Stories of Love

The story of Psyche and Cupid

by Apuleius
Even though she was the most beautiful
princess of the three sisters, Psyche was
only admired, not loved by men.
Psyche is so beautiful as to cause envy from
Venus.
Venus told Cupid: “make the
girl fall madly in love with the
vilest and most despicable
creature in the world.”

But Cupid himself fell in love with

Psyche at first sight.
Psyche’s father got a terrible oracle
from Apollo.
A winged serpent was destined
to become Psyche’s husband.
Psyche was left on top of the
mountain to wait for her husband.
Zephyr carried her down from the
mountain.
Psyche had a very nice sleep.
Psyche entered an empty but beautiful
garden.
Psyche settled down here. Every night, a man
would come and left at dawn.
Psyche showed her two sisters her palace,
which made them quite envious.
Persuaded by her sisters, Psyche was determined to see the real
face of her husband.
 Burnt by the lamp oil, Cupid left
Psyche beholding Cupid angrily, saying “Love cannot live
with the light of a lamp where there is no trust.”
When Psyche came for Cupid, Venus required
that she complete three tasks.
Task 1: To sort a heap of different seeds properly before dawn
The ants helped Psyche out.
Task 2: To obtain some golden
fleece from the fierce rams

Green reed: “Psyche, do not

approach the rams directly. … Later,
when the sun begins to set, go to the
meadow where the rams have
grazed and collect the bits of fleece
caught on the low-hanging
branches.”
Task 3: To fill one crystal flask with
the black water falling from the
hill
An eagle helped
Psyche fill the flask
One more task: To go to
the underworld and ask
Proserpine to fill the
golden box with beauty.
Psyche paid Charon and got across river Styx.
Psyche fed the Cerberus.
Psyche received the box of beauty from Proserpine.
Out of curiosity and vanity, Psyche
opened the Golden Box, and freed
sleep out if it.
Cupid found Psyche sleeping in front of the gate.
Cupid woke up Psyche.
Cupid and Psyche got married, witnessed by Gods and
Goddesses.
Psyche: Goddess of Soul
Union of Cupid and Psyche: the union of Love and Soul
They had a daughter, who they named Hedone (Goddess of
pleasure).
“Love sets up resonances in
the deepest abysses of our
being. It is a lightning flash of
the eternal within the flow
of time.”
Eight Brief Tales of Lovers
 One ill-fated love story:
death of lovers

Why does mulberry

turn from white to
red?
 Pyramus and Thisbe
from Metamorphoses by Ovid
Pyramus and Thisbe were childhood sweethearts.
“But at least you (the wall)
let us speak together. You
give a passage for loving
words to reach loving ears.
We are not ungrateful.”
They decided to elope one night.
Thisbe
escaped
from the
lioness.
Pyramus, who thought Thisbe had been killed by the
lioness, committed suicide. His blood spurted up over
the berries and dyed them dark red.
Thisbe came back, only to
find Pyramus bathed in
blood and dead.
Thisbe: “Your own hand
killed you. I too can be
brave. Only death would
have had the power to
separate us. It shall not
have that power now.”
"O wretched parents, mine and his, grant those
whom love and death has joined to be laid
together in the same tomb."
[Ovid, Metamorphoses 4.155]

"O tree, who now shade with your branches the

poor body of one, and soon will shade two, keep
the marks of our death and always bear your
fruit of a dark colour as a memorial of our
double death.“
[Ovid, Metamorphoses 4.160]
The deep red fruit of the
mulberry: the everlasting
memorial of the true lovers
Further thinking: do you know any other story similar
to that about Pyramus and Thisbe?

Romeo and Juliet

妾发初覆额，折花门前剧。
郎骑竹马来，绕床弄青梅。
同居长干里，两小无嫌猜，
十四为君妇，羞颜未尝开。
低头向暗壁，千唤不一回。
十五始展眉，愿同尘与灰。
常存抱柱信，岂上望夫台。
十六君远行，瞿塘滟滪堆。
五月不可触，猿声天上哀。
门前迟行迹，一一生绿苔。
苔深不能扫，落叶秋风早。
八月蝴蝶黄，双飞西园草。
感此伤妾心，坐愁红颜老。
早晚下三巴，预将书报家。
相迎不道远，直至长风沙。
—— 李白《长干行》
尾生与女子期于梁下，女子不来，水至不
去，抱梁柱而死。

—— 《庄子 · 杂篇 · 盗跖第二十九》
Orpheus and Eurydice
by Virgil and Ovid
“In the deep still woods upon the Thracian mountains
Orpheus with his singing lyre led the trees,
Led the wild beasts of the wilderness.”
 The serpent bites
Eurydice 5

On her wedding day, Eurydice was

bit by a viper and died.
Orpheus went to the
underworld
Hades and Persephone listening to Orpheus’ song in the Underworld
The wheel of Ixion stood motionless; Sisiphus sat at rest upon his
stone; Tantalus forgot his thirst.
Even the Erinyes (the Furies) wept for Orpheus’ music.
O Gods who rule the dark and silent world,
To you all born of a woman needs must come.
All lovely things at last go down to you.
You are the debtor who is always paid.
A little while we tarry up on earth.
Then we are yours forever and forever.
But I seek one who came to you too soon.
The bud was plucked before the flower bloomed.
I tried to bear my loss. I could not bear it.
Love was too strong a god. O King, you know
If that old tale men tell is true, how once
The flowers saw the rape of Proserpine.
Then weave again for sweet Eurydice.
Life’s pattern that was taken from the loom
Too quickly. See, I ask a little thing,
Only that you will lend, not give, her to me.
She shall be yours when her years’ span is full.
Orpheus could take her on one condition: he would not look
back at Eurydice until they reached the upper world.
"To you this tale refers,
Who seek to lead your mind
Into the upper day;
For he who overcome should turn back his gaze
Towards the Tartarean cave,
Whatever excellence he takes with him
He loses when he looks on those below."
[Boethius, Consolation of Philosophy 3.52]
Orpheus lost Eurydice
for the second time and
for good.
Maenad or Bacchantes,
women frenzied with
wine
Pentheus’s punishment
The Maenads tore
Orpheus limb from limb,
and flung his head into
the river Hebrus.
Orpheus’ head
Further thinking: do you know anyone else who
looked back and was punished?

Lot’s wife, who became a

pillar of salt
Bible: Genesis 19
Lot fleeting from Sodom
But Lot's wife, behind him, looked back, and became a pillar
of salt.
halcyon
Ceyx and Alcyone
by Ovid
Ceyx: a king in Alcyone:
Thessaly, daugher of
Aeolus
son of Lucifer
Ceyx set off for his journey.
Ceyx died from a storm created by Zeus.
Hera sent Iris to Hypnos
Morpheus, son of Hypnos, went to fulfill his
task.
Morpheus assumed the form of Ceyx and told
Alcyone the truth.
Alcyone found Ceyx body floating in the sea.
Alcyone was changed
into a bird. So was
Ceyx.
Halcyon days: seven days when the sea lies still
and calm.
Further thinking: can you recall any Chinese stories
where lovers become birds?
 两家求合葬，合葬华山傍。
东西植松柏，左右种梧桐。
枝枝相覆盖，叶叶相交通。
中有双飞鸟，自名为鸳鸯。
仰头相向鸣，夜夜达五更。
行人驻足听，寡妇起彷徨。
多谢后世人，戒之慎勿忘！
——— 《孔雀东南飞》

在天愿作比翼鸟，在地愿为连理枝。
—— 白居易《长恨歌》
Baucis and Philemon
from Metamorphoses by Ovid
In the Phrygian hill-
country, an oak
and a linden grew
from a single trunk.
Jupiter and Mercury pretended to be poor wayfarers
to find out how hospitable people in Phrygia were.
They were dismissed hundreds of times till they
were kindly admitted into the humblest hovel.
Baucis and Philemon warmly received Jupiter and
Mercury.
Baucis and Philemon tried to catch their only goose
to give their guests a treat.
Their hut was turned into a stately pillared temple,
as a reward.
“Let us be your priests,
guarding this temple for you
—…let neither of us ever
have to live alone. Grant that
we may die together.”
The linden and the oak
grew from one trunk.
致橡树 每一阵风过，
舒婷 我们都互相致意，
我如果爱你—— 但没有人，
绝不像攀援的凌霄花， 听懂我们的言语。
借你的高枝炫耀自己； 你有你的铜枝铁干，
我如果爱你—— 像刀，像剑，也像戟；
绝不学痴情的鸟儿， 我有我红硕的花朵，
为绿荫重复单调的歌曲； 像沉重的叹息，
也不止像泉源， 又像英勇的火炬。
常年送来清凉的慰藉； 我们分担寒潮、风雷、霹雳；
也不止像险峰， 我们共享雾霭、流岚、虹霓。
增加你的高度，衬托你的威仪。 仿佛永远分离，
甚至日光， 却又终身相依。
甚至春雨。 这才是伟大的爱情，
不，这些都还不够！ 坚贞就在这里：
我必须是你近旁的一株木棉， 爱——
作为树的形象和你站在一起。 不仅爱你伟岸的身躯，
根，紧握在地下； 也爱你坚持的位置，
叶，相触在云里。 足下的土地。
Pygmalion and Galatea
from Metamorphoses by Ovid
Pygmalion, a gifted
sculptor and woman-
hater of Cyprus, resolved
never to marry.
Nevertheless, he devoted
all his genius to making
statue of a woman.
Pygmalion fell in love with the statue he
made.
Receiving no response from the statue,
Pygmalion was desperately unhappy.
Pygmalion prayed to Venus,
asking the goddess for a
maiden like his statue.
The statue was alive!
Pygmalion named the maiden Galatea, and they got
married. Their son, Paphos gave his name to Venus’
favorite city.
Unrequited Love
Endymion and Selene
by Theocritus
Endymion the shepherd,
As his flock he guarded,
She, the Moon, Selene,
Saw him, loved him, sought him,
Coming down from heaven
To the glade on Latmus,
Kissed him, lay beside him,
Blessed is his fortune.
Evermore he slumbers,
Tossing not nor turning,
Endymion the shepherd.
Endymion sleeps
forever, immortal, but
never conscious.
Apollo and Daphne
from Metamorphoses by
Ovid
Daphne, daughter of
river-god Peneus, was
love-and-marriage-
Apollo fell in love with
Daphne at first sight.
 Do not fear. Stop and
find out who I am...I am
the Lord of Delphi, and I
love you!

Apollo started pursuing

Daphne.
 Help me!
Father,
help me!

Daphne asked for her

father’s help
Daphne turned into a
laurel tree.
“O fairest of maiden, you
are lost to me. But at least
you shall be my tree. With
your leaves my victors shall
wreathe their brows. You
shall have your part in all my
triumphs. Apollo and his
laurel shall be joined
together wherever songs are
sung and stories told.”
Alpheus and Arethusa
from Metamorphoses by Ovid
The spring of Arethusa, in Ortygia,
Syracuse Sicily, Italy
Arethusa, a huntress,
was a follower of
Artemis. She would
have nothing to do
with men.
One day, tired and hot
from hunting, Arethusa
bathed in one river.
Arethusa fled from Alpheus, the river
Worn out at last, Arethusa called to Artemis
for help.
Artemis changed
Arethusa into a
spring of water.
Artemis made a
tunnel under the
sea from Greece to
Sicily.
Alpheus changed back into a river
and followed Arethusa.
Alpheus makes his way far under the deep with his waters,
Travels to Arethusa with bridal gifts, fair leaves and
flowers.
Teacher of strange ways is Love, that knavish boy, maker of
mischief.
With his magical spell he taught a river to dive.