Week 4 Reading B: Cupid and Psyche

Since I ended up doing the reading late, I will be declaring these for Reading B (grace period! I really am running late) and extra credit. But I got my notes done and I can write a story tonight, whoo-hoo!

Venus and the Goddesses

Venus doesn't get child support from Vulcan, ha ha: "Remember your father Vulcan makes no allowance from his estate for equipping you."

she rebukes Cupid for not "fearing your step-father, Mars, the world’s strongest and mightiest warrior."

not sure if I want to use an allegorical goddess but Venus does invoke her: "Dare I ask for help from my enemy Moderation, whom my son’s very excesses so often offend? Yet I shudder at the thought of tackling that squalid old peasant woman."

Venus then runs into Juno and Ceres, and they try (and fail) to calm her

Psyche's Prayer

Psyche does to temple of Ceres: there are wreaths of wheat and barley; sickles, and Psyche tidies it up. then Psyche prays to her... lots of good deatils here: “I beseech you ... by the unspoken mystery of the sacred basket, by the winged flight of your dragon-servants, by the furrowed Sicilian fields and Pluto’s chariot and the swallowing earth, by Proserpine’s descent to a gloomy wedding, the torch-lit discovery of that same daughter..."

Juno's temple: "...gold embroidered ribbons, attached to the branches and the doorposts, whose lettering spelled the name of the goddess to whom they were dedicated" 

(Psyche at the Shrines, by Burne-Jones

Venus and Mercury

Mercury bears news for Venus

Anxiety and Sorrow: more personifications; these are servants of Venus

Venus and Psyche

the first test: wheat, millet and barley, poppy-seeds, chickpeas, lentils and beans, and mixed the heaps all together in one pile -- she needs them sorted; the ants help her ... I could start the chain there, where the ants want something

Psyche's Next Task

next task: she needs a hank of fleece from golden sheep

reed speaks to her and tells her to wait and gather bits of fleece from the branches which have touched the sheep

(Psyche's Second Task, by Giulio Romano)

The Third Task

next task: water from a dark spring that feeds the Styx and Cocytus... carry it back in a crystal jar

I like the serpents who guard the spring: "fierce serpents slithered from holes in the cliffs, extending their heads, eyes given to unblinking vigil, their pupils on watch at every moment"

and the waters are characters too: “Off with you! Where are you going? See here! What are you doing? Beware! Be gone! You’ll die!” ... that is really cool: the waters themselves could demand something

Ganymede comes to the rescue: he fetches the water in the phial

(Psyche in the Underworld, by Hillemacher)

The Jar of Beauty

then, one last task: take jar to Proserpine and get some of her beauty

she goes to a tower, intending to kill herself, but the turret speaks to her! “Listen to me." -- and it tells her how to find the portal to Dis, warns her to take "barley-cake soaked in honeyed wine" in each hand, and two coins in her mouth... then warns she'll meet lame ass and lame driver who will ask to pick up fallen sticks: ignore him! next is Charon: give him one coin; a corpse in water will ask for help - refuse; old women at loom will ask for help - refuse; these are traps to make her drop the barley-cakes; she will meet Cerberus and will need to give him one barley-cake; Proserpine will offer fancy feast, but eat bread only; she will need other cake and other coin for return journey... and do NOT look in the jar!

The Sleep of the Dead

but of course she does, plunges into sleep, and Cupid goes to Jupiter for help: he agrees provided Cupid gives him a nice girl

The Wedding Feast

cast of characters at wedding feast: Cupid Psyche Jupiter Juno Ganymede Bacchus-Liber Vulcan Hours Graces Muses Apollo Venus Satyr ... a woodland creature of Pan’s piping his reeds.  

(Cupid and Psyche's Wedding, by Raphael)