Psyche (V1 and V2)

Psyche was a mortal that was seen in Greek mythology. She was the daughter of a king and queen, and had a total of two sisters. Her sisters were Orual and Thessela. She was a very beautiful woman, more beautiful than both of her sisters. People even dared to compare her to the goddess of love, Aphrodite, which was a rarity for the Greeks. To be compared to a goddess is seen as the most flattering thing to a mortal, but it could result in angering a god or goddess- which it did. All of the gods and mortal men who thought Aphrodite was the most beautiful goddess, turned towards Psyche, and this didn’t end well. Aphrodite was full of rage and jealousy, and she was determined to get her revenge on the mortal woman.

She tried to get rid of this mortal woman and distinguish her role as the most beautiful goddess. To do this, Aphrodite had her son, Eros, make Psyche fall in love with the ugliest man that inhabited the earth. Eros is seen as Cupid, and shoots golden arrows to make people (gods, goddesses, and mortals) fall in love. He accidentally scratched himself with the arrow, and this made him fall in love with Psyche herself.

This resulted in Psyche and Eros getting married. There were married and had one son, Hedone. They could only get married if she went through a challenge given by Aphrodite herself. Psyche wasn’t to look at her husband when they were married. Psyche obviously obliged, so when she was married, she wasn't able to look at her husband. They lived in a dark area to prevent any temptations from ruining their marriage.

Psyche’s two sisters were insanely jealous of their sister, and told her either that her husband was cheating on her or that he was a Greek monster. Because of this, Psyche was tempted to see her husband and lit a candle in their home. When she lit the candle she discovered that it was Aphrodite’s son, Eros, and it resulted in Eros having to leave. This was because “love cannot remain without trust,” and Psyche didn’t trust her husband enough to continue to live in the dark with him happily. This is what Aphrodite wanted to happen to the pair, but did not admit it publicly.

This is when Psyche confronts Aphrodite for the first time. Aphrodite told her that she could get her husband back if she completed four tasks given to her by the love goddess herself. The last task was to retrieve some beauty from the goddess of the underworld, Persephone. Persephone was originally put into the underworld because Aphrodite was jealous of her beauty and angry at her decision to remain a virgin goddess. Because of this, Aphrodite made Hades fall in love with the girl, and this resulted in her capture. It is ironic that Aphrodite makes Psyche retrieve beauty from the girl she exiled into the underworld with the god of the underworld, the most hated god, Hades.

She retrieved the box of beauty from the underworld, but was distracted by her own curiosity. She opened the box of beauty and found sleep instead. This was probably for Persephone to get her revenge on the Aphrodite, seeing that Psyche was getting the beauty for the goddess of love instead of herself. When Psyche opened the box, she was granted with a deep sleep.

Her husband, Eros found her in a deep sleep. He asked Zeus to wake her up and grant her immortality. Zeus woke her and gave her immortality. This resulted in her no longer be a competitor with Aphrodite for morals’ attention.