Analysis of the work Olympus na kun. Lesson with a presentation on literary reading by I. Kun "Olympus". Origin of the world and gods

Erich Neumann

COMMENTARY TO "CUPID AND PSYCHE"

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Introductory Note

Apuleius's novel "Metamorphoses, or the Golden Ass" presents the story of Cupid and Psyche - in other words, Greek and Roman elements are mixed. However, in our interpretation of this fairy tale story we'll talk about Eros and Psyche: we will use the names of the gods in their original Greek forms. This is not a consequence of philological pedantry, which would be extremely inappropriate in this work. From a literary point of view, there is no doubt that the images of the gods of the very frivolous late Roman pantheon surrounding Apuleius's Psyche carry with them a certain amount of the charm of fairy tales. But since the purpose of our work is the analysis of mythological motives, it will be more appropriate to speak of the Eleusinian mysteries of Demeter, rather than of Ceres, and to call the Argive goddess Hera, and not Juno. Moreover: it is not Venus, but Aphrodite that we associate with the Great Goddess. Finally, the husband and lover of Psyche in the myth is the powerful Eros - the deity of the prehistoric era, and not Cupid or Cupid - the little mischievous angel, whose image has been found in works of art only since ancient times.

Erich Neumann

Mental development of femininity

The story of Eros and Psyche can be divided into five parts: introduction, “deadly marriage”, fatal act, four trials, happy ending; We will adhere to the same order in the course of our research.

Psyche, a princess of unearthly beauty, is revered as a goddess. People make pilgrimages to her court, neglecting the cult of Aphrodite, which awakens mortal envy in the latter. She decides to take revenge on Psyche and orders her son Eros to destroy the princess by making her fall in love with “the last of mortals.”

Despite Psyche's beauty, no one asks for her hand in marriage. Wanting to find a husband for his daughter, her father turns to the oracle and receives a terrible answer:

King, place the doomed maiden on a high cliff

And in her funeral attire for her wedding rites;

Don’t hope to have a mortal son-in-law, unfortunate parent:

He will be wild and cruel, like a terrible dragon.

He flies around the air on wings and tires everyone,

He inflicts wounds on everyone and scorches them with a burning flame.

Even Jupiter trembles before him and the gods are afraid.

He inspires fear in the Styx, a gloomy underground river.

Obeying the prophecy, the unhappy parents prepare Psyche for a deadly marriage with a dragon. But the princess does not die: suddenly Zephyr carries her away. So she enters into a blissful life with an invisible spouse, Eros, whose wife she was destined to become. However, her envious sisters disrupt this idyll. Despite the warnings of Eros, Psyche heeds their advice and decides to waylay the monster under the cover of darkness - and this is exactly how her husband’s sisters describe it - and kill him. In the next part of the story, Psyche, violating the prohibition of Eros, examines him by the light of a lamp. She recognizes him as a god, but a drop of hot oil falling from the lamp awakens him; at that very moment he leaves Psyche. This is followed by the search for her missing lover, the heroine’s clash with the angry Aphrodite and the fulfillment of the work assigned to her by the goddess. The confrontation ends with the defeat of Psyche: she opens the vessel received from Persephone and plunges into a sleep similar to death. At the end of the story, Eros awakens Psyche, after which she is accepted into the host of the Olympian gods as his immortal wife.

The story begins with a conflict between Psyche and Aphrodite: the princess is distinguished by such rare beauty that she becomes an object of worship. There is a rumor among mortals that “the goddess, whom the azure depth of the sea gave birth to and the foamy moisture of the waves raised, by her permission shows mercy everywhere, revolves in the crowd of people,” but even more offensive to Aphrodite is the deeply symbolic conviction: “...or again from the new seed of the heavenly luminaries, not the sea, but the earth gave birth to another Venus, endowed with the color of virginity.” According to this hitherto unheard of belief, Psyche no longer appears embodiment Aphrodite (a notion that the goddess could probably still entertain) - instead she becomes a "second Aphrodite", conceived and reborn. Undoubtedly, this “new faith” contains a hint of the origin of Aphrodite, who, according to myth, arose from the phallus of Uranus that was cut off and fell into the sea. Psyche - the “new Aphrodite” - on the contrary, is considered to be born from the earth, which was fertilized by a drop of heavenly dew.

In the course of the study, it will become clear that this “new faith” is not the result of any liberties in the interpretation of the myth on our part and concerns its deep essence. The fact that the conflict between Aphrodite and Psyche arises at the very beginning of the story indicates the central position of this motif.

The radical change in attitude towards Aphrodite suggests that the birth of Psyche was a turning point in human history. This is exactly reminiscent of the cry “The Great Pan is dead!”, which sounded at the end of antiquity. “Crowds of people, not stopping at the distance of the journey, at the depths of the sea, flocked to the famous miracle. No one went to Paphos, no one went to Knidos, no one even went to Cythera itself to see the goddess Venus; sacrifices became rarer, temples were abandoned, sacred pillows were scattered, rituals were neglected, images of the gods were not decorated with garlands, and widowed altars were covered with cold ash. The girl is approached with prayers...”

In response to this, Aphrodite, as the “official” goddess, flew into great rage. She, the “ancient mother of nature,” the “progenitor of the elements,” is treated like this! Her name, “established in heaven,” is “defiled by earthly uncleanness.” Her vanity is hurt, and she, like a jealous woman, longs for retribution. Moreover, she is plotting the most insidious, secretive revenge: the goddess decides to use her son Eros as a weapon to destroy her rival. Aphrodite longs for only one thing: to prove the superiority of her own beauty over anyone else.

The bright, refined external imagery of the situation should not encourage us to consider this episode as a “genre picture”: something much deeper is touched upon here. Aphrodite and her son Eros, whom she conjures with the bonds of maternal love, “kisses long and hard with a half-open mouth” are powerful, incomprehensible gods, and for them man is just “earthly stinking dirt.” The Great Mother and her son-lover, these willful and despotic rulers of destinies, are going to lay siege to human pride. The story of Psyche begins with a plot typical of Greek tragedy.

The dazzling, sinister beauty of the divine couple has a charm that no reader of the tale can avoid. Eros, this stubborn, truly “mean boy” whose arrows threaten even his own parents - Zeus and Aphrodite - is invited to destroy Psyche with the weapon that belongs to him and his mother, the weapon of love. The princess must “fiercely fall in love with the last of mortals... in such squalor that in the whole world there could not be found a more pitiful one.” The almighty goddess, the Great Mother, from whose primordial image emanates an aura of witchcraft (including the ability to turn people into animals), demonstrates her deadly love magic with the sparkling shamelessness of a divinely cruel, truly soulless woman. Her unearthly beauty, all-consuming vanity and immense passion are combined with the playful negligence of the disastrous power of Eros, leading people to indescribable torment. After Aphrodite expresses her longing to see Psyche, that lovely, virgin bud of human femininity, driven to despair by love for a disgusting inhuman monster, she goes “to the nearby edge of the sea-washed shore; As soon as she stepped with her pink feet on the wet surface of the rustling waves, she was already resting on the quiet surface of the deep sea, and as soon as she wished, the sea retinue immediately appeared, as if prepared in advance.” A charming picture, rich in colors, appears before us: Aphrodite travels across the sea, surrounded by a choir of Nereids and triton servants, and one gently blows a sea shell, another protects the goddess from the sun with a silk blanket, and the third holds a mirror to the mistress’s eyes. This is the “prologue in heaven.”

Meanwhile, on earth, Psyche “for all her obvious beauty, did not make any profit from her beautiful appearance.” Lonely, without love, without a spouse, she began to hate “her beauty, although she attracted all people.” And her father, praying to the oracle of Apollo to send down a husband to his daughter, receives the gloomy answer we know.

Although the deadly marriage is mentioned only in the prologue of the work, it is an integral part of the mythological basis of the story of Eros and Psyche. The procession gathered for the gloomy ceremony, the flames of the torches, “blackened by soot and extinguished by the ashes,” the sounds of the wedding flute, “transitioning into a plaintive Lydian mode” are nothing more than the matriarchal ritual of a deadly marriage that precedes the lament for Adonis. Traces of the most ancient mythical era, manifested in the late fairy-tale world of Aphrodite of Alexandria.

So, the most ancient, fundamental motive of the bride dedicated to death appeared - the motive of “death and the maiden”. And in it we guess the central phenomenon of feminine-matriarchal psychology.

From the perspective of matriarchy, any marriage is seen as violence against the virgin freshness of Cora, which is carried out by Hades - the kidnapper, the earthly manifestation of hostile masculinity. From this point of view, every wedding is like being on a mountain top in mortal solitude, waiting for the monstrous groom to whom the bride has been given over. The bride's veil is a shroud of secrecy, and marriage - the "deadly marriage" - is the central archetype of the feminine mysteries.

In the deepest experience of the feminine, the fatal wedding, recounted in countless myths and fairy tales, with the sacrifice of a maiden to a monster, dragon, wizard or evil spirit, is also hierogamy. The character of rape that this event takes on for femininity expresses the projection of hostile elements onto the man, typical of the matriarchal stage. Therefore, for example, it would be inappropriate to interpret the atrocity of the Danaids, who - all but one - killed their husbands on their wedding night, as resistance to marriage and patriarchal power. Undoubtedly, this interpretation is correct, but it applies only to that early stage development, which covers a much more distant past.

We have shown elsewhere that the basic state of femininity is the original relationship of identity between daughter and mother. For this reason, the approach of the masculine in any case means separation. Marriage is always a mystery, but also the mystery of death. For a man - and this is the inner essence of the difference between masculinity and femininity - marriage is, first of all, abduction, conquest - that is, rape, as recognized by matriarchy.

Touching upon this deep mythological and psychological level, we must forget about the development of culture, about cultural forms, which accept the relationship between man and woman, and return to the primitive phenomenon of their sexual encounter. It is easy to see that the meaning of this clash is and should be very different for masculinity and femininity. What for masculinity is aggression, victory, violence and the satisfaction of passion - and we only need to look at the animal world and have the courage to recognize the presence of the same level in a man - for femininity becomes lot, transformation and the deepest mystery of life.

It is no coincidence that the central symbol of girlhood is a flower, which delights a man with its natural beauty, and that the loss of virginity that accompanies the beginning of a marital relationship is known as “defloration.” , is extremely important. In his interpretation of the image of Persephone Kerenyi draws attention to the death of the maiden Cora and the moving border between being and non-being at the entrance to the kingdom of Hades. Our task is to provide psychological clarity to the mythological situation. Defloration symbolizes for femininity a truly mysterious connection between the end and the beginning, between the cessation of being and the entry into real life. Only a woman can experience as a whole the states before and after losing her virginity, experience becoming a mother and, in the course of these changes, comprehend the depths of her own existence - and only as long as she remains open to the archetypal foundations of life. Therefore, defloration initially appeared to masculinity as something amazing, extremely mysterious, numinous. It is not for nothing that the act of deflowering has been separated from a woman’s personal life everywhere and at all times and was carried out as a ritual.

The fact that the transition from the flower-maiden to the fruit-mother is of decisive importance in a woman’s life becomes especially clear in the light of an understanding of the speed with which women grow old in primitive living conditions, and the rapidity with which fertile maternal resources are spent in hard labor. strength. The transition from girlhood to female maturity is always felt more acutely where, as often happens, carefree youth abruptly gives way to order adult life and restrictions on marriage.

Here the objection may arise that in primitive society the question of defloration often does not arise at all, since unrestrained and unemphasized sexuality easily enters into children's games - and therefore all the apparently special attention that we pay to the factor of "marriage" is very greatly exaggerated, if at all appropriate. But, as has already been shown, by “marriage” we mean not just a physiological phenomenon, but an archetype or archetypal experience. The experience of the initial state of a lethal marriage may coincide with the actual entry into marital relations - defloration, but this is not a necessary fact, just as the primary situation of childbirth does not require a coincidence with the actual birth. Indeed, countless women have gotten married and given birth to children without the appropriate “events” to back it up—something that, to our surprise, we often see in modern women- but this does not cancel the situation of marriage as an archetype and the central structure of female psychic reality. Myth is always an unconscious representation of key life situations, and one of the reasons why myths are so significant to us is that in these confessions, illuminated by the light of consciousness, we can read the true experience of humanity.

Poetry in its highest manifestation is inspired by the same primary images as myth: it can manifest motifs and forms that have mythological analogues. Our interpretations of myths are remarkably confirmed when the poems sound the same original notes as the mythological sources. This is exactly the case with Rilke’s poem “Alcestis”: in the course of his delving into the unconscious, the poet plunges much further than the level containing the motive conjugal love, and reaches the fundamental layer - the situation of a deadly marriage.

According to a famous fairy tale, the gods granted Admet the right to buy off own death at the expense of the death of another. When his time came to die, Admetus’s mother, father and friends were not ready to give their lives for him, but his wife Alcestis, whom Homer calls “divine among women,” this wife, famous for her love for her husband, willingly went to her death. Like the Egyptian Isis mourning Osiris, ancient Alcestis was considered a “good wife” in patriarchal Greece. The meaning of her death, which represents in a less favorable light her husband, who demands and approves of this sacrifice, becomes clear to us only taking into account the fact that Euripides considered the life of a man infinitely more valuable than the life of a woman.

But something different happens in Rilke’s work, if only because the poet’s mythological intuition shifts the action to the wedding day:

...And suddenly she came out,

seemed smaller and sad,

light and in a light bridesmaid dress.

All others are just a street, in which

she is coming, she is coming - (and will soon be

in his arms, open with pain).

And she says; but not to him

and to God, and now God listens to her,

and as if through God everyone hears:

“He has no replacement. But there is me

replacement - me. Nobody can do it themselves

give like me. What from me, from here,

will it stay? Only that I will die.

And didn't death tell you

that the bed awaiting us

belongs to the underground? I say goodbye.

Farewell beyond farewell.

No one who dies can

take more. Everything that is buried under it

my husband, everything will pass, melt away.

Lead me: I will die for him.”

At first glance, it may seem that such a shift in scenery is poetic license and is of a random nature, but upon closer examination we recognize that here, too, poetry reveals its deep source and is subject to fundamental laws. Recent scientific research has established that Alcestis was originally a goddess and many cults were dedicated to her. The complete correspondence between the modern poem and the mythological motif of the “bride of death” becomes obvious when we learn that Alcestis was Kore-Persephone, the goddess of death and the underworld, and her husband Admetus is the inexorable lord Hades himself. Alcestis was part of the great circle of the Ferian matriarchal goddesses that dominated Greece in the original era. And only in the course of historical development does the goddess become a “heroine”, and her divine husband become the mortal king Admetus. This is a classic case of secondary personalization, when initially archetypal elements are reduced to a personal level.

Undoubtedly, Rilke realized myth in its personalized form. But what did he create - or rather, what happened to him? His Alcestis is transformed into a bride, moreover, she becomes the bride of death, Kore-Persephone, whose internal drama goes beyond the personal sphere, changing the image of her husband, King Admet. The drama turns into a dialogue between her and the deity - the god of death, as mentioned above, Admetus the Underground, her true husband. The mythological constellation, hidden under the layers of successive centuries, is experienced anew in poetry. Thanks to the poetic genius of Rilke, the image gets rid of the distortions introduced into it by time and human history, and again emerges in its original form from the primordial font of myth.

In his work dedicated to Eurydice, Rilke develops the theme of “death and the maiden” in a different way. Eurydice leaves the world of the dead, Orpheus strives to bring her to life and to the light of earthly existence, but in her true being, in her virginity, in this, as Kerenya puts it, “bud-likeness” - in other words, in the indestructible “independence” of her Eurydice already belongs to the fullness and perfection of death.

She retreated into herself. And otherness
she was overwhelmed.
Like a fruit with both sweetness and darkness,
it was full of enormous death,
such an incomprehensible novelty.

She was like a new virgin
and the entrance to the female womb was closed,
like a young flower before sunset,
and even hands from touching
so unaccustomed that the touch of God,
as quiet as a guide's,
as painful as intimacy seemed to her.

Thus, the archetypal influence of the murderous marriage motif extends from the prehistoric era of matriarchy to the present day: it can be traced both in the ritual sacrifices of virgins and in the rites of marriage. This motif also occupies a central position in the story of Psyche, although at first glance it seems only to be a manifestation of Aphrodite's revenge.

Oddly enough, Psyche's reaction to the sentence passed on her, originating in her unconscious, is in full accordance with the mystery of the collision of femininity with the situation of death. This is incomprehensible if we take into account only the “naive character” of the heroine. She does not rebel, does not fight, does not challenge - in a word, does not perform actions characteristic of a masculine ego that finds itself in a similar position - on the contrary, Psyche humbly accepts her fate. With absolute insight, she comprehends the deep meaning of what is happening; this is the only place in the entire narrative that contains a hint that hidden meaning available to mortal heroes. The princess exclaims: “When peoples and countries showed us divine honors, when with one voice new Venus they proclaimed me, then they should grieve, then shed tears, then I, as if I had already died, should be mourned.” Taking hybris(of course, in relation to all humanity, and not one’s own ego) and the coming punishment is entirely a gift, Psyche thereby declares her readiness to be sacrificed: “I hasten to enter into this happy marriage, I hasten to see my noble husband. Why should I hesitate, delay the coming of the one who is born to destroy the whole world?” With these words, the heroine, left on a lonely cliff, is suddenly separated from both the mournful crowd surrounding her and her parents.

Here an unexpected inversion of the situation occurs - an episode that, upon first reading, creates a strong impression in the spirit of a fairy tale. This is the third part of the story: Psyche in the blissful world of Eros.

The wedding ceremony is filled with the grandiose mythical splendor of a deadly marriage; it ends in a luxurious setting that reminds us of much later fairy tales "A Thousand and One Nights", and the lightness and pretentiousness of the surrounding scenes is comparable only to the interiors of the Rococo era. “In the dead of night, some light noise reaches her ears. Here, fearing for her virginity in such solitude, she becomes timid, horrified, and afraid of some kind of misfortune, especially since it is unknown to her. But the mysterious husband had already entered and ascended to the bed, made Psyche his wife and hastily left before sunrise.”

Soon “the novelty of frequent habit becomes pleasant for her, and the sound of an unknown voice serves as a consolation for her in solitude.” Some time later, Psyche exclaims: “It would be better for me to die a hundred times than to lose your sweetest marriage! After all, whoever you are, I love you passionately, like my soul, and I cannot compare you with Cupid himself.” But the enthusiastic frenzy in which she mutters: “My honey, my hubby” and “your Psyche’s tender darling!” - this is a frenzy of darkness. Psyche is in a state of ignorance and blindness, she can only hear and touch her lover, but she is satisfied - or so it seems to her. She lives in heavenly bliss.

But every paradise has its own serpent-tempter, and the intoxication of darkness cannot last forever. In our case, the role of troublemakers is played by the Psyche sisters, whose invasion turns into a disaster - another expulsion from paradise. It would seem that we have a simple and familiar fairy tale motif of envious sisters. But analysis shows that the plots of fairy tales can be anything but simple, since in reality they contain many levels of meaning and are extremely meaningful.

Despite the strict warnings of Eros, Psyche meets with her sisters. Filled with envy, they plot to destroy her happy existence. The technique they choose for this, again, is consonant with a universal motive: its main meaning is not to kill Psyche’s husband, but to convince her to break the taboo on her own, to shed light on the secret of secrets, in in this case- having carefully examined your partner. For Psyche’s invisible lover gives her an order: she must not see him, must not know who he is. This endlessly repeated injunction “never ask me” is nothing more than a ban on entering the “secret room”, violation of which leads to an inevitable fall from the pinnacle of happiness.

How can you characterize these sisters? What is their significance in the development of the story of Psyche? Let's put aside the external fairy-tale features and try to recognize the content underlying these images.

In their surroundings, the sisters act as if they are happily married; in fact, they hate their husbands to the depths of their souls - to the extent that the concept of a soul is generally applicable to these furies. The sisters are waiting for any convenient opportunity to leave their spouses. Their marriage life symbolizes patriarchal oppression, these are typical examples of what we call “slavery of the feminine under patriarchy.” They were given in marriage to foreign rulers as their servants - thus, one of the sisters laments: “My husband is old enough to be my father, balder than a pumpkin, with a frailer build than any boy.” In fact, she is forced to play the role of a daughter for him in all respects, while the other sister drags out the no less bitter existence of a nurse for her sick husband. Both sisters are staunch man-haters, and we can assume that they express the typical attitude of a matriarchy.

This point of view is quite logical. However, although the theme of envy is present in the general structure of the myth, this very trivial motive should not be considered as leading in the behavior of the sisters. The most striking expression of their matriarchal position of hatred towards the masculine is the nature of their attitude towards Psyche’s husband.

When the sisters talk about “fetid and dangerous love and the embrace of a poisonous serpent” who is preparing to devour Psyche, “burdened with the best of fruits” (for at that time she is already pregnant), they express something more than the sexual envy of unsatisfied women. The sisters' speeches are truthful - they are only distorted by a malicious misunderstanding, and the reason for this slander lies in the sexual disgust of the humiliated and insulted matriarchal psyche. They manage to awaken this matriarchal level in Psyche: she faces an internal conflict, realizing that “in the same body she hates a monster and loves her husband.” This already transparent hint of the Danaids’ murder of husbands and the stage of matriarchy only intensifies when the sisters advise Psyche not to run away from her unknown husband, but to behead him with a knife - ancient symbol castration, sublimated into the spiritual sphere. Hostile masculinity, a woman as a victim of a monstrous man, his murder and castration as symbols of self-defense of matriarchy or its dominance - how do these motives manifest themselves in the soul of Psyche, and most importantly - for what purpose? What is the mythological meaning of these obstacles on the heroine’s path?

The activity of the matriarchal, man-hating sisters contrasts sharply with the humble devotion and self-forgetfulness of Psyche, who is completely captivated by sexual addiction - in fact, by Eros. Their appearance causes the first changes in the blissful state of sensory satisfaction, which is described by Apuleius in such a magnificent abundance of colors. In our interpretation, the figures of the sisters are projections of suppressed or completely unconscious matriarchal tendencies in Psyche herself, and therefore the invasion of these images leads her to internal conflict. Psychologically speaking, the sisters represent the shadow aspect of Psyche, and their multiple nature indicates their belonging to the transpersonal level of the psyche.

The first appearance of the sisters gives Psyche a certain independence: she suddenly realizes her existence with Eros as life in a “golden cage” and begins to yearn for simple human communication. Until now, she has been floating with the flow in a stream of unconscious pleasure, but now she understands all the illusory unreality of this sensual bliss. At every meeting with her lover, Psyche now declares her femininity: she arranges “scenes” and herself seduces her seducer with “the power and authority of amorous whispering.”

To understand the true purpose and meaning of this invasion of shadowy figures, we must completely disregard the superficial interpretation of this episode as intrigue. It may seem paradoxical, but the sisters represent the aspect of female consciousness that determines everything further development Psyche and without whom she would not have become what she eventually became - namely, the feminine image of the soul. Despite their negative form, their bloodthirsty anti-masculine calls have an affirmative content, since they embody that healthy will of femininity to fight the current situation, which is precisely what Psyche lacks in her situation. Here begins the path of feminine consciousness to becoming at the highest level. However, these sisters hardly personify such consciousness - rather, they are its shadow, negative forerunners. But if Psyche manages to achieve “higher consciousness,” it is only because she heeds their negative instructions from the very beginning. Only by succumbing to the temptations of her sisters and breaking the taboo imposed by Eros does she come into conflict with her lover - and it is he, as will be shown later, who is the main factor in Psyche’s own development. By analogy with the biblical story, attention to the serpent leads to expulsion from paradise and to a higher level of consciousness.

And even taking into account all his sweet dreams, isn’t this existence in the sensual paradise of Eros humiliating? Isn’t this a state of blind obedience against which feminine self-consciousness - such is the matriarchal position of femininity - must rebel, against which it must use all the means proposed by the sisters? The existence of Psyche is non-existence. This stay in darkness, this rapturous frenzy of carnal sensuality can be compared with the state of being absorbed by a demon, a monster. Eros - the winged god of sudden and burning charm - is everything that was listed by the oracle of Apollo, whose words are echoed by the sisters of Psyche; She herself really turns out to be a victim of her husband.

The basic law of matriarchy prohibits any relationship with a man as a separate person and recognizes him only as a conductor of an anonymous force of divine origin. In the case of Psyche, the requirement of anonymity is fulfilled, but at the same time she incurs a terrible, indelible shame by becoming a victim of this masculinity, by being completely in its power. From the point of view of matriarchy, the only worthy response to such humiliation is murder and castration of masculinity - and this is exactly what her sisters demand from Psyche. But they embody not only regressive tendencies: the principle of “higher femininity” is also involved here. This is confirmed by the symbolism of the further mythological situation, which literally “illuminates” the unconscious state of Psyche.

Whenever she encounters Eros, Psyche resists his demands to stop communicating with her sisters. At first, the difference between the external softness of the heroine’s behavior and her inner conviction seems like an insoluble mystery. One can only marvel at the strange tenacity with which Psyche, despite regular and persistent warnings, maintains her connection with her relatives. But during the next argument, she utters a very frank phrase: “I won’t ask a word more about your face, the very darkness of the night no longer annoys me, since you are with me, the light of my life.” These words are the key to understanding the heroine’s internal situation.

At the very moment when Psyche seems to be finally reconciled with darkness (that is, with her own unconsciousness) and completely renounces individuality, she suddenly turns to her unknown and invisible lover as “the light of her life.” The feeling, which until now had remained invisible, finally manifested itself. In her words, Psyche denies not only her weariness from living in darkness, but also her passionate desire to find out who her lover is. She pushes away her own fear that this will eventually happen and reveal her unconscious awareness of what is happening. For a long time she was in captivity of darkness, but now she is driven by the need to move towards the light, towards greater awareness. But at the same time, the heroine feels a great threat hanging over her. This is what gives special drama to the scene in which Psyche, trying to dispel her fear of darkness, calls Eros “the light of her life.” Ultimately, this is true: Eros is the light that shines ahead and shows her the way through all adversity. However, Eros, which illuminates her own way - this is in no way the reckless youth who takes possession of her at night and tries to possible ways force the heroine not to disturb their heavenly love bliss.

In the subsequent narrative, it is repeatedly emphasized that Psyche is by no means just a “meek” and “simple-hearted” heroine - on the contrary, her current position is fully consistent with the attitude of rebellion and enmity that is so characteristic of her sisters. From them, a wave of matriarchal protest is transferred to Psyche, prompting the latter to actively fight against the unbearable position of a captive. Due to this, the previously outlined internal conflict is realized, when Psyche “in the same body hates the monster and loves her husband.” This contradiction is the only clue that allows the sisters to influence the heroine, tempting her: after all, she does not know exactly what her lover looks like! Until now, the pair of opposites “lover - monster” was present in her unconscious, but did not reach the threshold of consciousness. The sisters allow Psyche to become aware of the “monstrous” aspect of Eros, and this brings him into direct conflict with his original conscious position that Eros is only a “husband.” Psyche cannot continue to maintain her previous unconscious state: she must see the true face of her companion. Thus, ambivalence, the confrontation between the “soul that hates the monster” and the “soul that loves the husband,” is projected outward and pushes Psyche to take a decisive step.

Armed with a knife and an oil lamp, Psyche approaches the bed of her unknown lover. By the light of the lamp, she recognizes Eros in him, after which she tries to kill herself with the knife she was just going to behead the “monster” with, but fails. Staring at the sleeping man, she accidentally pricked herself on one of his arrows and immediately became inflamed with passion for him. She leans over him for a kiss, but at that moment a drop of hot oil that falls from the lamp burns and wounds Eros. He wakes up and, having caught Psyche breaking his taboo, takes off and flies away.

So, Psyche is driven by the matriarchal forces of hatred of the male. Hoping to kill the monster, she approaches the bed and discovers Eros in it. What is she experiencing at this moment? Unfortunately, in Apuleius’s novel this episode was subjected to such a subtle and elegant treatment that it almost lost its original meaning. But if we can restore all the mythological splendor of this grand scene, we will comprehend a drama of incredible depth and power, this unique psychic transformation - for here occurs the awakening of Psyche as the soul. This moment becomes a turning point in the history of femininity: for the first time, a woman emerges from the darkness of the unconscious, frees herself from the harsh matriarchal captivity and gains her first experience of interaction with a man as a bearer of individuality. Psyche recognizes Eros in him - in other words, she falls in love. But this is love of a very special kind, and only by grasping this peculiarity can we understand what significance it has given state falling in love in the process of developing femininity, personified by Psyche.

Psyche, who approaches the bed of Eros, is not at all like that other, shackled and lethargic princess, bewitched by her feelings, who lived in a dark paradise sexual passions. The sisters' invasion awakened her, making her aware of the impending danger. Filled with ferocious matriarchal rage, the heroine prepares to destroy the monster, a monstrous man who arranged a deadly marriage, deprived her of the light of earthly life and dragged her into darkness. And now a new light has illuminated her former unconsciousness, and in its radiance Psyche discerns Eros. She falls in love. In the light of the new consciousness, the heroine experiences a fatal transformation: it is revealed to her that there is no difference between her husband and the monster. After the lightning of love strikes her, Psyche turns the knife on her own heart, or - in another version - wounds herself with the arrow of Eros. Thus, she leaves the infantile, unconscious side of existence, and also discards the matriarchal attitude towards man-hatred. Only being in a lower, unconscious state could Psyche mistakenly take her lover for a monstrous dragon-destroyer: after all, only by remaining a childishly naive and ignorant girl (and this is also dark side!), she could think that the “higher” husband she loved was different from the “lower” dragon. Illuminated by the light of love, Psyche recognizes in Eros a god who has both a higher and a lower manifestation at the same time, uniting them in himself.

Psyche was pricked by the arrow of Eros, her wound is bleeding: “So, without knowing it, Psyche was inflamed with love for the god of love.” The birth of this love was preceded by a deadly marriage, rape and captivity, and therefore everything that Psyche is now experiencing can be called the second loss of virginity - a true, active, voluntary defloration that takes place inside her. Now she is no longer a victim, but a consciously loving woman. Eros, which awakens love delight in her, takes possession of her like an internal force, while Eros the man, living outside, sleeps and does not know about the changes taking place with Psyche. It is here that the narrative takes on its utmost poignancy and drama.

The act in which Psyche voluntarily surrenders to love, surrenders herself entirely into the hands of Eros, is both a loss and a sacrifice. By this she does not deny the matriarchal stage of her femininity: the paradoxical core of the situation is that through this act of love Psyche awakens the matriarchal psyche in its authentic form and strengthens it to a state that can be designated as the “Amazon stage.”

The cognizing Psyche, breaking the taboo on the discernibility of Eros, sees it in full light, now its position in relation to the masculine does not contain naive infantile traits. The heroine is no longer just “charming and enchanted”: in her new femininity she appears so deeply transformed that she loses - and, truly, must lose! - your lover. In this state of love, characteristic of the feminine nature, the situation of growth of consciousness through collision, understanding and suffering turns out to be identical to sacrifice. Together with the love that burst out at the moment when Psyche “saw Eros,” her inner Eros comes into play, no longer identical to the spouse sleeping outside. Indeed, this “Eros from within,” which is the image of her love, becomes the highest, invisible expression of the one who lies before her. This is exactly the mature Eros, belonging to the conscious, mature psyche - the Psyche, which has ceased to be a child, invisible and great, living inside it. And he must certainly come into conflict with his small, visible incarnation - the one who was exposed by the light of the lamp and burned by a drop of oil. Eros, which is hidden in darkness, may still be the personification of every image of the beloved who lives in it, but Eros, made visible, is the ultimate, divine reality of the boy, the son of Aphrodite.

Moreover, we must not forget that Eros himself Not wants Psyche to be like this! He threatens his wife, he fervently begs her to stay in the darkness of heaven, he warns that because of her actions she may lose him forever. But Psyche’s unconscious tendency toward greater awareness (in this case, awareness in relation to love) turned out to be stronger in her than anything else, including love for Eros - at least, masculine Eros would perceive it approximately this way. But despite the fact that Psyche, in a state of heavenly ignorance, was subordinate to Eros, every now and then yielding to him surrounded by darkness, the statement that she does not love him is erroneous. Something in her that can be characterized negatively - as matriarchal aggression, or positively - as a desire for consciousness and the full realization of her feminine nature, powerfully leads the heroine to a way out of the darkness. And in the light of knowledge, it is through the awareness of Eros that she begins to love him.

English deflowering- derived from flower("flower"). (Translator's note)

Article “The Psychological Aspects of the Core” in the publication: C.G. Jung and K. Ker?nyi, “Essays on a Science of Mythology” (USA), “Introduction to a Science of Mythology” (UK). Translated by R.F.C. Hull. New York and London, 1950/1951.

H.J. Rose, A Handbook of Greek Mythology, p. 141.

An excerpt from the poem “Alcestis” from the collection “New Poems” (1907) is translated from German by Vladimir Letuchy, published in the publication: Rilke R.M. Book of Hours. - M.: Folio, 2000. - P. 215-218. (Translator's note)

P.Philippson, Thessalische Mythologie, p. 88.

Ibid., p. 85.

Excerpt from the poem “Orpheus. Eurydice. Hermes" from the collection "New Poems" (1907) is translated from German by Vladimir Letuchy, published in the publication: Rilke R.M. Book of Hours. - M.: Folio, 2000. - P. 212-215. (Translator's note)

hybris(ancient Greek ? ???? ) – arrogance, pride. IN analytical psychology the term is used to refer to a state of ego inflation. (Translator's note)

Psyche's stay in the dark paradise of Eros is an interesting variant of the motif of the hero's absorption by an uroboric monster, a hybrid of a whale and a dragon. In this case, the state of being captured by darkness takes on the characteristics of pleasure - however, this is also an archetypal situation that is not something exceptional. Often the threat of absorption is hidden in the temptation to plunge into a blissful state (regressive in its essence) - remember, for example, the gingerbread house in the fairy tale of Hansel and Gretel. This heavenly bliss hides within itself a monster-devourer: in our case it is the dragon Eros, in the said fairy tale it is a witch. Just as, during a night voyage on the sea, the masculine hero-sun lights a light in the belly of the monster, and then cuts a path to freedom through the monster’s flesh, Psyche, wanting to escape from her prison, also arms herself with light and a blade. In the male solar myth, the hostile, murderous action of the hero is directed forward, towards new frontiers, and even if this is only an awareness of the new, it still leads to the “killing” and “dismemberment” of the object (the dragon). In the feminine version of the myth, the heroine’s similar need for knowledge retains a close connection with the much greater need for love. Thus, even when Psyche is forced to inflict a wound on her lover, she maintains a connection with him, never for a moment ceasing attempts at reconciliation and without interrupting the process of his transformation.

However, in the case of Psyche, the fundamentally important operations are the unification of the dual structure of Eros (also known as the antithetical pair of divine twins Eros and Anteros) and the transformation lower form Eros to the highest. It is interesting to note here that the two-faced Eros is “the Eros of Aphrodite and the Eros of Psyche”, ” ??? ????????? ??? ??? ????? ????? ” - already mentioned in the Egyptian magical papyrus. Cm.: Reitzenstein, Das M?rchen von Amor und Psyche bei Apuleius, p. 80.

Psyche means “soul” and “butterfly” in Greek. Thus, it turns out that this myth tells about the connection between physical and spiritual love and that loving soul, like a butterfly, undergoes metamorphosis.

John Francis Birline. "Parallel Mythology"

Apuleius. "Metamorphoses, or the Golden Ass":

“In a certain state there lived a king and a queen. They had three beautiful daughters, but the older ones, although they were beautiful in appearance, one could still believe that people would have enough praise for them, but the youngest girl was such a wonderful beauty, so indescribable that it was impossible to describe her. then in human language sufficient to describe and glorify it cannot be found.”

At the beginning of the story, a prosperous family is presented - a mature consciousness and emotional sphere - a king and queen, who brought wonderful fruits of the soul - three daughters, three emotional principles. What kind of principles these are and what qualities they have, we will see further. As always, the youngest daughter is the most beautiful. People, blinded by her beauty, began to worship her as a goddess, and the temples of Venus were empty, and they stopped making sacrifices in her honor. Venus was angry with Psyche for stealing her honors and called upon her son, the winged Cupid, to punish the girl. The name of the beautiful maiden - Psyche - soul and butterfly already suggests that the scene of action is the human soul and its metamorphoses.

“I conjure you with the bonds of motherly love, with the tender wounds of your arrows, with the sweet burns of your torch, to avenge your parent... let this maiden passionately fall in love with the last of mortals, to whom fate denied both origin, and fortune, and the very security, in such a squalor that could not be found more pitiful in the whole world.”

But Psyche, even without Venus’ punishment, suffered from her beauty. The older sisters were betrothed to suitors of the royal family, and the younger sister cried alone, because she was perceived only as a living statue. Psyche’s father went to the ancient soothsayer of the Milesian god to ask for a husband for his youngest daughter and received the answer:

King, place the doomed maiden on a high cliff

And in her funeral attire for her wedding rites;

Don’t hope to have a mortal son-in-law, unfortunate parent;

He will be wild and cruel, like a terrible dragon,

He flies around the air on wings and tires everyone,

He inflicts wounds on everyone, burns with a burning flame,

Even Jupiter trembles before him, and the gods are afraid.

He inspires fear in the Styx, a gloomy underground river.

The girl is dressed in mourning clothes and led to the rock, leaving alone.

“And her unfortunate parents, dejected by such misfortune, locked themselves in the house, immersed in darkness, abandoned themselves to eternal night.”

As in many Russian and European fairy tales, as well as Greek myths, the beauty is sacrificed to the monster. In Russian fairy tales, snakes, Koschei, Raven - an unclean spirit - carry away the beautiful feminine principle. Andromeda, chained to a rock, is given to be devoured by a sea monster. But there is a fundamental difference in this tale about Psyche, as we will see later.

Psyche's parents mourn her fate. Home is consciousness. To plunge into darkness and surrender to eternal night means to surrender consciousness to the power of entropy and decay. They buried their daughter alive, thinking that they had given her in marriage to a monster. The monster is a symbol of chaos, the collapse of a beautiful beginning, which was their youngest daughter. Psyche is not only alive, but also resides in another world with divine beings.

“But Psyche, fearing, trembling, crying at the very top of the rock, the gentle breeze of the soft Zephyr, shaking her floors and swelling her clothes, slightly lifts her, with a calm breath little by little carries her away from the slope of a high rock and in a deep valley into the bosom of a flowering meadow, slowly lowering her, lays "

Psyche finds herself in a magnificent palace. “As soon as you step there, you immediately recognize that in front of you is some kind of god’s bright and sweet haven.”

From the ordinary palace of her father and mother, Psyche finds herself in an unusual divine magical palace. Here you do not need to make any effort to ensure that everything necessary and even beyond that arises.

This is reminiscent of the Scandinavian myth about Riga, which gave people knowledge. He descended to earth and, having visited his great-grandmother and great-grandfather, who lived in a dugout, gave them basic knowledge. From them came a line of servants. Having come to a more prosperous woman and grandfather, who lived in a good house, God Rig gave them more knowledge - how to trade, etc. From them came artisans and traders. Arriving at the house of his mother and father, who did nothing themselves, living in a beautiful house, only looking into each other’s eyes, all the work of which was done by servants, Rig gave them more knowledge. From the mother and father came a noble family of kings with knowledge of runes. Here we see three houses - a dugout, a good house and a rich house where servants work. Home is consciousness. The first consciousness is limited, the last is spiritual and wise, closest to the gods, capable of healing and stopping the storm with the knowledge of runes, as the myth says. In this house-consciousness, all the work is done by servants, i.e., this consciousness has passed the path from the dugout to the palace, has completed the work of transforming itself, is free from labor and struggle with itself, and has separated the true from the false.

Psyche finds herself in a palace where the work of transforming the soul has already been completed, the true is separated from the false. Invisible servants serve what is needed and delight with the arts - this is the sphere of purity and inspiration.

Invisible servants talk to Psyche and serve her. They prepare the bath, set the table, and delight with music and singing. At night her husband appears, whom she does not see, but touches and hears. One day her husband warns Psyche:

“Your sisters, who consider you dead and anxiously seek your traces, will soon come to that cliff; if you accidentally hear their complaints, do not answer them and do not even try to look at them, otherwise you will cause me severe grief and certain death for yourself.”

Psyche cries in separation from her family and seeks permission from her husband to visit her sisters in order to console their sadness. “...do as you know, give in to the demands of the soul that thirsts for death.” The husband asks not to heed the sisters’ advice to try to see him, but if this happens, she will forever cast herself down from the pinnacle of happiness and lose his embrace. Psyche swears:

“Yes, it’s better for me to die a hundred times than to lose your sweetest marriage! After all, whoever you are, I love you passionately, like my soul, and I cannot compare you with Cupid himself.”

IN this moment Psyche - the soul loves her husband for his wonderful qualities and his appearance is not important to her.

When the sisters come to mourn Psyche at the rock, the younger sister orders Zephyr to take them to her. Seeing the palace, countless riches and invisible servants, the sisters envied Psyche, although she gave them generous gifts. Returning home, one sister said to the other:

“Yes, she points to the sky; This woman behaves like a goddess, since she has invisible servants and commands the winds themselves. And what happened to me, the unfortunate one? First of all, my husband is old enough to be my father; he is balder than a pumpkin, has a frailer build than any boy, and keeps everything in the house locked and locked.” Another sister also complained about her husband.

When Psyche asked her sisters about her husband for the first time, she answered that he was young and handsome. The sisters appreciated Psyche's kindness and generosity in their own way; to them it seemed pride, arrogance, and her gifts - crumbs from an excellent table. “If I weren’t a woman, I’d stop breathing if I didn’t overthrow her from the top of such wealth.” They decide not to tell anyone, neither parents nor people, about her prosperity. “Those whose wealth is unknown to no one cannot be happy.”

Psyche is happy in this beautiful palace with loving husband and countless riches are not important to her. But she yearns for her relatives, and specifically for her envious, cruel sisters, which will lead her to misfortune and expel her from the pure, inspired kingdom. Longing for sisters is an analogy for inharmonious qualities in Psyche.

The husband again warns Psyche about the insidious plans of the sisters, whose main goal is to persuade her to see her husband’s features. He also reveals to her that she is expecting a child: “...your child’s womb carries within itself a new child for us, divine, if you hide our secret with silence, if you break the secret - mortal.”

Having visited Psyche for the second time, the sisters again find out who her husband is, and she, having forgotten what she said the first time, comes up with the idea that he is a middle-aged man with gray hair.

Realizing that Psyche has not seen her husband and that most likely he is a god, the sisters do not want to allow Psyche to bliss in happiness with the deity and the birth of a divine child. They come up with lies to frighten Psyche: “We have certainly learned and cannot hide from you, sharing your sorrow and grief, that a huge snake secretly sleeps with you at night, writhing with many loops, whose neck is filled with destructive poison instead of blood and its mouth open like an abyss. Remember the predictions of the Pythian oracle that announced your marriage with a wild monster. In addition, many peasants, hunters who were hunting nearby, many surrounding residents saw him returning from the pasture in the evening and fording the nearest river... Now you are presented with a choice: either you want to listen to your sisters, who are caring about your dear salvation, and, having escaped death, live with us in safety, or be buried in the entrails of the most cruel reptile." Psyche, in fear, reveals to her sisters that she has not seen her husband. They encourage her to kill her husband at night, preparing a sharpened razor and a lamp. Psyche decided to “extend her hand to crime”, “... despairs, gets angry and, finally, in the same body, hates the monster and loves her husband.”

Psyche stops trusting her feelings and allows herself to be deceived by her sisters and drawn into an illusion. She already fears and hates her husband, who loves her tenderly and gives her a wonderful life, only because the image of a monster is drawn in her imagination. The truth in her mind is replaced by the false. She did not love her husband for his appearance, since she did not see him, and it did not matter, she felt the beauty in him. Now, just because in her imagination he has the appearance of a dragon, she is ready to kill him, forgetting the care and affection, all the good things that she received from him. At night, after her husband fell asleep, Psyche took the razor and brought the lamp to the bed. But as soon as “the secrets of the bed were illuminated,” she saw most beautiful god Cupid. A bow and a quiver of arrows lay at the husband’s feet. Psyche, examining the arrows, accidentally wounds herself with the tip and, “without knowing it, Psyche was inflamed with love for the god of love.” She showered the body with passionate kisses, but the lamp suddenly splashed oil and burned the god’s shoulder. Waking up, Cupid saw Psyche who had broken her oath and immediately rose into the air.

“And Psyche, as soon as he rose, grabbed his right leg with both hands - a pitiful pendant in a high flight - but, finally, tired of being a hanging companion for a long time in the sky-high heights, she fell to the ground. The loving god does not leave her lying on the ground, and, flying up to the nearest cypress tree, from its high top, deeply excited, says to her: “After all, I, the most simple-minded Psyche, contrary to the command of my mother Venus, who ordered to instill in you a passion for the most pitiful, to the last of mortals and to doom you to a wretched marriage, he himself chose to fly to you as a lover. I know that I acted frivolously, but, famous shooter, I wounded myself with my own weapon and made you my wife so that you would consider me a monster and want to cut off my head with a razor, because these lovers are in it. your eyes... Your venerable advisers will immediately answer me for their disastrous invention, but I will punish you only with my disappearance. “And, having finished this speech, he flew up on wings.”

For Psyche, the external becomes more important than the internal, essential, so she loses God, loses the bliss of unity with the winged mind. She tries to hold on to the flying god, but cannot stand it. Having not yet acquired her own wings, Psyche does not have the strength to rise with the deity into the sphere of heaven - wisdom and truth. The foolish maiden is expelled from the paradise of the magic palace, where she did not have to work, and she falls to the mortal earth, where she is forced to wander in search of the lost paradise, in search of her beloved - the spiritualized mind - her god.

Unlike fairy tales, where a beautiful maiden is given to a monster or the monster takes away the beauty, here there is an illusion of the monster. In this tale, on the contrary, the beautiful Psyche is given to the winged god, but no one knows about this, not even Psyche herself. What do people usually fear most? What is hidden in the dark, in the darkness, where nothing is visible and therefore incomprehensible, unknown, scary. But as soon as you turn on the light and see what is around you, fear disappears, because everything becomes clear and understandable. People are afraid of phenomena and concepts unknown to them, and only after studying them do they develop their position towards them, assessing whether it is good or bad, true or false, sublime or base. Psyche is given over to the power of an unknown invisible force, which she intuitively trusts, being in the bliss of unity with spiritual consciousness, which is not yet fully understood by Psyche - the inexperienced sphere of the soul. She has no knowledge of the highest principle - her husband, only a feeling of him, so she is easily misled, and she is afraid of what she has not seen and does not understand. And what is incomprehensible and therefore frightening is easier to kill than to know. Ignorance always seeks to destroy those who bring enlightenment and enlightenment to the minds and hearts.

The monster here is not Cupid, but ignorance, ignorance painting a monstrous image of the unknown, sublime and spiritual.

Psyche, in grief, threw herself off a cliff into the river, but the wave carried her to the shore unharmed. The soul, separated from the radiance of the bright mind, remains in darkness and does not want to exist, but water cannot rest it in itself, just as it cannot wash it - until Psyche herself wishes it. Water is a symbol of the subconscious forces of the soul. Psyche strives to descend into the unconscious sphere of the subconscious, but the active forces of the soul do not allow her to do this, splashing her out again into the sphere where she remembers and understands her mistake and therefore longs to correct it.

Her sisters are similar to the sisters of Russian fairy tales - about Finist the Clear Falcon, where the sisters separated the beautiful maiden from Finist - the clear mind. Both Finist and Cupid are winged and live in the heavenly sphere, flying to their lovers. And Psyche, just like a beautiful maiden, is forced to wander around the world in search of her lover, enduring many hardships, cultivating the field of her soul. In the fairy tale about Tsar Saltan, the sisters are similar to the weaver and cook who want to destroy the queen and her son and overthrow them from the throne. Psyche also carries a baby inside her - the fruit of a winged god, whom the sisters also do not want to allow to flourish and take its rightful place. In the fairy tale about Tsar Saltan, the weaver and the cook mislead the king - the mind and throw the queen and her son into the sea, and here the sisters - a distorted emotional principle, sowing illusions, blind the inexperienced, gullible, indiscriminate yet unable to separate the true from the false Psyche - the emotional sphere.

Psyche followed the road that led her to the city where her husband ruled older sister. She told her sister that, on their advice, she looked at her husband in the light of the lamp and saw the divine Cupid, but the wick splashed oil and burned the god. Psyche told how, upon waking up, he said: “For such a cruel crime, leave my bed immediately and take your belongings, but I and your sister,” here he said your name, “will marry in solemn marriage.”

Psyche's sister, having deceived her husband, immediately boarded the ship and went to the cliff from which Zephyr carried the sisters with a light breath to Cupid's palace. Standing on the cliff, she shouted, “seized with blind hope: “Take me, Cupid, a wife worthy of you, and you, Zephyr, support your mistress!” - and with all her might she rushed into the abyss. But she did not reach her destination even in the form of a corpse. Hitting the rocks, her members broke and scattered in different directions, and she died, making her torn entrails, as she deserved, easy prey for birds and wild animals... The next vengeful punishment was not long in coming. Psyche, again setting out on her wanderings, reached another city, where, like the first, her second sister was queen. And this one also succumbed to the bait of her own sister and - Psyche's rival - hurried to the cliff for a criminal marriage, but also fell, finding her own destruction and death.

The first thing Psyche, expelled from paradise, does is to give what she deserves to her sisters. Now Psyche is no longer that inexperienced, trusting, ignorant and happy soul. She now knows that she was married to a deity, that she lost him due to the illusions instilled by her sisters. And Psyche destroys the source of illusions, cleanses itself of the principles that distort existence - the evil sisters.

“Meanwhile, while Psyche, busy searching for Cupid, went around the countries, he himself, suffering from a burn, lay and moaned in his mother’s bedroom.” The talkative seagull told Venus that her son was sick, and also that his chosen one was Psyche, whom she wanted to punish. Venus pours out her anger on her son and searches for traces of Psyche in order to take revenge on her. Psyche is looking everywhere for her husband. Seeing a temple on the top of a mountain, she heads towards it, hoping to find Cupid there. Seeing the ears of barley and wheat, sickles, and all kinds of harvesting tools in disarray, Psyche begins to diligently sort them out, putting them in order. She is caught doing this by the “nurse Ceres,” the goddess of this temple, from whom Psyche asks for protection from Venus for several days. But, fearing the wrath of Venus, Ceres drives Psyche away, saying that the only way she can help her is not to detain her and immediately betray her into the vengeful hands of Venus.

In search of her winged mind, Psyche finds herself in the temple of fruits, labor and abundance, where she restores order, that is, order in the temple of labor and fruitfulness of her soul. Here she strives to hide from obstacles, but fruitfulness itself pushes her towards obstacles, so that, having overcome them, she emerges from this struggle as a winner.

Psyche goes further and sees the temple of Juno in the twilight valley. Having entered it, she offers a prayer to the goddess who patronizes pregnant women, which Psyche was, who are in danger. She prays: “...be Juno’s patroness to me in my extreme need and, exhausted in so many torments that I have experienced, free me from the fear of threatening dangers!”

Psyche no longer asks to be hidden from Venus’s revenge, but asks to be freed from fear. She finds the courage to face dangers face to face, but fear still hinders her. Juno also denies Psyche shelter and help.

Realizing that even if the goddesses refuse her shelter, that she cannot hide anywhere from Venus’s revenge, she decides to go to her herself and, armed with the presence of mind, submit to her. At the same time, Psyche hopes to find her husband in her house, while being ready to die.

Approaching the gates of the mistress of love, Psyche is seized by Habit - from among Venus’s servants: “Finally, wicked servant, you realized that there is a mistress over you!.. - and, boldly grabbing her hair, dragged her, while she offered no resistance.”

Habit – “Consuetudo. This word also has a narrower meaning in Latin, namely “love affair” (approx. S. Markish).

Venus is the goddess of beauty and love. Psyche accepted the gifts and honors that people showered on her, like a goddess; she did not reject this veneration, taking for herself what belonged to the universal principle of beauty and love. For this she was persecuted by this beginning.

“As soon as Venus saw that Psyche was brought and placed in front of her, she burst into loud laughter, like a man driven to the point of rage by anger... and said: “At last you have honored your mother-in-law with a visit!” Or. Maybe you came to visit your husband, who is suffering from a wound you inflicted? But be calm, I will be able to treat you as a good daughter-in-law deserves! - And shouts: - Where are Care and Dejection, my maids? (Personification of feelings accompanying love). “She handed her over to them who came to the call to be tortured.” And they, according to the order of the mistress, having beaten poor Psyche with whips and subjected her to other tortures, again brought her before the eyes of the master.”

After a long search for the lost unity with the winged mind, Psyche is tormented by Care and Dejection - two qualities of the soul that seek to destroy the hope of reunification with the lost paradise. Every soul goes through the ordeal of care and despondency in search of harmony and peace of mind.

“Again Venus burst into laughter and said:

“You probably expect that the sight of your swollen belly, the glorious offspring of which is going to bless me with the title of grandmother, will evoke compassion in me?” ...the marriage was unequal, moreover, concluded in a country house, without witnesses, without the consent of the father, it cannot be considered valid, so an illegitimate child will be born from it, if I even allow you to inform him.

Having said this, she swoops down on her, tears her dress in every way, drags her by the hair, shakes her head and beats her mercilessly, then takes rye, barley, millet, poppy seeds, peas, lentils, beans - she mixes it all and, pouring it into one a large heap, says: “Sort out this heap of mixed grain and, having laid out everything properly, grain to grain separately, before evening, present your work to me for approval.”

Having pointed out the multitude of such varied grains, she herself goes to the wedding feast.”

The ants took pity on Psyche and decided to help her. Before Venus arrived, all the grain was carefully sorted and separated.

Venus's first task– disassemble the grains, separating one from the other. If earlier Psyche was illegible about which principles were true and creative, and which were illusory, now she understands a lot. To sort through many varieties of grain without mixing them is to separate some qualities from others by diligent work. Ants are a symbol of the productive forces of the soul.

Venus's second task- bring a piece of precious wool from golden-fleeced sheep grazing near the river bank. Psyche again wants to end her life by throwing herself into the river, but suddenly a reed turns to her: “Psyche, who has experienced so many troubles, do not stain these sacred waters with your unfortunate death and, see, do not approach the terrible sheep at this hour; when the heat of the sun scorches them, they are usually attacked by wild rage and they cause death to mortals either with sharp horns, or with stone foreheads, and sometimes with poisonous bites. When the heat of the sun subsides in the afternoon and the pleasant coolness of the river calms the herd... you will find golden wool stuck everywhere among the intertwined branches - you just have to shake the foliage of the neighboring trees.” Psyche heeded the advice of the reed and in the afternoon gained “a full bosom of soft golden-yellow wool.”

Golden wool- precious solar yarn that emits light. Sheep wear it like clothing on themselves, and people or gods can create clothing for the body from this yarn, clothe themselves in the radiance of golden light - the light of truth. But the bearers of this luminous vestment are mad sheep with sharp horns, stone foreheads and poisonous bites. Truth can blind if it is not accessible to understanding. Using the knowledge given by the reed - what sheep are, how and when the golden fleece can be collected, Psyche not only does not die, but also brings precious yarn. Ignorance collides and breaks against the stone foreheads of the unknown. Ignorance is unable to look into the essence of things in order to extract gold from any seemingly negative situation or phenomenon. Let us remember how Psyche’s parents, immersed in the darkness of ignorance, surrender themselves to eternal night - entropy. That is, we can say that they encountered the mad sheep of ignorance and were poisoned by their poisonous bites, without making an attempt to lift the veil of ignorance in order to extract from under it the golden fleece of wisdom, which would tell them about the divine marriage of their daughter with Cupid. Ignorance would push Psyche towards poisonous bites, knowledge puts gold in her hands to clothe her soul.

Venus's third task- bring ice water from the Stygian waters of the kingdom of the dead. These waters poured down from the top of a steep mountain. Psyche climbed to the top and saw “horrifying springs,” which were guarded on all sides by fierce dragons. “In addition, the waters, possessing the gift of speech, and protecting themselves, constantly exclaimed: “Back!” What are you doing! Look! What are you up to? Beware! Run! You will die!

The eagle, “the royal bird of Jupiter Almighty,” helps to complete this task.

The icy waters that feed the Styx are the waters of death. The coldness of the waters is the opposite of warmth and life. And the waters themselves, possessing the gift of speech, drive away all living things. Dragons, a symbol of the fear of death, guard its sources. To see these waters, you need to climb to the top of a steep mountain - a symbol of the greatness of death, as well as life. Mountains are a symbol of striving for perfection, a symbol of wisdom. Death is also perfect and wise. The waters of death not only separate the body from the soul, sending it to the kingdom of Hades, but also transform the soul if it has eagle wings, capable of maneuvering between the terrible dragons of fear and filling the vessel of consciousness and soul with the waters of purification. The eagle is the inner winged and watchful force that can reach the waters of transformation. In a Russian fairy tale, a winged raven brings dead and living water, also a winged creature, an inhabitant of the celestial sphere - the sphere of wisdom, spirit. Psyche received communion with the water of purification.

Venus's fourth task- go down to the kingdom of Hades and ask Proserpina for a jar of beauty. Psyche decided that the shortest way to Tartarus was to die by throwing herself from a high tower.

Psyche is helped to complete this task by the tower, which addresses Psyche: “Why do new dangers and labors so easily depress you?”

Psyche tries to commit suicide for the third time. The soul is afraid of obstacles and difficulties, but its previous victories and the path traveled do not allow it to give up, and it regains knowledge.

The tower told Psyche where to find the crevice - the entrance to the kingdom of the dead, what she needed to take with her and who she would meet on the way. He especially warns that you should not look into the jar and “show curiosity about the treasures of divine beauty hidden in it.” Taking two coins and two cakes, Psyche descends along the afterlife. She gives a coin to the carrier of the souls of the dead - Charon, a cake - to the three-headed dog Kerberus, thereby calming his rage, then appears before Proserpina, setting out Venus's instructions. Taking the jar of beauty, Psyche returns safely, giving the second cake to the dog and the second coin to Charon. Having emerged into the world, Psyche thought: “How stupid I am that I carry divine beauty with me and do not take at least a little from it for myself in order to please my beautiful lover!

And having said this, he opens the jar. There is absolutely nothing there, no beauty, only an underground dream, truly Stygian, which immediately bursts out from under the lid, finds itself on her, a thick cloud of numbness spreads throughout her whole body and takes possession of her, who fell at that very moment on the same path. And she lay motionless, like a sleeping dead man.”

Having descended into the kingdom of shadows, the area of ​​death and transformation, the soul can either die or be purified, transformed, transformed and gain new knowledge, just as Ivan, entering the kingdom of Baba Yaga, comes out of it transformed, updated, enriched with knowledge. Psyche breaks the ban - opens a jar of underground beauty and falls asleep. This is again the result of ignorance - the soul does not know what underground beauty is for the living. She breaks the ban because she wants to look more beautiful in order to please her divine husband. Here she makes a similar mistake as at the beginning of her fall, believing that her husband’s appearance is terrible. The external becomes more important for her than the internal, the shell - the content. Therefore, her inner, beautiful falls asleep.

The story of Cupid and Psyche Greek origin, but is most famous in the presentation of the Roman writer of the 2nd century AD - Apuleius. It is included as an insert novella in his famous novel “The Golden Ass”. The character of the novel, an old servant woman, before starting to tell this story, says: “I know a lot of interesting fairy tales from the good old days.” Thus, Apuleius emphasizes the folklore, popular origins of the legend of Cupid and Psyche.

Apuleius calls the gods by Roman names: Cupid, Venus, Jupiter, but the name Psyche is Greek and means “soul.” In later times, the story of Cupid and Psyche was interpreted as an allegory of wanderings human soul striving to merge with love.

In a certain country there lived a king and a queen. They had three beautiful daughters, and the youngest, Psyche, was so beautiful that she surpassed Venus herself in beauty.

The goddess was annoyed with the mortal beauty and decided to punish her severely. Venus called on her son, the god of love, Cupid, and told him: “Make Psyche fall in love with the most insignificant of people and be unhappy with him all her life.”

Cupid flew to carry out his mother's orders, but everything did not turn out the way Venus wanted. Seeing Psyche, Cupid was struck by her beauty, and the beautiful princess, without suspecting it, stung the god of love himself with love. Cupid decided that the beauty should become his wife, and began to discourage all suitors from her.

The king and queen were perplexed: the two eldest daughters had already been successfully married, but Psyche, despite her beauty, still lived in her parents’ house and not a single groom had wooed her.

The king turned to the oracle, and the oracle announced (of course, at the instigation of Cupid) that the princess was destined for an unusual fate; he ordered that Psyche be dressed in a wedding dress, taken to a high mountain and left there waiting for the unknown husband destined for her.

The king and queen grieved for a long time, but they did not dare to disobey the will of the gods and did everything as the oracle ordered.

Unhappy Psyche in her wedding dress found herself alone on the top of the mountain. She looked around in horror, expecting that some monster was about to appear.

But suddenly a light, gentle Zephyr breeze flew in, picked up Psyche, carried her from the inhospitable rock to a green valley and lowered her onto the silky grass.

A shady grove grew nearby, and among the trees stood a white marble palace. Seeing that nothing bad had happened to her so far, the princess perked up and wanted to take a closer look at the palace. The doors opened of their own accord in front of her, and the princess, timidly, went inside.

Psyche had never seen such luxury before. The walls shone with gold and silver, the ceiling was made of ivory, and the floor, which she trampled under her feet, was made of precious stones.

Suddenly, a friendly voice was heard from somewhere: “Hello, princess! Be the boss here."

Psyche walked around the palace all day, but was never able to explore all its rooms. Invisible servants accompanied the princess, fulfilling her every desire, as soon as she had time to think about it, and in the evening, tired, Psyche went to bed, and under the cover of darkness Cupid came down to her bed. Psyche did not see, but only felt her unknown husband, but, nevertheless, she fell in love with him dearly. In the morning, before it was dawn, Cupid left, only to come again when it got dark.

Psyche was happy in her luxurious palace, with her beloved, although unknown to her, husband. Only one thing worried her: she knew that her parents and sisters were grieving, considering her dead.

One night Psyche said to Cupid: “My beloved husband! I cannot be calm and happy when my family is in grief. Let me send them news that I am alive and well.”

But Cupid replied, “It’s better not to do this, so as not to cause big trouble.”

Psyche did not dare to insist, but from that day on she became sad and thoughtful, and cried, even indulging in the caresses of her husband.

Cupid, unable to see his beloved wife in sadness, said: “I will fulfill your wish. See your sisters, but be careful, they might give you bad advice.”

He sent Zephyrs for Psyche's sisters, and they carried them on their wings to the palace.

Coming to their senses after traveling by air and seeing that their younger sister was alive and well, the sisters were very happy. But when Psyche told them how happy she was, walked around the palace and showed her wealth, envy awoke in their hearts.

When the sisters began to ask her about her husband, the simple-minded Psyche replied that her husband was kind and affectionate, and, apparently, young and handsome, although she could not say this for sure, because he visits her only under cover of darkness.

Here the sisters were filled with even greater envy, since one of them had a husband who was old and bald as a pumpkin, and the other’s was crooked from rheumatism and constantly smeared himself with stinking ointment.

Returning home, the sisters did not even tell their parents that Psyche was alive, and they drew up an insidious plan to ruin her happiness.

Soon Psyche again wanted to see her sisters, and they, like the last time, flew to visit her on the wings of the Zephyrs.

Seeing Psyche, the sisters depicted feigned grief on their faces and exclaimed: “Oh, unfortunate one! Your husband is a disgusting and evil snake. The local farmers have more than once seen him crawling on his belly across the river and hiding in your palace. Beware! One day it will sting you and you will die terrible death!” And they both began to sob loudly.

Frightened and confused, Psyche asked: “What should I do?” The sisters said: “Hide a sharp knife under the bed, and when your husband comes to you tonight, kill him.”

The treacherous sisters returned home, leaving Psyche in fear and sadness.

After thinking about it, she doubted the sisters’ words and decided, before killing her husband, to look at him to make sure that he really was a snake. She filled the lamp with oil and hid it near the bed.

At night, Cupid, as usual, came to Psyche’s bed. When he fell asleep, Psyche slowly got up, lit the lamp and, frozen with horror, looked at her husband. Imagine her amazement and joy when, instead of the disgusting snake, she saw the golden-haired god of love.

Psyche's hand trembled, the lamp tilted, and a drop of hot oil fell on the sleeping man's shoulder. Cupid immediately woke up. Seeing Psyche with a lamp in her hands, he exclaimed in anger and grief: “You listened to the advice of your envious sisters and ruined our happiness. I could punish you severely, but I will punish you only by separation from me.”

He flapped his wings and flew away.

The unfortunate Psyche was left alone, crying bitterly and cursing her gullibility. Then she left luxurious palace and went to wander around the world in search of her husband.

Cupid, meanwhile, flew to the palace of his mother Venus. His burned shoulder hurt badly, he moaned and complained loudly.

Venus was angry with her son, who dared to marry the one she wished harm without her knowledge, but the goddess was even more angry with Psyche. Venus strictly forbade gods and people to help the unfortunate woman, to give her shelter and consolation.

Psyche wandered for a long time, rejected by everyone, and finally came to the palace of Venus.

The goddess greeted her with abuse and ridicule. She said that Psyche was only worthy of being a servant, and immediately gave her a job: she mixed millet, barley, poppy seeds and lentils in one pile and ordered her to separate one from the other.

Psyche began to cry, not daring to even begin this endless work, but the ant took pity on her. He called his hardworking people, and the ants quickly and well fulfilled Venus’ task.

Then the goddess ordered Psyche to go to the grove where the golden fleece rams were grazing and bring their wool. But the rams were angry and pugnacious and did not let anyone near them. Psyche stopped on the bank of the stream, not daring to approach the grazing herd.

But then the coastal reed rustled and said: “Wait until noon. The sheep will fall asleep, and you will walk through the grove and find many tufts of their wool tangled in the branches of bushes and trees.”

Psyche listened to the advice and brought Venus an armful of golden wool.

But the goddess did not relent and ordered Psyche to bring water from a spring gushing at the top of a steep cliff.

When Psyche, holding a crystal vessel in her hands, stood at the foot of the rock and looked with despair at the impregnable peak, an eagle flew past. He picked up the crystal vessel and, rising on his wings to the top of the rock, scooped up water from the source.
Frustrated, Venus came up with a new task: she ordered Psyche to go down underground into the kingdom of death, ask its mistress Proserpina for a casket and, without opening it, bring it to Venus.

The miserable Psyche thought that it was easier to die than to complete this task. She climbed a high tower to throw herself down and put an end to her torment. Her grief was so great that the cold stones from which the tower was built took pity on her. They spoke and showed Psyche the way to the underworld, teaching her to bribe the ferryman across the river separating the world of the living from world of the dead, two coins and appeasing the dog guarding the entrance to the underworld with two pieces of bread.

Proserpina gave Psyche the casket. Psyche remembered that she should not look into it, but she could not control her curiosity. As soon as she emerged from the underground kingdom into the light, she opened the lid.

The casket contained a dream similar to death. He enveloped Psyche in black fog, she fell to the ground and fell asleep.

Meanwhile, Cupid's burned shoulder healed, and along with the pain, his anger towards Psyche passed. He found her, immersed in an enchanted sleep, and woke her with a kiss. Psyche told her husband how cruelly Venus oppresses her, and Cupid promised that from now on this would come to an end.

He flew to Jupiter himself and began to ask him to establish peace between his mother and wife.

Jupiter called Venus and said to her: “Oh, most beautiful! Do not complain that your son chose not a goddess, but a mortal as his wife. I will give her immortality, and she will become equal to the gods.” He filled the goblet with ambrosia, the drink of the gods, and gave it to Psyche to drink.

Psyche became immortal, like her husband. The gods sang praises to her beauty and good disposition; Venus had to humble herself and recognize Psyche as her daughter-in-law.

Soon Cupid and Psyche had a daughter, whose name is Pleasure.

The love story of Cupid and Psyche served as the basis for many works of art - sculptures, paintings, poems and plays. In European literature, the most famous adaptation of this plot is the poetic story of the 17th century French poet J. La Fontaine. Russian poet of the 18th century I.F. Bogdanovich also created a poem about Cupid and Psyche. He called his poem “Darling”, literally and at the same time very figuratively translating the name “Psyche” into Russian.

Jupiter shaking

With a reasonable head,

Cupid gave the charter,

By the force of old rights,

So that the age will be captivated by spiritual beauty

And Darling would always be his match.

Cupid (or Cupid) is the ancient Roman god of love, assistant and constant companion of his mother, Venus. He represents the attraction and continuation of life on Earth and is represented as an angel with a bow and arrow.

Psyche is the ancient Greek goddess of the soul, the personification of breath. She is usually depicted as a girl with butterfly wings. An unusual love story has come to us in the form of a short story in the novel “Metamorphoses” called “The Tale of Cupid and Psyche” by Apuleius, an ancient Roman writer and poet.

The king had three daughters, all of them were famous for their beauty, but more than the others was the youngest, named Psyche. The fame of her exceptional appearance spread to all corners of the world, and people came from everywhere just to admire her. It got to the point that Psyche was given completely divine honors, completely forgetting about Venus, the goddess of beauty.

As a result, Venus was offended and decided to eliminate her rival. Why did she call on her son Cupid for help? She pointed him to his beautiful rival and ordered him to make her fall in love with the most terrible, outcast and unsightly of people.

Psyche herself was not at all happy with her beauty. People admired her as a thing, and no one took her seriously or asked her to marry her.

Her grieving father asked the oracle for help. The answer was this: Psyche, in funeral clothes, should go to the rock and marry a nightmare monster. An even more unhappy father took his daughter to a place where he left her alone. A sudden gust of wind carried the girl to a wonderful castle, filled with spirits, where she became the wife of a mysterious creature.

Psyche's happy life was short: when her sisters found out about her, they were filled with envy and decided to destroy her life. They persuaded the girl to break her promise to her husband never to ask about who he was. The sisters lied to her that he was actually a dragon who would eat her and her unborn child when she least expected it.

As a result, they persuaded her to kill her husband at night. Grabbing a lamp and armed with a sword, the naive Psyche did just that. She lit the lamp and went into the bedroom. In the light, she saw that her husband was the beautiful Cupid.

The girl was so amazed by the beauty of her husband that she fell in love and did not notice how a hot drop of oil fell from the lamp. It landed on Cupid, and he woke up in pain. The husband was offended and annoyed by his wife’s frivolity and distrust of him, and flew away from her at that very moment.

Deceived and abandoned, Psyche went to look for her betrothed. She wandered around the world for a long time until she was forced to bow to her rival, Venus. She was still looking for an opportunity to take revenge on the girl, for which she even sent Hermes after her. Meanwhile, the burned Cupid was staying with her for treatment.

And so it happened: the spouses found themselves under one roof, and Psyche had to endure the persecution of the goddess of beauty, who wanted her death, for which she came up with impossible tasks.

Trials of Psyche

Venus decided that she would allow the lovers to meet only if the girl completed four tasks. All these tasks were thought of as impossible, but by some miracle, Psyche managed to solve them every time.

In this sense, the psychological analysis of the myth of Cupid and Psyche is interesting. Each completed task made the girl stronger and developed her. She acquired the knowledge and skills that were necessary to become a Woman.

First

Venus brought Psyche into a room with a mountain of various seeds and gave the order to sort everything. According to psychologists, the symbolism of this task is as follows: before making a final decision, a woman must understand her feelings. Sort and put everything on shelves. She will have to put her fears aside and separate the important from the unimportant.

Birds and insects helped Psyche complete her task. Upon completion, Venus still did not want to let the girl see her son and therefore came up with the next task.

Second

Psyche had to get the golden fleece from the rams of the sun - large evil monsters who could easily trample her. On the way to completing the task, the girl met a reed, who recommended that she wait for the night when the animals left the field.

In terms of psychological analysis, this is a metaphor for a woman gaining strength. She must be able to find her strength without sacrificing either her personality or her ability to empathize.

Third

The girl had to get water from a forbidden source on the highest rock. Psyche would have fallen to death if the eagle had not come to her aid. Here psychologists read the ability to see the full picture of what is happening, without which big problems cannot be solved.

Fourth

The last test was to get a box of ointments for treatment from the underworld. Descending into the underworld is tantamount to death itself. And here the reading is: focus on the goal and be able to refuse people if necessary.

On the way back, Psyche came across many weak people begging for medicine in her hands. But she had to complete the task and not allow herself to be distracted, despite her sympathy for the suffering.

Psyche wasn't sure she could cope. This time the stones helped her, guiding her to the place where the casket was stored. Rock stones are a very important symbol. Psyche’s only man-made assistant in all of history is like the memory and experience of all the women who underwent trials before her. They were with her in the most difficult test and instructed the girl: she must finally overcome what they were unable to do.

The goddess Persephone gave the girl a box and ordered her not to open it. And here it again became difficult for Psyche to control her nature: on the way back, she nevertheless opened the casket to take a little divine beauty. And what was in the jar was not beauty, but an underground mortal sleep that immediately engulfed her. But the story of Cupid and Psyche does not end there.

For a long time the girl lay somewhere between the world of the living and the dead. Meanwhile, Cupid recovered from his burns, seized the moment when Venus could not see him, and went in search of his betrothed. He took the girl’s sleep away, put it back in the box and, with a light prick of his arrow, awakened Psyche. He ordered his wife to wake up and take the box to her mother and promised to take on all the other chores.

When the task was completed, Cupid took his betrothed to Olympus, where he received Zeus' permission to marry Psyche. In order to marry the couple according to all divine laws, he gave the girl immortality and ranked her among the host of gods. A magnificent wedding took place, in which everyone was present, and even Venus took pride of place and rejoiced for the betrothed. The couple had a daughter, Volupia, the goddess of pleasure.

The legend about Cupid and Psyche comes down to one simple statement: only the union of love and soul gives rise to true pleasure and happiness.

Image of Psyche

In art, the goddess of the soul was represented as a young girl with small wings. These could be the wings of a butterfly or a small insect. She was often depicted emerging from fire or in the funerary realm. In mythology, the butterfly is directly associated with the dead.

In Greek, psyche means both “soul” and “butterfly.” Sometimes Psyche was represented as an eagle pointing upward. In a number of works, “psyche” is also associated with blood, because blood is the carrier of the soul.

Deadly marriage

Analysis of “Cupid and Psyche” gives an understanding of the motive dedicated to the death of the bride. In many fairy tales it will be repeated: it is always a stepmother or mother-in-law who is jealous of her daughter-in-law and sends her to her death. From the point of view of the mysteries, every marriage is a lonely wait for the groom on the mountain, anticipation of death, fear that he is a monster. Moreover, she was given to him against his will and against his wishes.

That is we're talking about about femininity, tender and blooming, subordinate to masculinity. For a woman, marriage and deprivation of virginity are a mystery and a moment of transition, as well as a symbolic death necessary for rebirth and attainment. new role- wives. And for a man it is conquest and abduction.

Sisters archetype

Both in the myth “Cupid and Psyche” and in many fairy tales there are characters such as the sisters of the main character. And as a rule, these are envious girls who wish harm to their sister. By deception, they ensure that Psyche betrays her husband and falls into danger. They also wish her death, just like Venus.

Psychologists say that the sisters in the myth reflect the shadow side of the heroine herself. This is her protest against imprisonment, life in captivity: she does not see or know her husband, who kidnapped her and took possession of her. Psyche considers him a monster to whom she was bequeathed. And although he is gentle and kind with her at night, she cannot submit until she makes her own choice.

Another interesting fact is that in myth, unlike fairy tales (for example, “ The Scarlet Flower" and "Alyonushka") Psyche makes an independent choice. Fairy-tale heroines find themselves deceived and set up by their sisters: they are one hundred percent victims of circumstances and higher powers and cannot influence anything. Maybe that's why fairy tales end so quickly - their heroines are passive. That is, as a result there is no rebirth. Whereas Psyche, after all the adventures, turns from a person into a goddess.

First contact

Psyche succumbs to the admonition of her sisters (her shadow) and decides to kill her husband and free herself from captivity. The myth is also interesting because the girl really loves the good husband in him, but hates the monster who, she believes, resides in him. She makes difficult choices.

With an oil lamp in her hand, Psyche approaches her sleeping husband. According to one version, she herself is injured by his arrow and finally falls in love with Cupid. Psychologists consider this moment to be a turning point in the history of femininity, since before this the idea of ​​the relationship between men and women was reduced to the divine power of the former and the subordinate, passive acceptance and following of the latter.

In the work of Apuleius, Psyche herself performs actions, as a result of which she meets a man in the flesh (whom she had not even had the right to see before). That is, she ceases to be a woman - a victim of circumstances. This is equal to leaving the darkness, the area of ​​the unconscious. In the light it is revealed to her that there is no difference between her husband and the monster. She stops being passive and becomes loving and giving of herself consciously.

And at the same time, she does not abandon her feminine essence, but, on the contrary, awakens and strengthens it to the level of the Amazon.

Inner Cupid

When Psyche sees her betrothed and falls in love with him, the image of her Cupid is created inside her. This is the image of her love, the highest expression of the being who is now in front of her in physical form. According to one version, Cupid flies away because he is unable to compete with the new image in Psyche’s head.

The myth of the love of Cupid and Psyche is filled with adventure and romance. He talks about the wanderings of a soul yearning to merge with love.

49. CUPID AND PSYCHE

The story of Cupid and Psyche is of Greek origin, but is best known as told by the Roman writer of the 2nd century AD - Apuleius. It is included as an insert novella in his famous novel “The Golden Ass”. The character of the novel, an old servant woman, before starting to tell this story, says: “I know a lot of interesting fairy tales from the good old days.” Thus, Apuleius emphasizes the folklore, popular origins of the legend of Cupid and Psyche.

Apuleius calls the gods by Roman names: Cupid, Venus, Jupiter, but the name Psyche is Greek and means “soul.” In later times, the story of Cupid and Psyche was interpreted as an allegory of the wanderings of the human soul, striving to merge with love.

In a certain country there lived a king and a queen. They had three beautiful daughters, and the youngest, Psyche, was so beautiful that she surpassed Venus herself in beauty.

The goddess was annoyed with the mortal beauty and decided to punish her severely. Venus called on her son, the god of love, Cupid, and told him: “Make Psyche fall in love with the most insignificant of people and be unhappy with him all her life.”

Cupid flew to carry out his mother's orders, but everything did not turn out the way Venus wanted. Seeing Psyche, Cupid was struck by her beauty, and the beautiful princess, without suspecting it, stung the god of love himself with love. Cupid decided that the beauty should become his wife, and began to discourage all suitors from her.

The king and queen were perplexed: the two eldest daughters had already been successfully married, but Psyche, despite her beauty, still lived in her parents’ house and not a single groom had wooed her.

The king turned to the oracle, and the oracle announced (of course, at the instigation of Cupid) that the princess was destined for an unusual fate; he ordered that Psyche be dressed in a wedding dress, taken to a high mountain and left there waiting for the unknown husband destined for her.

The king and queen grieved for a long time, but they did not dare to disobey the will of the gods and did everything as the oracle ordered.

Unhappy Psyche in her wedding dress found herself alone on the top of the mountain. She looked around in horror, expecting that some monster was about to appear.

But suddenly a light, gentle Zephyr breeze flew in, picked up Psyche, carried her from the inhospitable rock to a green valley and lowered her onto the silky grass.

A shady grove grew nearby, and among the trees stood a white marble palace. Seeing that nothing bad had happened to her so far, the princess perked up and wanted to take a closer look at the palace. The doors opened of their own accord in front of her, and the princess, timidly, went inside.

Psyche had never seen such luxury before. The walls shone with gold and silver, the ceiling was made of ivory, and the floor, which she trampled under her feet, was made of precious stones.

Suddenly, a friendly voice was heard from somewhere: “Hello, princess! Be the boss here."

Psyche walked around the palace all day, but was never able to explore all its rooms. Invisible servants accompanied the princess, fulfilling her every desire, as soon as she had time to think about it, and in the evening, tired, Psyche went to bed, and under the cover of darkness Cupid came down to her bed. Psyche did not see, but only felt her unknown husband, but, nevertheless, she fell in love with him dearly. In the morning, before it was dawn, Cupid left, only to come again when it got dark.

Psyche was happy in her luxurious palace, with her beloved, although unknown to her, husband. Only one thing worried her: she knew that her parents and sisters were grieving, considering her dead.

One night Psyche said to Cupid: “My beloved husband! I cannot be calm and happy when my family is in grief. Let me send them news that I am alive and well.”

But Cupid replied, “It’s better not to do this, so as not to cause big trouble.”

Psyche did not dare to insist, but from that day on she became sad and thoughtful, and cried, even indulging in the caresses of her husband.

Cupid, unable to see his beloved wife in sadness, said: “I will fulfill your wish. See your sisters, but be careful - they may give you bad advice."

He sent Zephyrs for Psyche's sisters, and they carried them on their wings to the palace.

Coming to their senses after traveling by air and seeing that their younger sister was alive and well, the sisters were very happy. But when Psyche told them how happy she was, walked around the palace and showed her wealth, envy awoke in their hearts.

When the sisters began to ask her about her husband, the simple-minded Psyche replied that her husband was kind and affectionate, and, apparently, young and handsome, although she could not say this for sure, because he visits her only under cover of darkness.

Here the sisters were filled with even greater envy, since one of them had a husband who was old and bald as a pumpkin, while the other’s was crooked from rheumatism and constantly smeared himself with stinking ointment.

Returning home, the sisters did not even tell their parents that Psyche was alive, and they drew up an insidious plan to ruin her happiness.

Soon Psyche again wanted to see her sisters, and they, like the last time, flew to visit her on the wings of the Zephyrs.

Seeing Psyche, the sisters depicted feigned grief on their faces and exclaimed: “Oh, unfortunate one! Your husband is a disgusting and evil snake. The local farmers have more than once seen him crawling on his belly across the river and hiding in your palace. Beware! One day he will sting you - and you will die a terrible death! And they both began to sob loudly.

Frightened and confused, Psyche asked: “What should I do?” The sisters said: “Hide a sharp knife under the bed, and when your husband comes to you tonight, kill him.”

The treacherous sisters returned home, leaving Psyche in fear and sadness.

After thinking about it, she doubted the sisters’ words and decided, before killing her husband, to look at him to make sure that he really was a snake. She filled the lamp with oil and hid it near the bed.

At night, Cupid, as usual, came to Psyche’s bed. When he fell asleep, Psyche slowly got up, lit the lamp and, frozen with horror, looked at her husband. Imagine her amazement and joy when, instead of the disgusting snake, she saw the golden-haired god of love.

Psyche's hand trembled, the lamp tilted, and a drop of hot oil fell on the sleeping man's shoulder. Cupid immediately woke up. Seeing Psyche with a lamp in her hands, he exclaimed in anger and grief: “You listened to the advice of your envious sisters and ruined our happiness. I could punish you severely, but I will punish you only by separation from me.”

He flapped his wings and flew away.

The unfortunate Psyche was left alone, crying bitterly and cursing her gullibility. Then she left the luxurious palace and went to wander around the world in search of her husband.

Cupid, meanwhile, flew to the palace of his mother Venus. His burned shoulder hurt badly, he moaned and complained loudly.

Venus was angry with her son, who dared to marry the one she wished harm without her knowledge, but the goddess was even more angry with Psyche. Venus strictly forbade gods and people to help the unfortunate woman, to give her shelter and consolation.

Psyche wandered for a long time, rejected by everyone, and finally came to the palace of Venus.

The goddess greeted her with abuse and ridicule. She said that Psyche was only worthy of being a servant, and immediately gave her a job: she mixed millet, barley, poppy seeds and lentils in one pile and ordered her to separate one from the other.

Psyche began to cry, not daring to even begin this endless work, but the ant took pity on her. He called his hardworking people, and the ants quickly and well fulfilled Venus’ task.

Then the goddess ordered Psyche to go to the grove where the golden fleece rams were grazing and bring their wool. But the rams were angry and pugnacious and did not let anyone near them. Psyche stopped on the bank of the stream, not daring to approach the grazing herd.

But then the coastal reed rustled and said: “Wait until noon. The sheep will fall asleep, and you will walk through the grove and find many tufts of their wool tangled in the branches of bushes and trees.”

Psyche listened to the advice and brought Venus an armful of golden wool.

But the goddess did not relent and ordered Psyche to bring water from a spring gushing at the top of a steep cliff.

When Psyche, holding a crystal vessel in her hands, stood at the foot of the rock and looked with despair at the impregnable peak, an eagle flew past. He picked up the crystal vessel and, rising on his wings to the top of the rock, scooped up water from the source.

Frustrated, Venus came up with a new task: she ordered Psyche to go down underground into the kingdom of death, ask its mistress Proserpina for a casket and, without opening it, bring it to Venus.

The miserable Psyche thought that it was easier to die than to complete this task. She climbed a high tower to throw herself down and put an end to her torment. Her grief was so great that the cold stones from which the tower was built took pity on her. They spoke and showed Psyche the way to the underworld, teaching her to bribe the ferryman across the river separating the world of the living from the world of the dead with two coins and appeasing the dog guarding the entrance to the underworld with two pieces of bread.

Proserpina gave Psyche the casket. Psyche remembered that she should not look into it, but she could not control her curiosity. As soon as she emerged from the underground kingdom into the light, she opened the lid.

The casket contained a dream similar to death. He enveloped Psyche in black fog, she fell to the ground and fell asleep.

Meanwhile, Cupid's burned shoulder healed, and along with the pain, his anger towards Psyche passed. He found her, immersed in an enchanted sleep, and woke her with a kiss. Psyche told her husband how cruelly Venus oppresses her, and Cupid promised that from now on this would come to an end.

He flew to Jupiter himself and began to ask him to establish peace between his mother and wife.

Jupiter called Venus and said to her: “Oh, most beautiful! Do not complain that your son chose not a goddess, but a mortal as his wife. I will give her immortality, and she will become equal to the gods.” He filled the goblet with ambrosia - the drink of the gods - and gave it to Psyche to drink.

Psyche became immortal, like her husband. The gods sang praises to her beauty and good disposition; Venus had to humble herself and recognize Psyche as her daughter-in-law.

Soon Cupid and Psyche had a daughter, whose name is Pleasure.

The love story of Cupid and Psyche served as the basis for many works of art - sculptures, paintings, poems and plays. In European literature, the most famous adaptation of this plot is the poetic story of the 17th century French poet J. La Fontaine. Russian poet of the 18th century I.F. Bogdanovich also created a poem about Cupid and Psyche. He called his poem “Darling”, literally and at the same time very figuratively translating the name “Psyche” into Russian.

Jupiter shaking

With a reasonable head,

Cupid gave the charter,

By the force of old rights,

So that the age will be captivated by spiritual beauty

And Darling would always be his match.

This text is an introductory fragment. From the book Encyclopedic Dictionary (P) author Brockhaus F.A.

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