Psyche's Strength
Psyche, Part 2: The tests of Aphrodite and the trials of blind love
Content warnings: accidental/delusional suicide, suicidal thoughts
Find part one of Psyche’s story here:
Psyche, devastated by the consequences of her weakness, called after Eros as he flew from the bedroom window and into the night. She was desperate to show her love for him, to try and repair the damage done by her nagging curiosity.
She began to wander, calling for him and apologising over and over again into the deserted landscape around her. She walked and walked, slept when she couldn’t walk anymore, then began walking again. As she went, she prayed to the gods to return her husband just for a moment so that she could apologise, to explain. Hera and Demeter heard her cries and they felt for her, but both knew of Aphrodite’s hatred for Psyche and dared not intervene.
Word reached Psyche’s sisters that her husband had left her, that she had betrayed him and driven him away. Delighted that their schemes had prevailed over their sister’s happiness, they readied themselves and rushed to the same mountain crag where they had left Psyche to her fate so long ago.
They announced themselves to Zephyrus and to Eros, declaring that they would be more faithful wives to him if he would take them in their sister’s place. Believing that the West Wind would catch them and bear them to Eros, Aglaura and Cidippe threw themselves from the mountain. Unfortunately, Zephyrus didn’t care for Psyche’s traitorous sisters and Eros was deaf to any pleas, romantic or otherwise. The hubristic pair wasn’t caught by Zephyrus, instead plummeting to their deaths in their deluded, unfounded faith.
Meanwhile, Psyche had made her way to the temple of Aphrodite, where she begged for the goddess’ mercy and aid. Aphrodite heard Psyche’s prayers and was torn between the smugness of her power over the distraught woman and outrage that she would dare utter a word to the goddess she had stolen praise from, not to mention that she had stolen her son’s heart and had been so loved by him before her betrayal.
Aphrodite appeared to Psyche and said so sweetly that she would of course help the distressed girl, if only she would complete some small tasks for her. Surprised, Psyche readily agreed, grateful for any assistance Aphrodite could grant.
Aphrodite presented Psyche with an enormous heap of mixed beans and seeds and charged her with sorting each grain by type into piles. Before leaving, Aphrodite added with a saccharine smile that the task must be completed by the next dawn.
Psyche, now alone with her pile of grains, began to sort the seeds feverishly. Very quickly, however, she realised that the task was futile. She could almost feel the sun dropping lower and lower towards the horizon with every second, and the overwhelming sense of impending failure seemed to drown her in misery. She sank to the ground, sobbing, convinced that she would never be able to win Eros back again.
An ant found her there and saw what Aphrodite had asked of the crying girl. Without another thought, the ant returned to her colony and summoned help; Psyche looked up to find a swarm of ants sorting the massive pile of seeds. Astonished, she thanked her new helpers and set to work alongside them, diligently sorting through the night until the sky began to grey.
Just before dawn, Psyche and the ants finished sorting the final grains and the ants disappeared back to their colony as she thanked them again. As the last one vanished from view, Aphrodite appeared, ready to crow at Psyche’s failure. The smug smile fell from her lips, however, when she saw the perfectly sorted piles in front of her.
The goddess, furious, almost spat out Psyche’s second task. She was to go to Thrinacia, where Helios kept his sheep. The sheep were murderous and equipped with exceptionally sharp horns, but Aphrodite told Psyche that she must collect their special fleeces nonetheless.
Psyche obediently made her way to Thrinacia and found the sheep in question with some significant trepidation. A nearby reed called to her and warned her not to approach the sheep, that they would certainly kill her if they saw her. When Psyche told the reed of her task, that she needed their wool for the mighty Aphrodite, the reed instead instructed her how to find the wool caught and left behind on nearby bushes rather than approaching them. The reed told her to wait until the sheep had moved on or until they fell asleep, then to go and collect the fleeces while they couldn’t see her.
Aphrodite was further enraged when she summoned her and was greeted by a complete fleece and an unharmed Psyche. Furious, she gave Psyche her third task and a jar; she was to fill the jar with water from the River Styx, the deadly black river of the dead that flowed into the underworld from atop a high mountain.
Psyche ascended this mountain but, approaching the place where the water flowed, found that there was no way to get to it on foot. She would need to fly and, unlike her husband, she was not blessed with wings. Zeus, having heard of Psyche’s plight from Hera, saw her in her distress and pitied her, sending his iconic eagle down from Olympus to assist her.
The eagle took the jar from Psyche’s hands and dipped it into the river for her, collecting the water, then delivering it safely back to her. Psyche brought the jar to Aphrodite, who was still more irate at her audacious success. She decided that Psyche would need one final impossible task, one that she couldn’t possibly complete.
Aphrodite told Psyche to journey to the underworld and ask Persephone, Queen of the Dead, for a small box of her beauty. Psyche was told to bring the box back to Aphrodite still closed, that she wasn’t to open it or she would fail her task. Aphrodite left Psyche then, satisfied that she must have defeated the arrogant girl this time.
Psyche was in despair; like Aphrodite, she believed that there was no way she could get to and from the underworld alive. She climbed to the top of a tower and prepared herself to jump. The tower intervened, telling her not to jump, that instead she should go to Sparta and find a hill by the name of Taenarus. There, the tower told her, laid the entrance to the underworld; Psyche could enter the land of the dead without needing to perish herself, but the underworld was treacherous and could still take her life at a moment’s notice. The tower advised her to take with her two coins for the price of her passage, as well as two pieces of bread soaked in barley and honey.
Psyche did as the tower suggested, travelling to Sparta and finding the entrance to the underworld as it had described. She entered through the ornate, grim grey gates of Hades and made her way down through the shadows to the banks of the River Styx. She found Charon, the gaunt ferryman of the underworld, paid him with one of the coins she had brought and asked him to take her to Persephone’s palace.
Charon obliged, rowing her wordlessly into the mists of the dead, finally docking at a far shore. On that shore laid a beautiful, if imposing, dark palace, stretching lazily across one side of the river. Guarding the gates, snarling and growling, was a great three-headed dog; this was Cerberus, Hades’ ominous guardian of the underworld. Psyche took out one of the slices of soaked bread and threw it to Cerberus, who busied himself in eating it while she passed behind him and on to the palace.
Inside, Psyche was offered a feast to recover her strength, but she remembered one last piece of advice the tower had offered her: not to eat anything in the underworld, or she would be trapped there just as Persephone herself had been. She politely refused the food and instead asked that she be granted a favour.
Hearing news of Psyche’s decision, Persephone granted her an audience with intrigue and accepted her barter for a favour, asking her what she would like to receive instead. Psyche explained her situation and asked Persephone for a small box of her beauty for Aphrodite. Persephone, touched by Psyche’s earnestness and flattered by Aphrodite’s request, granted Psyche’s wish and siphoned off a small part of her beauty and stowed it in a box, which she gave to Psyche along with her wishes for luck.
Psyche thanked Persephone and made her way back to the mortal world; she gave Cerberus her other slice of bread and paid Charon once more for the return trip, then emerged back out into the bright sunlight of the Spartan hills.
On Psyche’s journey back to Aphrodite, the contents of the box nagged at her. She was well aware that Aphrodite had warned not to open the box, but Psyche was desperate for anything that could help her to regain her husband’s love. Unable to resist the pull of a taste of Persephone’s enviable beauty, Psyche opened the box. What she found inside, however, was no beauty, only a deathly sleep, and she collapsed, motionless, to the ground.
Meanwhile, Eros had fled to his mother’s palace in a frantic mix of anxiety and anger. Aphrodite had tried to ease her son’s fractious worry in the hopes that in time, he would forget about Psyche and move on. Eros, however, had been tormented by his wife’s absence and wracked with guilt over his treatment of her. He missed her dearly, and had come to his senses that he may not have handled her natural curiosity wisely. He could no longer bear to be without Psyche, so he left the palace and began searching for her when he found their home deserted.
He scoured the earth and eventually found her collapsed in Sparta, apparently lifeless. At first he was near-inconsolable, but soon he realised that she was only under the influence of a deep slumber. He gently coaxed the sleep from her, scooping it back into Persephone’s box.
Psyche was overjoyed to wake in Eros’ arms, but soon flew into a panic in fear of failing Aphrodite’s test. She asked him to take her to his mother and, confused, he did so, bearing them up on the currents of the winds. On the journey to Olympus, Psyche told Eros everything, including the tests Aphrodite had given her, each one making Eros angrier at how much danger his mother had placed Psyche in.
Aphrodite was startled to see Eros bringing Psyche to her and tried to hide her anger at Psyche’s survival and success in the face of her impossible trial. Before his mother could do any further harm to his love, Eros deposited the box in her hands and flew off again with Psyche still in his arms. They went directly to Zeus’ throne room, where Eros asked the king to speak to Aphrodite, explaining his and Psyche’s story. Zeus listened calmly, knowing some small amount already from his assistance in Psyche’s third task, and acknowledged that he may be the only god powerful enough to convince Aphrodite to change her mind about her daughter-in-law.
Zeus summoned Aphrodite to his halls and she promptly appeared before them. Sourly, she glared at Psyche and attended to Zeus rather than deal with his son’s usurping wife. Zeus demanded that she set her anger aside, detailing Psyche’s story from her point of view, showing Aphrodite a mirror of her own actions. Slowly, the goddess deflated, her ire abating.
She conceded and Zeus gave Psyche a cup of ambrosia, the nectar of the gods, which would give her godhood and immortality, as well as giving her butterfly wings to complement her husband’s golden ones. This way, Psyche and Eros could be properly married as gods and Aphrodite could be content that her son had not married some ordinary mortal. Indeed, there was a small part of her, some miniscule spark that would grow over time, that was pleased that Eros had found a wife who would go through such trials as she had set to earn his love. Additionally, Aphrodite was delighted as, now that Psyche was off in her heavenly idyll, the mortals could forget about her and return to worshipping Aphrodite instead.
Eros and Psyche went on to have the perfect marriage, finding happiness in seeing each other as they truly were. They had a daughter, Hedone, the personification of pleasure. Together, as a family, they helped mortals to achieve happiness; Eros as love, Psyche as the soul and Hedone as pleasure.
