Who is Psyche?

By: Lyric Coleman

Hello again! In today's section I’ll be explaining the lore behind Psyche (or Psykhe or Ψυχη which is the translation and Greek way to say it) – another lesser known goddess in Greek myths. Psyche is the Greek goddess of the soul and is the wife of Eros (in Roman mythology known as Cupid), the god of love/desire. She represents the soul as well a butterfly. She was the youngest daughter of three to an unnamed king and queen according to Theoi.com and thecollector.com. She was extremely beautiful which earned her the ire of Aphrodite (in Roman mythology known as Venus.) Apuleuis wrote “She was so perfect human speech was too poor to describe or even praise it satisfactorily.” This caused men around her to stop worshipping the goddess and turn to worship her instead. Out of anger, Aphrodite had commanded her son, Eros,  to make Psyche fall in love with the most hideous men, but instead the god himself had fallen in love with her and carried her off to his hidden palace. 

Psyche drawn by Visual Arts major, Yalianis Martinez Diaz

Eros had hidden his identity from Psyche and told her to never try to see his face. Out of jealousy, her sisters Aglaura and Cidippe had tricked her into disobeying Eros’ requests which caused him to forsake her. Psyche had searched the entire world for Eros and ended up getting service from Aphrodite. As punishment for falling in love with a god, the goddess gave her a series of harsh tasks. These tasks included separating different grains from one another, shearing gold fleeces from backs of violent rams, and collecting black water from the River Styx. Many mythical creatures had helped Psyche along the way which helped her complete the tasks, but the final challenge was obtaining the beauty of Proserpine into a golden box.  She completed the tasks and Eros was fully healed. He had heard about her struggles and flew to her aid, begging Zeus (Jupiter in Roman Mythology) to make her immortal so they could be together. Zeus agreed on one condition; Eros had to help him get with any young woman he wished to be with. 

An assembly was held where Zeus instructed that Aphrodite was to do no harm to Psyche anymore, and he transformed Psyche into the goddess of soul. Following the transformation, Eros and Psyche got married and had a daughter named Hedone (or Voluptas in Roman), the goddess of pleasure and delight.