Amor & Psyche... Psyche & Eros... Cupid en Psyche. Different names for the same story. It is a story that is fundamentally a myth, but because of its structure and hidden values is also considered a fairy tale.
Indeed, Amor was the Roman god of love; his Greek equivalent was Eros. And indeed Cupid which is another name for the Roman god Amor. The story has moved with the times and therefore has different names.
The name of Psyche remains the same everywhere, she was a beautiful king's daughter. Even more magnificent than Aphrodite (Venus), the goddess of beauty, love and fertility. In ancient Greek times, both the butterfly as well as the soul was called “Psyche” (ψυχή). This is because the development of the caterpillar into a butterfly, was seen in classical antiquity as a parallel to our inner life. The story of Psyche and Eros begins through the jealousy of Eros' mother: Aphrodite. She notices that the men on earth no longer worshipped her because of Psyche's beauty and, as a result, her temples became less and less frequented. Aphrodite, therefore, in revenge, sends her son to make her fall in love, through the arrows of his bow, with the most hideous and ugliest man he could find.
However, the young god Eros falls head over heels in love with Psyche and pricks himself with his love arrow.
Psyche -even though she has never seen him, in fact, only spoken to him- falls in love with Eros and they marry. Eros provides her with a beautiful palace and gives her everything her heart desires, but she no longer sees her family and likewise Psyche is not allowed to see him at all. Because of her pining for her two sisters, Eros allows them to meet. Both sisters do not understand that Psyche is married to a man she has never seen, and through their jealousy try to convince her to kill him.
Psyche then grabs a dagger that night, while Eros is sleeping beside her, and ignites an oil lamp so that she can see her husband for the first time. She sees the most beautiful man she has ever seen, but her surprise causes her to tilt the oil lamp, causing a drop of oil to fall and wake Eros. Eros is furious because of the dagger he sees in his lover's hands and because his trust has been betrayed. He runs off and is captured by his mother Aphrodite. This first part of this fairy tale myth symbolizes the inner journey that Psyche must make. As with the fairy tale 'Belle & the Beast', it shows that this start of a transformation must be done without distraction from the outside world. It is an inner journey that must leave distractions of desire, passion and beauty outside. Just as Belle is not yet allowed to see the true face of the beast. Psyche is unaware of her unconscious, which is symbolized by Eros. Eros also represents the male part (animus) in her. She is satisfied but still completely ignorant of her true “self. The still ego-oriented Psyche may be married and thus connected to the unconscious, but has no control over it. Psyche is unaware of all the processes taking place in her unconscious. Both sisters can be seen as the shadows of Psyche. The Shadows especially want to prevent the ego-self (Psyche) from her further development into a long and happy consciousness, or the higher self. These shadows also appear in many other fairy tales, just think of Cinderella's stepsisters or the sisters in the story of Frau Holle. The dagger that Psyche carries with her shows that some awareness is slowly coming to the unconscious. The drop that falls and awakens Eros can be compared to the bite out of the apple by Eve in the Biblical story. Adam and Eve are banished from Paradise after this, as is Psyche. Psyche has to leave her castle and Eros departs from her life.
This can be seen as the liberation of the divine power of the unconscious holding her captive. It is the emergence of a desire for individuation.
The beginning of understanding that what he or she was is not all that it has to offer before. The true beginning of gaining an enriched consciousness! Second part of the story Psyche -still immensely in love- wants to do everything possible to reconnect with her husband Eros and be with him.
While wandering, she is searching for her beloved Eros when she encounters Pan, the God of the countryside. He tells her not to sit in her grief, but to accept it and worship Eros.
Next, Psyche meets her sisters again. She sends these to a cliff, from which they both fall to their deaths. Psyche asks the help of the goddesses Demeter (Ceres) and Hera (Juno), to find her husband.
Despite their compassion, they do not respond to Psyche's request for help. They feel that the beauty of the gods should be honored, and is above mortal beauty. In addition, they do not want to attack Aphrodite -who is still angry with jealousy. The Four Trials of Aphrodite:
Psyche -who, by the way, is also pregnant- is in despair and decides to ask Aphrodite herself for help. Aphrodite makes her suffer by making her perform four impossible tasks. First, Psyche is given three hours to sort out a enormous mountain of different seeds. If she succeeds in this, Aphrodite will take her to Eros. It seems an impossible task, but because of the help she gets from the ants, she succeeds with flying colors.
Aphrodite invents another task. She calls Psyche to her as soon as the sun rises, and asked her to collect the beautiful golden wool from the sheep(/rams) that were grazing along the bank at the edge of the forest.
A dangerous trial, since these sheep have an aggressive nature and when she plucks at their fur could kill her.
Psyche again sees it as an impossible test that would mean her death, which makes her want to throw herself off a rock in the bank so she will drown.
But then she hears a soft whisper.
This whisper comes from a green reed, advising her not to jump and to wait for the night. In the night, along the branches in the forest, she could gather the precious wool that had stuck to them. Psyche listens to the green reed and, after completing the task, brings the beautiful golden wool directly to Aphrodite. As a third task, Psyche must fill a glass pitcher with the water from the spring at the top of a dangerous and steep mountain. The empty spaces in the mountain are home to dangerous serpents. Even the water next to the rugged mountain advises her not to make the climb because it would mean her death.
However, an eagle appears to Psyche and asks her for the crystal jar. This then flies up, and not long after brings her the water from the spring. In the last task, Psyche must wander to the underworld and retrieve from Persephone -the wife of Hades- a box of beauty ointment. For this task, Psyche must die, and while she wants to throw herself from a high tower, she receives direct advice from the tower. He tells her not to join the table, where a meal will be served for her, and that she must keep her distance from both Persephone and the box.
Thus, she must not open the box at any time. Psyche survives the underworld, but once on earth with the case containing Persephone's beauty ointment, she cannot resist temptation and opens the box. At that same moment, Hypnos (a personification of sleep) jumps out, after which Psyche falls into a deep never-ending sleep. Eros, meanwhile, escaped and saw Psyche during his flight. Eros realized what he had done to her. He fought Hypnos and returned him to his box, then kissed Psyche awake.
After Psyche delivered the box to Aphrodite, Eros took Psyche to Zeus to ask for his help. Zeus gave his consent to a divine marriage, after which Psyche became a Goddess and she was accepted by Aphrodite. Not much later, Psyche gave birth to a daughter named Hedone (Translated: Joy/pleasure, Roman variant: Voluptas).
Analysis second part
The beginning of the second part symbolizes the compulsive feeling of the individual to learn more about the relationship between the ego and the unconscious. Once aware of the unconscious, the ego makes every effort to become the “self” and stay connected to it. The first steps on the path of individuation are to become master of our shadows. This is beautifully symbolized by the crashing of Psyche's sisters.
The fact that the goddesses Demeter and Hera do not help Psyche represents the fact that creativity and life-wellness do not come from the ego, but emerge from our unconscious, at this stage Psyche has not yet arrived there, she is still completely ego-oriented.
The four tasks that Psyche must accomplish are equivalent to the principle of 3/4ths. The principle states that a minimum of three steps are needed to achieve transformation during the fourth step. (Also look at 'Awaking through the Mirror’). Psyche's first task in which she has to sort the seeds represents the ordering of mental despair. Often we think that something is impossible because we have solved previous problems from the ego, and this would not work in a situation impossible for the ego.
The ants that come to help Psyche symbolize the natural self that helps her -still in a completely unconscious way- to come to completion. The seeds represent her emotions, feelings and inner potential. These need to be ordered in order to develop further, but also so that they will not overwhelm her.
Erich Neumann states in his analysis of the fairy tale that the seeds also symbolize the man's sperm, defining that Psyche must renounce the lusts of the external. The symbolism behind the second task can be compared to the steps from Alchemy. According to alchemy, you have to go through certain steps and stages before you reach your inner gold. This is also the case with the aggressive sheep (or rams). By not going directly to the gold, symbolized by the rams' fur, but picking a little bit each time from the trees. This is because it is not possible to go from 0 to 100 in 1 beat, so it is also not possible to find your inner gold directly. Night is the time of our unconscious. The day represents the rational ego, the dominant. Dusk stands for our thinking, musing, and so night stands for our unconscious processes and intuition. This can also be linked to the alchemical phases Nigredo, Albedo, Citrinitas and Rubedo. During the second task, the embrace of the animus (the male part of the Psyche) begins. During the third task, it is in balance with her anima. And it knows that the ego cannot solve the problem. The masculine energy gives way to the feminine. Despite the fact that many say you have to kill the Ego, I disagree. The ego is very useful and helps us move forward, although you should not let it be in charge and let it climb the mountain of the unconscious. The ego should hover near it, but not in the unconscious self. The eagle (the symbol of Zeus), represents the higher self, which becomes visible. The water for the transformation. Those who discover the power of the unconscious want to identify with this power. Logical but not entirely as desired, since you thereby forget pieces of yourself and thus fail to recognize them. This is exactly what happens during the fourth and final task. The temptation of living completely from the unconsciousness overtakes her as she opens the box. Eros goes with his beloved Psyche to the supreme God of Greek mythology: Zeus. He represents in this story the enriched consciousness, which is achieved. The long and happy consciousness, which also symbolizes the divine marriage. The fairy tale myth is about the transformation of the total Psyche, not primarily about the transformation of the feminine. The path towards an enriched 'self' is about the balance between the anima & animus, the transformation of the ego and the acceptance and mastery of the shadows. A story about profound love as well as profound transformation to your true 'self'.
Which part of Amor and Psyche appeals to you the most?
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