See also: Psyché

Psyché (in Greek old Ψυχή / Psykhế ) is a mythological character which appears in the novel of Apulée, the Metamorphoses , episode probably inspired of a Greek original.

Myth

Psyché is the girl of a king. She has two older sisters. The three young women are of an extreme beauty but only the two sisters of Psyché find a husband. The other applicants refuse the hand of Psyché, believer that this one is a new goddess of the beauty and start to adore it like a divinity. Aphrodite, jealous of the beauty of the young girl, orders with Eros to make it in love with the mortal more méprisable which is. However, whereas the god is on the point of concluding his mission, it falls itself in love with Psyché by being wounded one from its own arrows.

The father of Psyché, despaired to see that his/her daughter does not find a husband, goes to Delphes to beg Apollon to allow Psyché to marry. The Pythie is categorical: Psyché must be abandoned on a rock where waits an extraordinary union. Frightened but resigned, the father of Psyché is on the open sea carried out and given up Psyché on a rock. There, soft Zéphyr rises and carries it with far, until on the lawn of a splendid palate. Psyché penetrates there and there discovers a splendid feast which awaits it. After this meal, she falls asleep in her room. Eros joined it the night, requiring of him never not to seek to know its identity, hidden by the darkness of the room.

Every night, he visits it and leaves it as of the appearance of the dawn. Soon pregnant, nothing misses with the happiness of Psyché, if not to know the face and the name of his/her night lover. His/her sisters, in visit, are insane of jealousy vis-a-vis so much of happiness. They scoff it by declaring that the mysterious lover is anything else only one horrible monster. Pricked by curiosity and worries, it benefits from the sleep of her lover to light a lamp and to bore the mystery. She discovers then most splendid of the young men dormant. An oil drop falls on the shoulder from the god who awakes and, furious, flees.

Psyché then tries to find his/her lover and wanders of temple in temple. Lastly, she arrives at the palate of Aphrodite who retains it there and subjects it to all kinds of tests, like a slave:

• It must sort an enormous heap of grains mixed in one evening, but the ants, catches of pity, help it in its task and the heap is sorted in time.

• It is forced to bring wool of sheep to him to the Golden Fleece, which feed in pre beyond of dangerous and deep river. A reed, sympathizing with the misfortune of the young woman, indicates the procedure to follow to him.

• It must seek water of the Styx, with very the source. The latter is at the top of an high mountain kept not of the dragons. During its rise, it is the eagle of Zeus itself which comes to its help and it will seek water of the styx that it reports in a flask.

• Lastly, it leaves to ask for Perséphone a piece of its beauty, to put in a box. Exhausted, she thinks of putting an end to her days. She is about to throw itself of a tower when the tower is put to speak to him, convinces it to remain in life and indicates to him even how to succeed in asking for a piece of beauty Perséphone. But curiosity loses it again: it opens the box and at once, fall into a deep sleep. Revived by Eros, always enthusiast over it, it triumphs finally over the ire of the goddess, and marries the god. Thus, it becomes itself goddess and it pushes wings of butterfly to him.

Interpretations

Psyché is an analytical term of psychology which indicates the entirety of the demonstrations conscious and unconscious of the personality and human intellect. The psyché word (in Greek old Ψυχή/Psykhé) means the heart, the spirit.

According to certain modern interpretations, Psyché would be the Symbole of the human heart; personifying the expression of what cannot be formulated. One makes of it thus sometimes an image of the Inconscient. It should be noted that psychoanalytical interpretations do not justify the genesis of the myth, but make use of it like illustration.

Analytical psychology (C.G. Jung) are interested in the myths for their relationship to the archetypic structure of psyché. One will find an good example of the contribution of this treatment of the myths in " The gold ass, interpretation of the tale of Apulée" of Marie-Louise von Franz.

Artistic evocations

The episode of Eros and Psyché inspired by many works in the visual arts, among which:

• frescos of Raphaël to the Farnésine villa of Rome;
• frescos of Jules Romain with the Palate of the Te of Mantoue;
• the series of the stained glasses of XVIe century of the Gallery of Psyché to the Museum Cop in the Castle of Chantilly;
• Psyché revived by the kiss of the Love , group of Antonio Canova;
• the Removal of Psyché , painting of William Bouguereau.

And in the literature, in particular:

• the Metamorphoses , tale of Apulée (v.  150);
• Nor Amor will be libra of Amor , comedia of Calderón (1662);
• Loves of Psyché and Cupid , account of the Fountain (1669);
• Psyché , Tragedy-ballet of Molière, Crow and Lully (1671);
• Ode to Psyche , poem of John Keats (1819);
• Psyché , poem epic of Victor de Laprade (1841);
• The Unknown Eros , poem of Coventry Patmore (1877);
• Psyché , novel of Pierre Louÿs (1927);
• Till we cuts faces , novel of Cleaves Staple Lewis (1957).

Source

• Apulée, Metamorphoses (IV, 28 - VI, 24).

See too