Reading Notes: Cupid and Psyche, Part A
The story that most interested me from part A of the Cupid and Psyche unit was "The Jealousy of Psyche's Sisters."
At this point in the unit, Psyche's dazzling beauty has been established, and this beauty angers Venus, who tells her son Cupid to make her fall for a wretched man to suffer for her beauty. After not being wed due to this beauty, her father prays to the gods, specifically to Apollo. Apollo essentially tells her father that she must be sacrificed to the gods and she will not marry on earth. It is a mournful time as they make this sacrifice. Psyche goes to a magical palace and is unknowingly married to cupid, a man she could not see. There she lives in luxury and is given anything she could ever dream of.
Meanwhile, while Psyche is living in luxury, her sisters return to the crag where Psyche had been abandoned and cry profusely. Psyche sees this and it upsets her, so she begs him to see them, who eventually agrees, but he tells her to not give in to their curiosity of wondering who he is, for if she does she shall never feel his caress again. She agrees and is brought down to her sisters by Zephyr, the west wind.
She goes to her sisters and tells them to "ease their troubled minds" and come into her home. Upon entering her home, the sisters experienced the luxury that Psyche experiences daily. They begin interrogating her to find out who the husband is, and she lies to them. They leave the palace green with envy.
They begin to compare their own "misfortunes" with Psyche's lifestyle. They talk down on her, calling her undeserving of such a delightful fate, saying she was prideful and arrogant. They agree to keep the news of her aliveness to themselves, promising to come up with a plan to punish her for her arrogance on her next visit.
I enjoyed this story because of the vast differences in the beginning and end of it. It begins with her sisters mourning for Psyche, who they believe to be dead, and ends with them scheming to punish her. Upon realizing that their sister is not only alive but living in luxury, they begin to resent her for her fortunes. They are utterly transformed by envy, which I think is an interesting concept to play with in the retelling.
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