EROS AND PSYCHE – THE BLOGCHATTERA2ZCHALLENGE

 

Eros - The Cleveland Museum of Art - Unsplash

When the name of Eros is mentioned, the image that comes up is that of a beautiful young boy with a bow and quiver full of arrows. Eros was considered the Greek god of love and sexual favours. Apparently, he had two types of arrows – one was the golden, sharp tipped variety that could make people fall in love when used, and a blunt one that could go the opposite way – make people immune to advances of love.

Legend goes that Apollo once mocked Eros. To teach him a lesson, Eros shot a golden arrow at him, making him fall hopelessly in love with the wood nymph, Daphne. He then shot a blunt arrow at Daphne, turning her immune to the god’s advances, a worthy revenge indeed.

Apollo and Daphne 

                                                                          The Cleveland Museum of Art - Unsplash

Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of beauty, had her moments of envy. She turned her gaze at the exquisitely beautiful mortal, Psyche, who was famed for having hundreds of suitors. The reason for the goddess’ ire was that people started mistaking Psyche for Aphrodite and began to worship her. Aphrodite ordered Eros to induce Psyche to fall in love with an ugly creature.

An oracle had prophesied that Psyche was destined to marry a hideous sea monster with wings. Psyche’s heartbroken father, who had given up hope of seeing his beautiful daughter married, tied her to a mountain crag, dressed in bridal finery.

Eros went down to the mountain and prepared to shoot his arrow at Psyche. However, he inadvertently pricked himself with his arrow and fell head over heels in love with the beautiful girl. He wanted to keep his passion a secret from Aphrodite, and hence, he persuaded Psyche to meet him for secret trysts in a grove at night. They kept meeting under the cover of darkness.

However, Psyche’s sisters, who were plain and lived mundane lives, who were envious of her happiness, urged her to look at the face of her secret lover. So, one night, she lit a candle and discovered to her delight that Eros was her lover. As she bent nearer, some drops of hot wax fell on Eros, rousing him. He leapt up in dismay, accusing her of having ruined everything and fled from her in a fit of anger.

Psyche, who was now in love with Eros, was repentant and heartbroken. She prayed to the gods to reunite her with him. She prayed to Aphrodite who set a series of tasks that were almost unmanageable, like sorting out a big pile of mixed grains and collecting the fleece from a special flock of dangerous sheep.

One almost impossible task was travelling to Hades to gather some of Persephone’s beauty in a little box of ‘beauty’. Psyche managed to slip past Cerberus, the three headed sentinel of Hades by feeding him seedcake. She had been warned not to open the box and look at its contents. However, curious as she was, Psyche, did just that, and instead of beauty, she found herself overpowered by a deathly sleep which rendered her unconscious.

It was now that Eros took pity on Psyche and prayed to Zeus to awaken her and make her immortal with a sip of ambrosia. Even Aphrodite relented as Psyche had braved death itself to be reunited with Eros, and their love story ended happily ever after.

                                                                         Cupid and Psyche - Getty images

Trivia

Phonetic pronunciation: Psyche - /ˈsʌɪki/

The Greek myth of Eros and Psyche is an enduring allegory as the names of the two main characters mean ‘desire’ and ‘soul’. Psyche also means ‘butterfly’ and it could also refer to the mundane existence of a caterpillar which finally blossoms forth into a vibrant butterfly, reminiscent of the trials of human life which finally look forward to a blissful eternity.

Eros is known as Cupid in Roman mythology.

 This post is a part of Blogchatter A2Z Challenge 2026.