Reading Notes (Extra Credit): Week 2
The story I chose to read for extra credit was Part A of Cupid and Psyche from The Golden Ass by Apuleius, translated into English by Tony Kline.
The story begins with a young girl being captured on her wedding day. Her wails annoy an old woman who threatens to have the men who kidnapped the woman burn her alive if she continues wailing. The girl tells her sad story and her fears that her betrothed will be killed by the kidnappers, as she saw in a dream, to which the old woman tells her not to worry, that dreams occurring in the daytime do not come true. (Perhaps here I could add some details about the old woman or the curious narrator? This story might also be fun to do in a modern setting.)
The old woman then tells her the story of Cupid and Psyche. Psyche, a beautiful princess, is worshipped by people for her beauty, arosing the jealousy of Venus. Venus orders her son, Cupid, to make Psyche fall in love with a horrendously ugly, poor, and sick man. An oracle at Apollo's temple informs Psyche's parents of her fate, after which she is delivered to the specified cliff to be offered up to fate. Instead of meeting a horrible fate, however, Cupid (unbeknownst to Psyche) has her transported to a palace where he makes love to her as her husband under the condition that she never see what he looks like, warning her to not listen to her sisters who he reluctantly allows to visit her. (If I did retell this story, I could make it from the point of view of one of the invisible servants in the palace. Perhaps the old woman telling the kidnapped woman the story could have some divine connection through which she knows this story. Perhaps she could be one of the invisible servants come to earth as a mortal?)
After seeing the splendor that Psyche lives in, her sisters grow jealous and, deducing that her husband is possibly a beautiful god, advise the now pregnant Psyche to hide a lamp and knife and to kill her husband as he sleeps, telling her that he is actually a hideous serpent that will eat her when she is about to give birth. Psyche does as they say, but sees that her husband is Cupid, at which point she pricks herself with his arrows, falls in love with him, and accidentally drips hot oil on him, waking him up. He flees from her as he said he would if she ever saw him. He then declares she will never be with him again and that he will punish her sisters. (Here I could add a scene where Cupid is confronted by his mother, Venus, who is upset that he deceived her and took Psyche as his wife.)
A distraught Psyche tries to commit suicide but the river she jumps into puts her back on shore, afraid of Cupid's wrath. Pan sees her and tells her to not try to kill herself again, attempting to console her. She walks away and finds her sisters, telling them that she did what they told her to do and that Cupid then told her that he would marry her sisters instead (here she lies in order to get revenge on them). The two sisters, each told separately of this by Psyche and believing themselves to be the new, sole wife of Cupid, throw themselves off of the cliff, expecting Cupid to have his winds take them to the palace. Instead, each falls to their deaths adn Psyche is avenged. (Here I would like to add more information about Pan and make clearer the role he plays in the story; perhaps I could have him advise Psyche on how to take revenge on her sisters after she tells him her sad story?)
The story begins with a young girl being captured on her wedding day. Her wails annoy an old woman who threatens to have the men who kidnapped the woman burn her alive if she continues wailing. The girl tells her sad story and her fears that her betrothed will be killed by the kidnappers, as she saw in a dream, to which the old woman tells her not to worry, that dreams occurring in the daytime do not come true. (Perhaps here I could add some details about the old woman or the curious narrator? This story might also be fun to do in a modern setting.)
The old woman then tells her the story of Cupid and Psyche. Psyche, a beautiful princess, is worshipped by people for her beauty, arosing the jealousy of Venus. Venus orders her son, Cupid, to make Psyche fall in love with a horrendously ugly, poor, and sick man. An oracle at Apollo's temple informs Psyche's parents of her fate, after which she is delivered to the specified cliff to be offered up to fate. Instead of meeting a horrible fate, however, Cupid (unbeknownst to Psyche) has her transported to a palace where he makes love to her as her husband under the condition that she never see what he looks like, warning her to not listen to her sisters who he reluctantly allows to visit her. (If I did retell this story, I could make it from the point of view of one of the invisible servants in the palace. Perhaps the old woman telling the kidnapped woman the story could have some divine connection through which she knows this story. Perhaps she could be one of the invisible servants come to earth as a mortal?)
After seeing the splendor that Psyche lives in, her sisters grow jealous and, deducing that her husband is possibly a beautiful god, advise the now pregnant Psyche to hide a lamp and knife and to kill her husband as he sleeps, telling her that he is actually a hideous serpent that will eat her when she is about to give birth. Psyche does as they say, but sees that her husband is Cupid, at which point she pricks herself with his arrows, falls in love with him, and accidentally drips hot oil on him, waking him up. He flees from her as he said he would if she ever saw him. He then declares she will never be with him again and that he will punish her sisters. (Here I could add a scene where Cupid is confronted by his mother, Venus, who is upset that he deceived her and took Psyche as his wife.)
A distraught Psyche tries to commit suicide but the river she jumps into puts her back on shore, afraid of Cupid's wrath. Pan sees her and tells her to not try to kill herself again, attempting to console her. She walks away and finds her sisters, telling them that she did what they told her to do and that Cupid then told her that he would marry her sisters instead (here she lies in order to get revenge on them). The two sisters, each told separately of this by Psyche and believing themselves to be the new, sole wife of Cupid, throw themselves off of the cliff, expecting Cupid to have his winds take them to the palace. Instead, each falls to their deaths adn Psyche is avenged. (Here I would like to add more information about Pan and make clearer the role he plays in the story; perhaps I could have him advise Psyche on how to take revenge on her sisters after she tells him her sad story?)
Painting of Psyche by John William Waterhouse. Source: Wiki Commons
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