(Photo by Waterhouse)
Venus and the Goddesses - A seagull tells Venus that Cupid is in love with Psyche. She is furious and threatens to adopt a slave boy and give him Cupid's wings and bow. She's mostly upset because she thinks everyone is laughing at her. She sets off to seek revenge on him. She runs into Juno and Ceres, asks them to find Psyche. They defended Cupid, and told her he hadn't done anything different that Venus herself had in the past.
Psyche's Prayer - Psyche searches for Cupid. She enters a temple, and Ceres finds her there. Psyche cries and prays at her feet, asking her to let her hide there until Venus calms down. Ceres says she is too close to Venus to help her. Psyche finds another temple and prays, Juno hears her and says she also can't go against Venus.
Venus and Mercury - Psyche tries to think of another way, Venus searches the heavens. She sends Mercury with a message that anyone who finds Psyche will be given a reward of kisses from Venus. Psyche approaches Venus' door, and her servant Familiarity captures her.
Venus and Psyche - Venus drags Psyche around by her ear, gives her to Anxiety and Sorrow to be punished. Venus tells her the marriage wasn't legal, so her child will be illegitimate if she even lets her have the baby. Venus beats her up, then combines a bunch of grains and lentils in a pile, tells Psyche to sort them by the evening.
Psyche's Task - Venus returns and Psyche has completed the task. She says it wasn't her own doing, it was Cupid's, gives her bread and goes to bed. Cupid was locked in his room. In the morning, Venus gives her a new tasks, to bring a piece of golden fleece from the sheep by the river. Psyche jumps off a cliff into the river to escape, a reed in the river tells her to hide until afternoon, because the sheep's wool is hot and the are agitated and will bite. It tells her that if she waits until they calm down, she'll be able to find wool stuck to the trees. Venus isn't impressed and assigns her a 3rd task, to collect water from the heart of a stream that feeds into the river Styx.
The Third Task - The heart of the stream was surrounded by an impassable rock wall and serpents. Jupiter's royal eagle was there, and had helped Cupid before, snatched the vial from Psyche and filled it for her.
The Jar of Beauty - Venus still isn't impressed, tells her to plunge the jar into the underworld and ask Proserpine to fill it with enough beauty to last a day. Psyche tries to throw herself off a tower to get to the underworld, the tower tells her how to get to a portal, and to bring 2 barley cakes soaked in honeyed wine and 2 coins. It tells her the steps to take and things to not do to get to the underworld. It also tells her to not look in the jar of divine beauty. She accomplishes her task, then decides she would be a fool to not take at least a drop of the beauty for herself in order to please Cupid.
The Sleep of the Dead - Psyche opens the jar which is filled with Stygian sleep. Cupid sneaks out his window to find Psyche, and wipes the sleep from her eyes. He tells her that her curiosity almost ruined everything again, and sends her to give the jar to Venus. Cupid flies to heaven to see Jupiter, who says he will help despite all the awful things Cupid has done to him.
The Wedding Feast - Jupiter gathers the gods and tells them that the best way to take away Cupid's immaturity to to let him marry Psyche. Jupiter gives Psyche a cup of ambrosia to make her immortal and she and Cupid are wed. Their child is born after, a daughter named Pleasure.
Lucius and the Robbers - The old woman finished telling the young girl the story, and the robbers returned, loading up their loot and taking it home. The donkey hurt its hoof and they debated putting it down.
The Escape - the donkey gets free, but the old woman catches his ropes. The donkey dragged her along. The young girl twisted the rope out of the old woman's hands, mounted the donkey, and they escaped. She prays to Fortune to help her get home to her family and her lover.
Notes: I'm still mulling over how to turn this into a retelling. I still think Ann will make a good Psyche, but haven't decided which part of the story I want to tell. I think Akira (Joker) would have to be Cupid as he seems to put a love spell on everyone he meets.
"Cupid and Psyche" from The Golden Ass by Apuleius. Web Source.
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