': Apuleius Metamorphoses 6,23–24," in
Ancient Narrative: Authors, Authority, and
Interpreters in the Ancient Novel. Essays in Honor of
Gareth L. Schmeling (Barkhuis, 2006), p. 182.
20. Harrison, "Divine Authority in 'Cupid and Psyche'," p.
179.
21. Harrison, "Divine Authority in 'Cupid and Psyche'," p.
182.
22. Ariane van Suchtelen and Anne T. Woollett, Rubens
and Brueghel: A Working Friendship (Getty
Publications, 2006), p. 60; Susan Maxwell, The
Court Art of Friedrich Sustris: Patronage in Late
Renaissance Bavaria (Ashgate, 2011), pp. 172, 174.
23. Van Suchtelen and Woollett, Rubens and Brueghel, p.
60; Maxwell, The Court Art of Friedrich Sustris, p.
172.
24. Martha Hollander, An Entrance for the Eyes: Space and
Meaning in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art
(University of California Press, 2002), pp. 11–12.
25. Michelle Facos, An Introduction to 19th Century Art
(Routledge, 2011), p. 20.
26. Manuscript Vat. Lat. 2194, Biblioteca Apostolica
Vaticana.
27. Danuta Shanzer, A Philosophical and Literary
Commentary on Martianus Capella's De Nuptiis
Philologiae et Mercurii Book 1 (University of
California Press, 1986), p. 69.
28. Relihan, The Tale of Cupid and Psyche, p. 59.
29. Martianus Capella, De Nuptiis 7; Chance, Medieval
Mythography, p. 271.
30. Mattei, Marina. "Literary and Figurative Themes.
Cupid and Psyche in Apuleius' fabula, crucible of all
the fairy-tales in the world". In: The Tale of Cupid
and Psyche: Myth in Art from Antiquity to Canova.
Edited by Maria Grazia Bernardini. L'Erma de
Bretschneider, 2012. p. 42. ISBN 978-88-8265-
722-2.
31. Patricia Cox Miller, "'The Little Blue Flower Is Red':
Relics and the Poeticizing of the Body," Journal of
Early Christian Studies 8.2 (2000), p. 229.
32. Entry on "Apuleius," Classical Tradition, p. 56.
33. Relihan, The Tale of Cupid and Psyche, p. 64.
34. Robert H.F. Carver, "The Rediscovery of the Latin
Novels," in Latin Fiction: The Latin Novel in Context
(Routledge, 1999), p. 257; Regine May, "The
Prologue to Apuleius' Metamorphoses and Coluccio
Salutati: MS Harley 4838," in Ancient Narrative.
Lectiones Scrupulosae: Essays on the Text and
Interpretation of Apuleius' Metamorphoses in Honour
of Maaike Zimmerman (Barkhuis, 2006), p. 282.
35. Carver, "The Rediscovery of the Latin Novels," p.
259.
36. May, "The Prologue to Apuleius' Metamorphoses,"
pp. 282–284.
37. Jane Kingsley-Smith, Cupid in Early Modern
Literature and Culture (Cambridge University Press,
2010), pp. 11, 165.
38. Kingsley-Smith, Cupid in Early Modern Literature and
Culture, p. 168.
39. Kingsley-Smith, Cupid in Early Modern Literature and
Culture, pp. 163, 168. The fresco cycle,
commissioned by Sir Thomas Smith, was based on
engravings by the Master of the Die and Agostino
Veneziano (1536), which had been taken from the
work of Michiel Coxie that was modeled on the
Loggia di Psiche.
40. Kingsley-Smith, Cupid in Early Modern Literature and
Culture, p. 173.
41. Kingsley-Smith, Cupid in Early Modern Literature and
Culture, p. 176.
42. Ewa Lajer-Burchart, Necklines: The Art of Jacques-
Louis David After the Terror (Yale University Press,
1999), pp. 278–279.
43. Kathleen Raine, Blake and Tradition (Routledge,
1969, 2002), vol. 1, p. 183.
44. Entry on "Apuleius," Classical Tradition, p. 57.
45. Raine, Blake and Tradition, vol. 1, pp. 182–203,
quoting Blake's notes on A Vision of the Last
Judgment, and especially pp. 183, 191 and 201.
46. As described by a contemporary reviewer of the new
work, quoted by Philippe Bordes, Jacques-Louis
David: Empire to Exile (Yale University Press, 2005),
p. 234.
47. Bordes, Jacques-Louis David, p. 232.
48. Keats, John (15 August 2021). "Ode To Psyche" (ht
tps://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44480/ode-
to-psyche) . Poetry Foundation.
49. J. Lawrence Mitchell, "Ray Garnett as Illustrator".
Powys Review 10 (spring 1982), pp. 9–28.
50. Entry on "Apuleius," Classical Tradition, p. 57.
51. Raine, Blake and Tradition, vol. 1, p. 182.
52. Walsh, Patrick G. The Roman novel: The 'Satyricon'
of Petronius and the 'Metamorphoses' of Apuleius (h
ttps://books.google.com/books?id=9xA8AAAAIAAJ
&dq=%22tulisa%22+cupid+and+psyche&pg=PA194) .
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970. pp.
193-195.
53. Cupane, Carolina (2018). "Intercultural Encounters in
the Late Byzantine Vernacular Romance". Reading the
Late Byzantine Romance. pp. 40–68.
doi:10.1017/9781108163767.003 (https://doi.or
g/10.1017%2F9781108163767.003) .
ISBN 9781108163767. S2CID 192357521 (http
s://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:192357521) .
54. Silva, Francisco Vaz da (1 October 2010). "The
Invention of Fairy Tales". Journal of American
Folklore. 123 (490): 398–425.
doi:10.5406/jamerfolk.123.490.0398 (https://doi.
org/10.5406%2Fjamerfolk.123.490.0398) .
55. Friedländer, Ludwig. Roman life and manners under the
early Empire. Vol. IV. London: Routledge. 1913. p.
102.
56. "The tale [of Cupid and Psyche] has most of the
elements of the present-day folk story (...) we have
here what certainly appears to be a real tale of the
Italian countryside during the reign of Marcus
Aurelius". Thompson, Stith (1977). The Folktale.
University of California Press. pp. 281-282. ISBN 0-
520-03537-2.
57. "Nous possêdons encore, dans l'histoire de Psyche,
inserée par Apulee dans son roman des
Metamorphoses, un vrai conte populaire de
l'antiquité ...". Huet, Gedeon Busken. Contes
populaires (https://archive.org/details/ContesPopula
ires/page/n42/mode/1up?q=psyche) . Paris: E.
Flammarion, 1923. p. 43.
58. Megas, G. 1967. Das Märchen von Amor und Psyche
in der griechischen Volksüberlieferung (AaTh 425,
428 & 432). Athens
59. Herrmann, Léon (1955). "Review of The Tale of
Cupid and Psyche, Aarne-Thompson 425 and 428".
Latomus. 14 (3): 494. JSTOR 41518077 (https://
www.jstor.org/stable/41518077) .
60. Plantade, Emmanuel and Nedjima. "Libyca Psyche:
Apuleius and the Berber Folktales (https://www.acade
mia.edu/3623771/Libyca_Psyche_Apuleius_and_the
_Berber_Folktales) ". In: Apuleius and Africa.
Editors: Benjamin Todd Lee, Luca Graverini, Ellen
Finkelpearl. Routledge, 2014. pp. 174-202.
61. Reitzenstein, Richard. Das märchen von Amor und
Psyche bei Apuleius (https://archive.org/details/dasm
rchenvonam00reituoft/page/21/mode/1up?q=deutun
g) . Leipzig: B.G. Teubner. 1912.
62. Wagenvoort, H. Pietas: Selected Studies in Roman
Religion (https://books.google.com/books?id=yel5D
wAAQBAJ&dq=%22iranian%22+cupid+and+psyche&pg
=PA86) . Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1980. p. 86. ISBN 90-
04-06195-9.
63. Anderson, Graham (2000). Fairytale in the ancient
world. Routledge. pp. 61-69. ISBN 978-0-415-
23702-4.
64. Repciuc, Ioana. "Identificarea sursei folclorice a
basmului Cupidon şi Psyché de către Petru Caraman –
în contextul cercetărilor internaţionale (https://bibli
oteca-digitala.ro/?volum=5097-anuarul-muzeului-et
nografic-al-moldovei--xv-2015) " [Petru Caraman's
Work on Identifying the Folkloric Source of Cupidon
şi Psyche Fairytale – In the Context of International
Research]. In: Anuarul Muzeului Etnografic al
Moldovei 15 (2015): 193, 197-205.
65. Dowden, Ken (October 1979). "Detlev Fehling: Amor
und Psyche: Die Schöpfung des Apuleius und ihre
Einwirkung auf das Märchen, eine Kritik der
romantischen Märchentheorie. (Akademie der
Wissenschaften und der Literatur: Abhandlungen der
Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaftlichen Klasse:
Jahrgang 1977: Nr. 9.) Pp. 110. Wiesbaden: Franz
Steiner, 1977. Paper, DM. 28". The Classical Review.
29 (2): 314. doi:10.1017/S0009840X00233465
(https://doi.org/10.1017%2FS0009840X0023346
5) .
66. Friedländer, Ludwig. Roman life and manners under the
early Empire. Vol. IV. London: Routledge. 1913. pp.
88-123.
67. Hurbánková, Šárka (2018). "G.B. Basile and Apuleius:
first literary tales : morphological analysis of three
fairytales" (https://doi.org/10.5817%2FGLB2018-
2-6) . Graeco-Latina Brunensia (2): 75–93.
doi:10.5817/GLB2018-2-6 (https://doi.org/10.58
17%2FGLB2018-2-6) .
68. Harrison, "Cupid and Psyche," Oxford Encyclopedia of
Ancient Greece and Rome, p. 339.
69. Amy K. Levin, The Suppressed Sister: A Relationship
in Novels by Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century
British Women (Associated University Presses,
1992), pp. 23–24 et passim.
70. Entry on "Apuleius", Classical Tradition, p. 57.
71. Anita Callaway, Visual Ephemera: Theatrical Art in
Nineteenth-Century Australia (University of New
South Wales Press, 2000), p. 177.
72. Charles Musser, "Comparison and Judgment across
Theater, Film, and the Visual Arts during the Late
Nineteenth Century," in Moving Pictures: American
Art and Early Film, 1880-1910 (Hudson Hills Press
for Williams College Museum of Art, 2005), pp. 6–
7; pp. 73–74.
73. Callaway, Visual Ephemera, p. 76.
74. Musser, "Comparison and Judgment across Theater,
Film, and the Visual Arts," p. 7.
75. Callaway, Visual Ephemera, p. 217.
76. Callaway, Visual Ephemera, p. 70
77. Arnold Haskell (ed) 'Gala Performance' (Collins 1955)
p213.
78. Tommasini, Anthony (5 October 1997).
"CLASSICAL MUSIC; Spelling Out The Musical Tale
of 'Psyche' " (https://www.nytimes.com/1997/10/0
5/arts/classical-music-spelling-out-the-musical-tale
-of-psyche.html) . The New York Times.
79. "Debussy's Syrinx: mystery, myth, and a manuscript -
Document - Gale Academic OneFile" (https://go.gale.
com/ps/anonymous?id=GALE%7CA265977519&sid=
googleScholar&v=2.1&it=r&linkaccess=abs&issn=875
68667&p=AONE&sw=w) .
80. Nine, Keris (2018-05-15). "OperaJournal: Różycki -
Eros and Psyche (Warsaw, 2017)" (https://operajou
rnal.blogspot.com/2018/05/rozycki-eros-and-psyche
-warsaw-2017.html) . OperaJournal. Retrieved
2019-12-06.
81. "Psyche - An opera in 3 acts by Meta Overman" (htt
ps://www.facebook.com/events/sydney-conservatoriu
m-of-music-the-university-of-sydney/psyche-an-ope
ra-in-3-acts-by-meta-overman/34686853255420
2/) . www.facebook.com. Retrieved 2019-12-06.
82. "Meta Overman's opera Psyche revived" (https://ww
w.limelightmagazine.com.au/news/meta-overmans-ope
ra-psyche-revived/) . Limelight. Retrieved
2019-12-06.
83. Guardian Staff (2002-07-31). "Something old,
something new" (https://www.theguardian.com/artan
ddesign/2002/jul/31/artsfeatures.features1) . The
Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077 (https://www.worldcat.o
rg/issn/0261-3077) . Retrieved 2019-12-06.
84. "Cupid and Psyche | TheaterMania" (https://www.th
eatermania.com/new-york-city-theater/reviews/cupid
-and-psyche_3922.html) . www.theatermania.com.
Retrieved 2019-12-06.
85. "Cupid & Psyche by Joseph Fisher | Playscripts Inc"
(https://www.playscripts.com/play/413#production
s) . www.playscripts.com. Retrieved 2019-12-06.
86. Schweitzer, Vivien (25 October 2010). "Variety
Show, With Arias Thrown In" (https://www.nytimes.
com/2010/10/26/arts/music/26opera.html) . The
New York Times.
87. "Repertoire" (http://www.operaferoce.com/repertoir
e) . Opera Feroce. Retrieved 2019-12-06.
88. "Cupid and Psyche: An Internet Love Story by Maria
Hernandez, Emma Rosecan, and Alexis Stickovitch" (h
ttps://www.youthplays.com/play/cupid-and-psyche-a
n-internet-love-story-by-maria-hernandez-emma-ros
ecan-alexis-stickovitch-245) . YouthPLAYS.
Retrieved 2019-12-06.
89. Fresh, Opera (2014-09-03). "Opera Fresh: Rock
Opera Offers New Telling Of The Psyche And Eros
Story" (https://operafresh.blogspot.com/2014/09/r
ock-opera-offers-new-telling-of-psyche.html) .
Opera Fresh. Retrieved 2019-12-06.
90. "Psyche Rock Opera" (http://www.psycherockopera.co
m/) . psycherockopera. Retrieved 2019-12-06.
91. "Review: Cupid and Psyche" (https://stagebuddy.co
m/theater/theater-review/review-cupid-psyche) .
StageBuddy.com. 2014-03-06. Retrieved
2019-12-06.
92. BWW News Desk. "Turn to Flesh Productions
Celebrates Five Years" (https://www.broadwayworld.c
om/off-off-broadway/article/Turn-to-Flesh-Product
ions-Celebrates-Five-Years-20180918) .
BroadwayWorld.com. Retrieved 2019-12-06.
93. "Review: Amor and Psyche" (http://pixelsgarage.com/
amor-and-psyche) . pixelsgarage.com. 2020-11-26.
Retrieved 2020-11-27.
94. Relihan, The Tale of Cupid and Psyche, p. 76.
95. , entry on "Apuleius," Classical Tradition, p. 56.
96. Neumann, Erich. Amor and Psyche: The psychic
development of the feminine. Vol. 24. Routledge,
2013
 97. Amy K. Levin, The Suppressed Sister: A Relationship
in Novels by Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century
British Women (Associated University Presses,
1992), p. 22.
98. Levin, The Suppressed Sister, p. 14.
99. Relihan, The Tale of Cupid and Psyche, p. xvii; Jean
Sorabella, "A Roman Sarcophagus and Its Patron,"
Metropolitan Museum Journal 36 (2001), p. 73.
100. "Sarcophagus panel: Cupid and Psyche", Indianapolis
Museum of Art description. (http://www.imamuseum.
org/art/collections/artwork/sarcophagus-panel-cupid
-and-psyche-) Archived (https://web.archive.org/we
b/20120622170258/http://www.imamuseum.org/ar
t/collections/artwork/sarcophagus-panel-cupid-and-
psyche-) 2012-06-22 at the Wayback Machine
The sarcophagus was made for retail, and the portrait
added later.
101. Kābul, Mūzah-ʼi (20 March 2018). Afghanistan:
Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, Kabul
(https://books.google.com/books?id=1D6wUrxqcRIC
&pg=PA141) . National Geographic Books.
ISBN 9781426202957. Retrieved 20 March 2018 –
via Google Books.
102. "Lost Treasures From the National Museum,
Afghanistan, Exhibitions, Photos, Information --
National Geographic" (https://web.archive.org/web/2
0080422063344/http://www.nationalgeographic.co
m/mission/afghanistan-treasures/) . National
Geographic Society. Archived from the original (htt
p://www.nationalgeographic.com/mission/afghanistan
-treasures/) on 2008-04-22.
103. "Looted Afghan treasures identified" (https://www.i
ndependent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/loote
d-afghan-treasures-identified-2229207.html?action
=gallery&ino=13) . independent.co.uk. 1 March
2011. Retrieved 20 March 2018.
104. Jean Bagnall Smith, "Votive Objects and Objects of
Votive Significance from Great Walsingham,"
Britannia 30 (1999), p. 36.
105. Dominic Perring, "'Gnosticism' in Fourth-Century
Britain: The Frampton Mosaics Reconsidered,"
Britannia 34 (2003), p. 119, citing also M. Henig,
"Death and the Maiden: Funerary Symbolism in Daily
Life," in Roman Life and Art in Britain, British
Archaeological Reports 41 (Oxford, 1977).
106. "Audio slide show, online at "Hidden Treasures of
Afghanistan," website hosted by National Geographic
for US venue of travelling exhibit" (http://www.natio
nalgeographic.com/mission/afghanistan-treasures/) .
Nationalgeographic.com. 2002-10-17. Retrieved
2013-10-06.
107. R.L. Gordon, "Franz Cumont and the Doctrines of
Mithraism," in Mithraic Studies (Manchester
University Press, 1975), p. 239.
108. Leo Steinberg, The Sexuality of Christ in Renaissance
Art and in Modern Oblivion (University of Chicago
Press, 1983, 2nd ed. 1996), p. 5.
109. Gaisser, The Fortunes of Apuleius and The Golden
Ass, p. 20.
110. Entry on "Apuleius," Classical Tradition, p. 57.
111. According to Maria Grazia Pernis and Laurie
Schneider Adams, Lucrezia Tornabuoni De' Medici and
the Medici Family in the Fifteenth Century (Peter
Lang, 2006), p. 24, the Medici family commissioned
a pair illustrating the tale for the wedding of
Lucrezia Tornabuoni and Piero di Cosimo de' Medici
in 1444, owing perhaps to the appeal of Boccaccio's
allegory to the intellectual but devout Piero. Other
scholars hold the same view, but 1470 is perhaps the
more widely accepted date. See Julia Haig Gaisser,
The Fortunes of Apuleius and The Golden Ass: A
Study in Transmission and Reception (Princeton
University Press, 2008), p. 119, especially note 193
for further sources. In that case, the chests were
created for the wedding of Lorenzo de' Medici,
Piero's son, and Clarice Orsini.
112. Gaisser, The Fortunes of Apuleius, p. 119.
113. Bull, pp. 342-343
114. Vera Schuster, "The Pre-Raphaelites in Oxford,"
Oxford Art Journal 1 (1978), p. 7.
115. J. Kirk T. Varnedoe with Elizabeth Streicher, Graphic
Works of Max Klinger (Dover, 1977), p. 78.
116. The engraving at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (h
ttp://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/200
0.113) ; at the British Museum, in sections (http
s://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_onlin
e/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=147773
0&partId=1&searchText=1852,1211.63&page=1) ;
Bull, 342–343
117. Marion Lawrence, "Ships, Monsters and Jonah,"
American Journal of Archaeology 66.3 (1962), p.
290.
118. John D'Emilio and Estelle B. Freedman, Intimate
Matters: A History of Sexuality in America
(University of Chicago Press, 1988, 1997), 2nd ed.,
pp. 108, 148.
119. Alison Smith, The Victorian Nude: Sexuality,
Morality, and Art (Manchester University Press,
1996), p. 120.
120. Smith, The Victorian Nude, pp. 71–72.
121. Ewa Lajer-Burchart, Necklines: The Art of Jacques-
Louis David After the Terror (Yale University Press,
1999), p. 54ff., especially p. 61.
122. "Eros and Psyche 1st century BCE from Pella,..." (htt
ps://museumofclassicalantiquities.tumblr.com/post/5
2711974153/eros-and-psyche-1st-century-bce-fro
m-pella) museumofclassicalantiquities. Retrieved
20 March 2018.
Sources

Malcolm Bull, The Mirror of the Gods, How

Renaissance Artists Rediscovered the Pagan Gods,
pp. 342–343, Oxford UP, 2005, ISBN 978-
0195219234
Anita Callaway, Visual Ephemera: Theatrical Art in
Nineteenth-Century Australia (University of New
South Wales Press, 2000)
Harrison, Stephen (2006). "Divine Authority in
'Cupid and Psyche': Apuleius Metamorphoses
6,23–24" (https://ancientnarrative.com/article/v
iew/24411) . In Schmeling, Gareth L. (ed.).
Authors, Authority and Interpreters in the Ancient
Novel: Essays in Honor of Gareth L. Schmeling.
 Barkhuis. pp. 172–185. ISBN 978-90-77922-
13-2.

Further reading
Belmont, Nicole (1991). "La tâche de Psyché".
Ethnologie française. 21 (4): 386–391.
JSTOR 40989292 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/409
89292) .
Benson, Geoffrey C. (2018). "Cupid and Psyche and the
Illumination of the Unseen". In Cueva, Edmund; Harrison,
Stephen; Mason, Hugh; Owens, William; Schwartz,
Saundra (eds.). Re-Wiring The Ancient Novel, 2 Volume
set: Volume 1: Greek Novels, Volume 2: Roman Novels
and Other Important Texts. Vol. 24. Barkhuis. pp. 85–
116. ISBN 978-94-92444-56-1.
JSTOR j.ctvggx289.30 (https://www.jstor.org/stabl
e/j.ctvggx289.30) .
Bonilla y San Martin, Adolfo. El mito de Psyquis: un
cuento de niños, una tradición simbólica y un estudio
sobre el problema fundamental de la filosofía. Barcelona:
Imprenta de Henrich y Cia. 1908.
Edwards, M. J. (1992). "The Tale of Cupid and
Psyche". Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik. 94:
77–94. JSTOR 20188784 (https://www.jstor.org/sta
ble/20188784) .
Felton, D. (1 October 2013). "Apuleius' Cupid
Considered as a Lamia ( Metamorphoses 5.17-18)".
Illinois Classical Studies. 38: 229–244.
doi:10.5406/illiclasstud.38.0229 (https://doi.org/10.
5406%2Filliclasstud.38.0229) .
Gaisser, Julia Haig (2017). "Cupid and Psyche". A
Handbook to the Reception of Classical Mythology.
pp. 337–351. doi:10.1002/9781119072034.ch23 (h
ttps://doi.org/10.1002%2F9781119072034.ch23) .
ISBN 9781119072034.
E. J. Kenney (Ed.), Apuleius. Cupid and Psyche -
Cambridge Greek and Latin Classics. Cambridge
University Press. 1990. ISBN 0-521-26038-8.
Morwood, James (2010). "Cupid Grows Up". Greece &
Rome. 57 (1): 107–116.
doi:10.1017/S0017383509990301 (https://doi.org/
10.1017%2FS0017383509990301) .
JSTOR 40929430 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/409
29430) . S2CID 162521335 (https://api.semanticsch
olar.org/CorpusID:162521335) .
Purser, Louis Claude. The Story of Cupid and Psyche as
related by Apuleius. London: George Bell and Sons. 1910.
pp. xlvii-li.
Tommasi Moreschini, Chiara O.. "Gnostic Variations on
the Tale of Cupid and Psyche". In: Intende, Lector -
 Echoes of Myth, Religion and Ritual in the Ancient Novel.
Edited by Marília P. Futre Pinheiro, Anton Bierl and
Roger Beck. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2013. pp. 123-
144. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110311907.123
Vertova, Luisa (1 January 1979). "Cupid and Psyche in
Renaissance Painting before Raphael". Journal of the
Warburg and Courtauld Institutes. 42 (1): 104–121.
doi:10.2307/751087 (https://doi.org/10.2307%2F7
51087) . JSTOR 751087 (https://www.jstor.org/sta
ble/751087) . S2CID 195046803 (https://api.semant
icscholar.org/CorpusID:195046803) .
Zimmermann, Martin et al. (Ed.). Aspects of Apuleius'
Golden Ass. Volume II. Cupid and Psyche. Groningen,
Egbert Forsten. 1998. ISBN 90-6980-121-3.

Folkloristic analysis:
Bottigheimer, Ruth B. (1989). "CUPID AND PSYCHE vs.
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST: THE MILESIAN AND THE
MODERN". Merveilles & Contes. 3 (1): 4–14.
JSTOR 41389987 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/413
89987) .
Caraman, Petru. "Identificarea episodului despre
Cupidon şi Psyche, din romanul „Metamorphoses” al lui
Apuleius, cu un basm autentic popular (https://bibliote
ca-digitala.ro/?volum=5091-anuarul-muzeului-etnograf
ic-al-moldovei--ix-2009) " [Identification of the
Episode on Cupidon and Psyche, in the Novel
Metamorphoses by Appuleius, with An Authentic Folk
Fairy Tale]. In: Anuarul Muzeului Etnografic al Moldovei
9 (2009): 11–85.
Herrmann, Léon. "Légendes locales et thèmes littéraires
dans le conte de Psyché". In: L'antiquité classique,
Bruxelles, tome 21, fasc. 1, 1952, pp. 13-27.
Hood, Gwenyth. “Husbands and Gods as Shadowbrutes:
Beauty and the Beast from Apuleius to C. S. Lewis”. In:
Mythlore 56 Winter (1988): pp. 33–60.
Hurbánková, Šárka (2018). "G.B. Basile and Apuleius:
first literary tales : morphological analysis of three
fairytales" (https://doi.org/10.5817%2FGLB2018-2-
6) . Graeco-Latina Brunensia (2): 75–93.
doi:10.5817/GLB2018-2-6 (https://doi.org/10.581
7%2FGLB2018-2-6) .
Jacobs, Joseph. European Folk and Fairy Tales (https://e
n.wikisource.org/wiki/Europa%27s_Fairy_Book/Notes#n
ote17) . New York, London: G. P. Putnam's sons. 1916.
pp. 246–249.
Perencin, Nicola (2020). "Le nozze funebri di Psiche -
Apuleio, Met. IV 33-34 alla luce del folklore romeno" (h
ttps://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=94597
3) . Lingua. Language and Culture. XIX (1): 89–112.
Plantade, Emmanuel et Nedjima. «Du conte berbère au
mythe grec: le cas d'Éros et Psyché» (https://www.acad
emia.edu/8467595/_Du_conte_berb%C3%A8re_au_my
the_grec_le_cas_d%C3%89ros_et_Psych%C3%A9_#:
~:text=Quant%20%C3%A0%20lui%2C%20le%20r%C3%
A9cit,%C3%A9crite%20ni%20sous%20forme%20figur%
C3%A9e.) . In: Revue des Études Berbères no 9, 2013,
pp. 533–563.
Plantade, Emmanuel (2023). Le conte de Psyché et
Cupidon, témoin du folklore d’Afrique du nord: essai sur
la poétique transculturelle d’Apulée (in French).
Hildesheim Zürich New York: Georg Olms Verlag.
ISBN 9783487164137.
Reider (2015). "A Demon in the Sky: The Tale of
Amewakahiko, a Japanese Medieval Story". Marvels &
Tales. 29 (2): 265.
doi:10.13110/marvelstales.29.2.0265 (https://doi.or
g/10.13110%2Fmarvelstales.29.2.0265) .
S2CID 161774066 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/Co
rpusID:161774066) .
Repciuc, Ioana. "Identificarea sursei folclorice a
basmului Cupidon şi Psyché de către Petru Caraman – în
contextul cercetărilor internaţionale (https://bibliotec
a-digitala.ro/?volum=5097-anuarul-muzeului-etnografi
c-al-moldovei--xv-2015) " [Petru Caraman's Work on
Identifying the Folkloric Source of Cupidon şi Psyche
Fairytale – In the Context of International Research].
In: Anuarul Muzeului Etnografic al Moldovei 15 (2015):
187–205.
Swahn, Jan-Ojvind. The Tale of Cupid and Psyche. Lund,
C. W. Κ. Gleerup, s. d. (1955).
Wright, James R. G. (1971). "Folk-Tale and Literary
Technique in Cupid and Psyche". The Classical Quarterly.
21 (1): 273–284.
 doi:10.1017/S0009838800029013 (https://doi.org/
10.1017%2FS0009838800029013) . JSTOR 637841
(https://www.jstor.org/stable/637841) .
S2CID 170565870 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/Co
rpusID:170565870) .

External links
Wikisource has original text related to this
article:
Cupid and Psyche
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cupid
and Psyche.
Tales Similar to Beauty and the Beast (https://we
b.archive.org/web/20170728093929/http://ww
w.surlalunefairytales.com/beautybeast/other.html)
(Texts of Cupid and Psyche and similar monster or
beast as bridegroom tales, mostly of AT-425C
form, with hyperlinked commentary).
Robert Bridges' Eros and Psyche at archive.org (htt
ps://archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3A%2
2Bridges%2C%20Robert%20Seymour%2C%20184
4-1930%22%20eros) : PDF (https://archive.org/
details/cu31924013439025) or read online (htt
ps://archive.org/stream/cu31924013439025#pa
ge/n81/mode/2up)
Mary Tighe, Psyche or, the Legend of Love (1820)
HTML (http://web.nmsu.edu/~hlinkin) or PDF (h
ttp://web.nmsu.edu/~hlinkin/Psyche)
"Cupid and Psyche". A poem by Letitia Elizabeth
Landon from The Literary Souvenir, 1827.
Walter Pater, Marius the Epicurean, chapter 5
(1885)
Gutenberg Project: Walter Pater, Marius the
Epicurean, Vol. 1 (https://www.gutenberg.or
g/ebooks/4057) (plain text)
Blackmask: Walter Pater, Marius the
Epicurean: chapter 5 (https://web.archive.or
g/web/20060213105907/http://www.blac
kmask.com/books57c/7mrs1dex.htm)
Victorian Prose: Walter Pater, Marius the
Epicurean, Vol. 1 (https://web.archive.org/w
eb/20070928061838/http://www.victoria
nprose.org/texts/Pater/Works/mar_85_1.p
df) (PDF)
 The Baldwin Project: The Enchanted Palace
(http://www.mainlesson.com/display.php?aut
hor=peabody&book=greek&story=cupid)
and The Trial of Psyche (http://www.mainles
son.com/display.php?author=peabody&book=
greek&story=psyche)
Thomas Bulfinch, The Age of Fable (1913)
Folktexts: Cupid and Psyche (http://www.pit
t.edu/~dash/cupid.html) by D. L. Ashliman
Hermetic Philosophy: Cupid and Psyche (http://ww
w.plotinus.com/myth_cupid_psyche_copy.htm)
(Illustrated with painting and sculpture.)
Cupid and Psyche: A New Play in Blank Verse (http
s://web.archive.org/web/20131112010158/htt
p://www.cupidandpsyche.net/)
 Turn to Flesh Productions (http://www.turntofles
h.com)
Edwards, Lee R. (1979). "The Labors of Psyche:
Toward a Theory of Female Heroism". Critical
Inquiry. 6 (1): 33–49. doi:10.1086/448026 (ht
tps://doi.org/10.1086%2F448026) .
JSTOR 1343084 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/
1343084) . S2CID 162110603 (https://api.sem
anticscholar.org/CorpusID:162110603) .

Art

Art Renewal Center: "Cupid & Psyche" by Sharrell

E. Gibson (http://www.artrenewal.org/articles/20
01/Cupid_and_Psyche/cupidpsyche.php)
(Examples and discussion of Cupid and Psyche in
painting.)
 Warburg Institute Iconographic Database (c. 470
images of Cupid and Psyche) (https://iconographi
c.warburg.sas.ac.uk/category/vpc-taxonomy-0068
41)
Tale of Cupid and Psyche engravings by Maestro
del Dado and Agostino Veneziano from the De
Verda collection (http://www.colecciondeverda.co
m/search/label/Fabula%20de%20Amor%20y%20Psi
que)

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?

title=Cupid_and_Psyche&oldid=1172424855"

This page was last edited on 27 August 2023, at

00:33 (UTC). •
Content is available under CC BY-SA 4.0 unless otherwise
noted.