Psyche and Cupid | Victoria Olt

2020

Handmade gouache and acrylic on paper

18 x 24 in
46 x 61 cm + frame included for free in shipments within Estonia

} Psyche and Cupid {

A tale told in many variations across the world, with the Greek myth of Cupid (Eros) and Psyche being the most well known.

Cupid, the son of Goddess Aphrodite - appearing sometimes as a rosy-cheeked cherub and at other times a full-grown man, as in this tale - was the God of passion and fertility. His golden tipped arrows caused anyone who got struck in the heart with one of them to fall in love with the first person they saw (Cupid also had lead-tipped arrows, which caused apathy, like in the story of Apollo and Daphne). Psyche was a princess, born with a near perfect beauty. In fact, Psyche was so beautiful that Aphrodite became jealous and ordered Cupid to make Psyche fall in love with the most horrible and frightening creature in the world. But in fulfilling this task, Cupid by chance had his own heart pierced by one of his gold-tipped arrows and fell madly in love with Psyche.

Psyche had many admirers, but all men were too intimidated by her beauty to marry her. This greatly worried the King, who sought advice from the Oracle of Delphi, who gave a grim prophecy: That the husband of Psyche would be a terrible, winged serpent, more powerful than any God. The Oracle directed them to dress her in black and send her to the summit of a mountain in order to meet her husband. Reluctantly, the King followed the directions and so Psyche was left to await her fate. And so it happened that Zephyr, the west wind, lifted her up and carried her to a magnificent castle, more grand than Psyche had ever seen. But there was no one around to be seen, only during the night, in the dark, her new husband would finally appear. Although she was frightened at first, then she was reassured by her new husband's gentle manner and loving words - she began believing that he was not a monster at all. Yet, he was gone before dawn each morning and Psyche was left to spend the days alone. She soon became bored, sad and started to miss her family. She begged her husband to let her go see them and he allowed it on one condition: She must under no circumstance take her family’s advice, if she does, then their marriage will be doomed. Psyche swore that she would follow her husband's instructions and Cupid allowed her to go visit.

And as always in such tales, once she saw her family, her jealous sisters convinced her that the reason why she had not seen her husband was because he was a horrible monster and advised her that she should light a candle when he was asleep and have a look for herself.

When she returned to the castle, she did just that. She awaited for Cupid to fall asleep and lit a candle, but when she saw that her husband was no monster, but Cupid, then she fell madly in love and was so mesmerized by him that she didn’t notice that 3 drops of candle wax fell on his chest - he awakened with pain and felt so betrayed by Psyche that he immediately disappeared.

Psyche regretted deeply that he had betrayed his trust and had to go through many challenges in order to be reunited with Cupid.