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| Amour and Psyche by Michel Philibert Genod (Wikimedia) |
- The story of Psyche and the Jar of Beauty bears a lot in common with Pandora's box. In both stories, a woman is entrusted with a vessel that she must not open. Both women, overcome by their curiosity, open the vessel to disastrous results.
- Throughout the Cupid and Psyche saga, Psyche's inability to control her curiosity, and her sheer stupidity remains unchanged. No matter what she has endured, no matter what she should have learned, no matter how much advice and help she is given, she remains an idiot. Although Venus is portrayed as a cruel and capricious antagonist, I found myself sympathizing with her. I wouldn't want that level of stupid messing up my family's gene pool either.
- The story has Psyche traveling through the underworld after receiving advice from the turret of a tower. She has to carry two honey cakes to feed to (an unnamed) Cerberus, and two coins in her mouth to pay passage to Charon. Psyche follows all of the advice to the letter, and makes it out of Tartarus without a hitch. But, not realizing that this was all probably a trick that was designed to test her (already established) weaknesses, she ignores the final bit of advice that the tower provided and opened the box/jar. It was filled with sleep.
- This story can have many variations. All that's needed is a protagonist who has been given something and told not to use or open it, and that protagonist ignoring the order.
Bibliography: "Cupid and Psyche," The Golden Ass by Apuleius, trans. by Tony Kline. Web source.
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