Psyche Mythology
Psyche (in Greek / is a character in mythology who appears in the novel of Apuleius , episode probably inspired by a Greek original.
Summary |
Myth
Psyche is the daughter of a king. She has two older sisters. The three young women are extremely beautiful, but only the two sisters of Psyche found a husband. The other contenders are beautiful Psyche, they devote even worship him, love the look but do not ask her to marry. Indeed, the young princess is so beautiful that thousands of people come to contemplate and adore him as a deity. Aphrodite , jealous of the beauty of the girl and offended by such sacrilege, ordered Eros to make love with death that is most contemptible. However, while the god is about to complete his mission, he himself falls in love with Psyche, injuring themselves with one of his own arrows.
Psyche's father, desperate to see her daughter does not find a husband, went to Delphi to beg Apollo allow to marry Psyche. The Pythia is categorical: Psyche has to be abandoned on a rock atop a hill, where will the search for her future husband, a giant flying serpent. Frightened but resigned, Psyche's father runs the divine orders and abandons Psyche its doom. However, Zephyr , the gentle west wind, carries the young woman to a beautiful valley. He gently laid the princess in the tender grass, near a magnificent palace made of gold, silver and precious stones. Psyche enters and discovers a tasty feast that awaited. After the meal, she falls asleep in a sumptuous room.
Later that night, her mysterious husband (Eros) joins her, asking her never to seek to know his identity, hidden by the darkness of the room. Every night, he visits her and then leaves before dawn. The young woman enjoys more and more hugs and soft words they exchange time. Nothing is missing the happiness of Psyche, except to know the face and the name of her lover by night, and seeing his family. His two sisters, brought to the palace by Zephyr are mad with jealousy against both wealth and happiness. They seek to convince Psyche that her husband is nothing but a horrible monster that will eventually devour it. Terrified at the idea, it benefits from the sleep of her lover to light an oil lamp to unravel the mystery. She then discovers the young man most radiant she has ever seen. But a drop of burning oil fell on the shoulder of the god asleep, waking up and immediately ran away, furious at having been betrayed.
Mad with grief and remorse, Psyche flows into a river. But the river, caring, laid upon the shore, where sits the god Pan. The latter advised Psyche to do everything to win back the love of Eros. Then the princess goes in search of her lover. She wandered from temple to temple, without success. Finally, she arrives at the palace of Aphrodite, who submits to all kinds of events, like a slave:
- First, it must sort, in one evening, a huge pile of grain of different varieties. Luckily, ants, taken pity, help accomplish its task, and the heap is sorted in time.
- Then she is forced to report to Aphrodite wool sheep to the golden fleece, which graze in a meadow beyond a deep and dangerous river. A reed moved by the plight of the young woman tells him what to do.
- Then she must fetch water from the Styx , drawn from the same source. The latter is located atop a mountain guarded by dragons. This time, the eagle of Zeus (the king of the gods) who comes to the rescue of Psyche as she climbed the mountain. The eagle will fill a jar with water of Styx, and gives it to Psyche.
- Finally, the young woman must put in a box plot of the beauty of Persephone , queen of the underworld. Exhausted, Psyche is again tempted to end his days. She is about to jump from a tower when suddenly the tower begins to talk to him, convinced her to stay alive and even tells him how to pass this test. Thus, she managed to recover a parcel of the beauty of Persephone. But his curiosity loses: the belief that the beauty of the goddess's help in regaining Eros, Psyche opens the box and immediately plunged into a deep sleep, like death.
Meanwhile, Eros escaped from the palace of his mother, who was locked up. Always enamored of Psyche, he revives gently with the tip of one of his arrows. Then he takes her to Zeus himself, who summons the gods of Olympus (including Aphrodite finally subsided), and publicly announce the marriage of Eros and Psyche. It is invited to eat ambrosia, which gives immortality. The god and goddess are new so united before all the Pantheon , and a wonderful banquet follows.
Some time later, Psyche gives Eros a daughter named Pleasure. Love (Eros) and soul (Psyche) are gathered together for eternity.
artistic evocation
Paintings:
- The frescoes of Raphael and his pupils at the Villa Farnesina in Rome (circa 1513 );
- Psyche received in Olympia, painting Polidoro da Caravaggio (c. 1524 );
- The murals of the Oval Room of the Hotel de Soubise , painted by Charles-Joseph Natoire between 1737 and 1739 ;
- Psyche showing her sisters gifts Cupid Painting Jean-Honor Fragonard ( 1753 );
- Love waking Psyche painting Benign Gagneraux ( 1790 );
- Psyche abandoned painting Jacques Louis David ( 1795 );
- Psyche and Cupid, painting by Franois Grard ( 1798 );
- The First Kiss, painting by William Bouguereau ( 1873 );
- Cupid and Psyche, kids, painting by William Bouguereau ( 1889 );
- The Abduction of Psyche painting by William Bouguereau ( 1895 );
Sculptures:
- Psyche revived by the kiss of love, carved group of Antonio Canova ( 1793 );
- Cupid and Psyche by Antonio Canova sculpture group (circa 1793 );
- Psyche, Antonio Canova's statue (circa 1793 );
- Psyche statue of Albert Bertel Thorvaldsen ( 1806 );
- Cupid and Psyche, sculpted group of Reinhold Begas ( 1857 );
- Pan comforting Psyche group carved Begas Reinhold ( 1858 );
- Cupid and Psyche, sculpted group of Auguste Rodin ( 1893 );
- Psyche statue of Auguste Rodin (circa 1905 ).
Tapestries:
- The Fable of Psyche, set of 26 tapestries commissioned by Francis I of France around 1540, now extinct but there are copies, such as The Story of Psyche, 6 pieces hanging in the castle of Sully-sur-Loire .
Literature:
- Metamorphoses , tale of Apuleius (c. 150 );
- Neither libra Amor Amor, comedia of Caldern ( 1662 );
- The Loves of Cupid and Psyche, the story of The Fountain ( 1669 );
- Psyche , tragedy-ballet of Molire , Corneille and Lully ( 1671 );
- Ode to Psyche, a poem by John Keats ( 1819 );
- Psyche, an epic poem of Victor de Laprade ( 1841 );
- The Earthly Paradise, a poem by William Morris ( 1870 );
- The Unknown Eros, poem by Coventry Patmore ( 1877 );
- Eros and Psyche, a poem by Robert Bridges ( 1885 );
- Psyche, a novel by Pierre Lous ( 1927 );
- Till We Have faces, a novel by Clive Staples Lewis ( 1957 ).
Music:
- Psyche of Manuel de Falla , for mezzo-soprano, flute, harp, violin, viola and cello.
- Psyche Cesar Franck , symphonic poem for chorus and orchestra with narrator ( 1888 ).
- Ballet de Psyche or the power of the love of Jean-Baptiste Lully
Sources
- Apuleius , Metamorphoses Bibliography
- Henri Lemaitre, Essay on the myth of Psyche in French literature from its origins to 1890, Boivin, Paris, 1939;
- Jean de Palacio, the Metamorphoses of Psyche, Seguier, Paris, 1999;
- Sonia Cavicchioli, Eros and Psyche, Flammarion, Paris, 2002;
- Veronica Gely, The Invention of a myth: Psyche. Allegory and fiction, the century of Plato at the time of La Fontaine, Honore Champion, Paris, 2006.
- Collective work written in Greek, dedicated to Cornelius Castoriadis, one of the authors is Yorgos Oikonomou "Psyche, Logos, Polis," Epsilon editions, Athens 2007.
See also
Internal Links
External Links
References
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