Psyche was a mortal girl whose beauty triggered immense envy within Aphrodite. The latter ordered her son, Eros, the God of Love and Desire, to strike Pscyhe with one of his arrows and make her fall for a monster. However, upon looking at Pscyhe as she slept, Eros was stunned by her beauty and mistakenly grazed his flesh with his own arrow, falling in raging love for her. Psyche eventually becomes immortal after enduring Aphrodites trials to win back Eros after breaking his trust. Earliest fragments that introduced Pscyhe are within Greek art pieces and sculptures dating as early as 4th century BCE.
Personality[]
Psyche is exceptionally beautiful inside and out for she is kind, caring and compassionate to everyone. Despite how great her pure beauty is, Psyche is very humble and modest. She is naive and gets tricked very easily. Psyche is very brave and selfless, risking her own life to prove herself to Aphrodite and be with Eros again. Psyche is a loving and faithful wife to Eros.
Appearance[]
Pysche is described to be the most stunning woman in the world with extraordinary and unfamiliar beauty. Her appearance is never described in great detail that outlines the color of her hair or eyes (unlike Aphrodite who was said to have golden hair). However, Pscyhe was described to be so beautiful and fair skinned, that Aphrodite herself grew jealous and spiteful. Shrine keepers abandoned Aphrodites temples to visit Psyche instead—many of them believed Psyche to be Aphrodite reborn and compared her to the Goddess—worshipping her instead. This further aggravated Aphrodite’s spiteful envy towards her.
Pscyhe’s body was described as ultra-feminine and “ripe” according to the accounts of the Golden Ass by Apuleius. Many assume that she carried the essence of Ancient Greek beauty standards in the face and body. In this case, it can be assumed that Pscyhe had small to medium breasts that were firm and elevated. A narrow waist (not cinched) with wider hips and a soft stomach with an overall slender built. Her hair color may have been golden like Aphrodite’s or dark/black, which flared a sense of divinity and grace. Her skin was fair instead of olive, which also generated the belief of divine grace. Her eyes were deep and wide, and may have been dark to match her hair or medium shades of blue, green, hazel, or gray. These details are never outlined and left up to the perception of the reader. Despite the lack of finite details regarding her appearance, Apuleius described Pscyhe as elegant and the fairest compared to her two sisters—who were also extremely beautiful and had no trouble finding husbands and gaining admiration.
History[]
She was once a mortal princess whose extraordinary beauty earned the ire of Aphrodite when citizens began turning their worship away from the goddess and instead, worshipped Psyche. Aphrodite commanded Eros make Psyche fall in love with a monster. However, Eros was stunned by Psyches beauty that he mistakenly grazed his own flesh with his golden arrow and fell in love. He ordered the West Wind (Zephyrus) to carry her to a hidden palace after Psyches family was ordered by an oracle of Apollo (God of Prophecy) to have the girl taken onto a cliff, dressed in mourning, so that she will be wedded off to a monster. The family did as the oracle bid. After falling asleep on the cliff, Psyche was carried off by Zephyrus and taken to a beautiful palace filled with invisible servants. Eros would introduce himself and visit her, but only at night to obscure his identity. After some time went by, psyche missed her family and Eros permitted for her sisters to be brought over to visit her for one day. Her jealous sisters, however, tricked her into disobeying the rule Eros installed and break the trust. Eros abandoned Psyche out of disappointment and a broken heart. This led Psyche to begin her journey in proving herself to Eros by seeking out Aphrodite. The goddess commanded her to perform a series of seemingly impossible tasks which culminated in a journey to the Underworld. Psyche was afterwards reunited with Eros and the couple were married in a ceremony attended by all the gods. Psyche was often depicted in ancient mosaic art as a butterfly-winged woman in the company of her husband Eros.
Trivia[]
• Psyche’s place of birth is unknown.
• Right before she started her journey to earn back Eros’s trust and complete Aphrodite’s trials, Psyche became pregnant with their daughter, Hedone.
• Some translations of Apuleius’s passage on Pscyhe’s myth speaks of her beauty being “unfamiliar” to both mortals and gods, emphasizing how unique her features may have been.
• Psyches story began well after the events of Helen of Troy.
• Though there are tales of many beautiful women in Ancient Greek Mythology, the three figures (Helen of Troy, Aphrodite, and Psyche) are the only three that had impactful influence and effects in the ancient world due to their mesmerizing beauty. Comparatively similar to the effects of the Four Great Beauties of Ancient China.
• Psyche was one of a handful of mortals to gain immortality—though her journey and myth has been the most impactful.
Appearances[]
Apuleius’s “The Golden Ass”