Eros
by Maria Granda
Aphrodite was the mother of Eros. The Romans called him Cupid. She was the goddess of Love. Aphrodite had sent Eros to punish Psyche because she was the most beautiful person there was. Eros obeyed Aphrodite, so he went into a garden. Aphrodite told him that their were two fountains. One of them was filled with sweet water and the other was filled with bitter. Eros had to put bitter in Psyche's lips. Then he touched her sight with the point of his arrow. Psyche was asleep, but he pointed her with the arrow and she woke up. Psyche didnt see Eros for the reason that Eros was invisible; you could only see how Eros looked in the night. When she woke up, Eros got confused and wounded himself with his arrow. He thought he had to repair his mischief. Eros poured the sweet drops of water all over her ringlets. Psyche and Eros fell in love. They got married.
Psyche had never seen how Eros looked. One day her sisters came over and told her that he might be an ugly person. So one night Psyche was lying on the bed. She waited until Eros fell asleep. When Eros fell asleep, she got the lamp and a knife. She was looking to see how Cupid looked. She didnt see a monster, she saw the most beautiful and charming of the gods. Eros had golden ringlets wandering over his snowy neck, and crimson cheeks with two dewy rings on his shoulders, and with shining feathers. She was leaning closer and a drop of oil fell from the lamp. Eros woke up and saw her. He got up and left. Psyche ran to follow him but she fell from the window. Then Eros stopped for a moment and said that he had disobeyed his mother and that's how she paid him.
Eros told her that he was going to love her forever, and that she could go back with her sisters; that Psyche won't see him ever again. Eros disappeared because he had a real bad wound. He returned to his mother.
Psyche was so desperate that Ceres called her. Ceres told Psyche to go to Aphrodite's palace and surrender herself. She said that probably Aphrodite could forgive her and restore the husband she had lost. Aphrodite was real mad at Psyche. She made Psyche do some chores, saying that that was the only way she could get her husband back. The first thing Psyche had to do was that she had to go to the storehouse of her temple, where there was a great quantity of wheat, barley, millet, velches, beans, and lentils prepared for food for her pigeons. She was told to separate all the grains and to put one of each kind in a parcel. Psyche didn't do any of the work; she just sat there. Eros sent some ants to help her with the work. All of the ants did the work. When Aphrodite came in the evening, the job was finished. Aphrodite gave her another chore to do. She had to go to Proserpina's palace and get some of her beauty in a box. They told Psyche that she didn't have to open the box. Psyche went and got her beauty but on her way back from the palace she got curious and opened the box. Psyche's body fell asleep. Cupid recoverd from his wound and went to where Psyche lay. He closed the box, and when he closed it she woke up. They got back together and they had a daughter called Pleasure.
Source Book: Bulfinch's Mythology
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