Psyche – The Legend Of A Girl Who Became A Goddess

The great heroine of Greek mythology is Psyche, whose name means "soul". The Latin writer Lucius Apuleius told her story in the novel "The Golden Ass". Her challenging adventures and her marriage to Cupid, the God of Love, is a relationship that begins in darkness and ends in joy.

Transcript

Psyche.

The legend of a girl who became a goddess.

The great heroine of Greek mythology is Psyche,

Whose name means soul.

The Latin writer Lucius Apuleus told her story in the novel The Golden Ass.

Her challenging adventures and her marriage to Cupid the god of love is a relationship that begins in darkness and ends in joy.

My name is Gerald Blomire.

I adapted the story for you,

And if you're sitting or lying comfortably,

Then I'll begin.

Once upon a time,

A king and queen had three daughters.

Psyche and her sisters were the most beautiful girls in the land.

Both her older sisters were vain,

But Psyche,

The most beautiful,

Never thought about her looks.

She touched people's hearts so deeply that crowds came to see her.

People offered her flowers,

Blew her kisses,

And called her the queen of beauty and of love.

This title,

However,

Already belonged to Venus,

And when the goddess heard this,

She became angry and envious.

It was no consolation to remember that mortal beauty passes.

Venus vowed to make Psyche suffer.

She summoned her winged son,

Cupid,

A famous and feared archer.

His arrows did not kill,

But brought love with infinite joy and sorrow for a lifetime.

Venus commanded that Cupid should use his magic arrows to make Psyche fall passionately in love with a horrible man.

Cupid prepared his weapons,

Made himself invisible,

And flew down to earth.

At that moment,

Psyche was asleep in her bed.

Cupid touched her heart with a golden arrow of love.

Psyche suddenly opened her eyes,

And he fell in love with this mortal girl.

He was shocked,

Hurt himself,

And even forgot that he was invisible.

Regardless of his wound,

The beauty of the girl touched him so deeply that he regretted the harm he had done.

He poured the healing joy he always carried with him over her locks to undo his work.

The princess dreamed on,

And Cupid returned to the heavenly mountain with a heavy heart.

Venus waited for a long time.

Then,

When she saw that Psyche's heart had somehow escaped the arrows,

She cast a spell on the girl.

From then on,

No suitors came to woo her.

Her parents were worried and asked the oracle for advice.

The voice said,

Princess Psyche will never marry a mortal.

She shall be given to him who waits for her there on the mountain.

He overcomes gods and men.

The parents despaired,

And the people grieved over the fate of their beloved princess.

Psyche alone resigned herself to her fate.

We have unwittingly angered Venus,

She said,

And all for my sake.

Give me up,

Dear father and mother,

If I surrender,

It may be that the city will flourish again.

Crying,

Psyche's parents did as they were told,

And left their youngest daughter trembling on the summit.

Then the west wind came suddenly,

Lifted her up,

Carried her down the slope,

And deposited her in a field of flowers where Psyche fell asleep.

When she awoke,

Her mind was calm.

She saw a grove of tall trees,

A fountain,

And a magnificent palace with golden columns,

And a roof of sandalwood.

She went over to the palace,

And a voice told her to make herself comfortable.

At night,

Cupid lay down beside her.

Almost every night,

He slept next to Psyche in the dark.

He insisted that she must never try to see his face,

And she promised to obey him.

After some time had passed,

Cupid told Psyche that her parents and sisters thought she was dead.

Psyche was distraught.

To calm her,

Cupid had the sisters brought to the palace with the help of the west wind.

Psyche told them her story.

Even though she had never seen her lover's face,

She lied,

Telling them that her husband was young and handsome,

And was involved in hunting.

Fearing further questions,

She filled their arms with gifts and sent them on their way.

The sisters became jealous.

It was not fair,

Complained one,

That Psyche was married to a rich and handsome man,

While she had a husband older than her father,

Bolder than a pumpkin,

And weaker than any child.

The other complained similarly.

On the next visit,

They became suspicious when Psyche told them that her husband was middle-aged and had curly hair.

It seemed to the sisters that Psyche had no idea what her husband looked like.

One night,

Psyche broke her promise,

Took an oil lamp and looked Cupid in the face.

She was overwhelmed by her lover's tangled locks and dazzling divine beauty.

Then the lamp flickered.

A drop of oil fell on his shoulder and woke him.

Thus Psyche broke both her vow and the relationship.

She had refused to remain ignorant.

To punish her,

Cupid spread his feathery white wings and flew away.

Psyche held onto his leg.

She lost her grip and fell to the earth.

There she realized that she was miraculously unharmed.

When a white seagull told this story to Venus,

She got really angry at her disobedient son.

Cupid was just recovering from the wound he had received from the drop of oil.

Venus decided to take revenge on Psyche.

If she wanted to have her lover back,

She would have to travel a hero's journey and solve a number of seemingly impossible tasks.

Psyche jumped at the opportunity and started her wanderings at the abandoned temple of Ceres,

The goddess of grain.

Psyche cleaned it up.

Ceres was content,

But devoted to Venus,

She refused to help Psyche.

Venus then set her a number of further tasks.

The first task was to separate a pile of seeds and grains into individual piles of millet,

Maize,

Barley,

Lentils,

Beans,

Poppy seeds,

And so on.

Psyche did not know how to begin this hopelessly difficult task.

Fortunately,

A swarm of ants appeared and gradually carried each tiny seed to its place,

Bringing order to the chaos.

Then Venus instructed Psyche to fetch a fleece from a wild flock of golden sheep,

Whose bite was supposedly poisonous.

Psyche was desperate,

But a green reed by the river advised her to be patient.

Wait until the sheep leaf the pasture,

Whispered the reed.

It will be easy to find tufts of wool caught in the bushes.

Psyche wandered across the meadow at dusk and found exactly what she was looking for.

The third task was to fill the crystal bottle with ice-cold water from a stream.

However,

Its black water was guarded by long-necked dragons.

Psyche discovered that the water was inaccessible because it had dug a deep crevice in the mountainside.

Once again,

The world of spirits came to her aid,

This time in the form of Jupiter's eagle,

Which filled the bottle with ease.

Her last task was the most dangerous.

Venus gave Psyche a small casket and instructed her to descend into the underworld and ask Proserpina,

The queen of the underworld,

To fill it with beauty.

Once again,

Psyche despaired.

But a tower beside her spoke up and gave her complicated directions to the underworld.

It was important,

The tower said,

To have barley cakes in her hands and two coins in her mouth.

With the cakes she could distract the three-headed dog Cerberus,

Who guarded the entrance to the underworld.

With the coins she could pay for the return journey across the river Styx.

She should refuse to eat the delicious feast that Proserpina would offer her.

Instead she should ask for coarse bread.

She would have to sit on the floor instead of resting on an irresistibly comfortable chair.

And finally,

If Proserpina filled the box with beauty,

She was under no circumstances allowed to look inside.

Psyche gave the coins to the ferryman and the cake to Cerberus.

She chatted with Proserpina and returned safely to daylight with the casket of beauty in her hands.

Back on Earth,

She gave in to her curiosity and risked everything.

She opened the casket which contained a dark,

Death-like sleep.

Psyche fell into a deep swoon.

She looked as though she were dead.

At that moment,

All seemed lost.

But it was precisely this failure that brought her victory.

Because she ignored the rules and consciously looked into the casket of beauty,

She was ready to meet her divine lover at eye level.

At the same time,

Cupid noticed that his wound had healed.

He flew to Psyche's side,

Scraped off the sleep and pushed it back into the casket.

Then he woke her with the tip of one of his arrows.

Psyche regained consciousness and fulfilled her mission.

She gave Venus the casket.

However,

There was still something that separated the two lovers,

For he was a god and she a mortal.

Cupid asked Jupiter for help.

He proclaimed that it was time for Cupid to marry,

So that the lustful spirit of boyhood might enter into the commitment of marriage.

Jupiter handed Psyche a cup of nectar to drink.

It made her immortal,

Strong and mature.

She was now a goddess.

What a story!

A girl let herself be hugged by a man she didn't know and who wanted to remain incognito.

When Psyche saw Cupid in the light,

He fled.

However,

Psyche recognized the true nature of her lover and did not want to give him up.

In her quest to be with him,

She had to travel an obstacle-filled path to find herself.

As a mature woman,

She found a true partnership in marriage and became part of the immortal family.

Finally,

A wedding was celebrated.

And in due time,

Psyche gave birth to a daughter named Voluptas.

This means as much as pleasure or joy.

After all,

Bliss always arises when the soul and love,

Psyche and Cupid,

Come together.

Psyche and Voluptas

Reviews

Magnificent. I’ll be listening to this one many times! 💎

On the last star I wanted to culor in 1 spike on it,thanks

Wonderful athmosphere and story telling. Thank you

What a fabulous story teller.. looking forward to the next one 🤩

amazing! 💗💗💗💗💓💗💗💗💗💓💗💓💗💗💗💓💗💓✨✨✨✨✨👌👌👌😍😍😍😍😍😍😋😋😋😋😋😋😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊☺️☺️😊☺️😊☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💔😍😍😍😍❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️😍😍😍😍😍😚😚😚😚😚😚😚😚😚😚😚😝😝😝😝😝😝

Thank you. My son loves Greek and Roman Mythology. We love you as a narrator!

Wonderful narration - It took me three times of listening before I got the whole story because I kept falling asleep :-) thank you so much💜

Great voice and story. Thank you 🌼

Love a fàirytale

I've listened to it many times, but I haven't heard the ending yet. You have a veeeeery calming voice

Beautifully adapted and orated story. Certainly a bit of a fairy tale. Soothing for sleep inspiring fanciful dreams. I loved it!

This has been my rest time one now. Your voice is engaging. Ah ho

I love it, thanks Gerald. Magnificent tale. Really beautiful <3

Great narration.