After my latest post, I was interested in reading the entire story of Cupid and Psyche. So, naturally, I wikipedia-ed a synopsis of the plot. And what did I find? I already knew the story before I had finished a quarter of the summary. It was the strangest thing... It's either mythical powers I'm slowly retaining from lectures, or I've read a similar story.
Back in my home in Fairbanks, I have a picture book entitled
East of the Sun West of the Moon, an adaption of the Norwegian fairytale (but for the sake of relevancy, I'm going to say fairytale is another word for myth). The book was definitely in my top ten when I was at a picture book reading level. It's a great story and the illustrations were amazing.
So maybe the cover looks slightly creepy for a six-year-old... but don't be intimidated. This is just a picture of one of the father winds. We'll get to him later.
The point of this post is to show the parallels between this story and the one of Cupid and Psyche. The best way I can do that is to tell you both tales:
East of the Sun, West of the Moon:
(mind you, this is a sloppy summary, but hopefully I'll get the main points across)
The White Bear comes to a poor man's house and tells him he'll make him rich if he lets him marry his youngest daughter. The daughter is hesitant, but the White Bear compromises, saying she can return to visit her family. Agreeing, the daughter is taken to a rich and enchanted castle. Every night, the Bear changes into a man. However, he doesn't allow any light in the castle at night, so she can never see him.
She becomes homesick and the Bear agrees to let her visit her home, so long as she doesn't talk to her mother alone. When she gets home, what does she do? She has a chit-chat with her mother, alone. When her mother hears about the Bear's enchantment, she convinces her to sneak a candle back to the castle to see him at night. She obeys and sees the man is a very handsome prince, but wakens him when she spills three drops of melted tallow (that's wax, for all you green horns) on his shirt. He tells her that if she had waited a year to see him, he would have been free. Now he must go back to his wicked stepmother who bestowed this curse upon him and marry her hideous daughter. Before he leaves, he tells her that the castle is east of the sun and west of the moon.
In the morning, the palace is gone and she goes out in search of him. At a mountain, she finds a woman playing with a golden apple. She asks for directions to a castle east of the sun and west of the moon. The woman refers her to her neighbor and gives her the golden apple. The neighbor is playing with a golden comb and doesn't have directions either, but refers her to another neighbor and gives her the golden comb. The third neighbor has a golden spinning wheel. She doesn't know the directions either, but gives her the spinning wheel and refers her to the East Wind. (Norwegians are an uber generous people... and apparently pretty strong too, carrying golden fruit, combs, and spinning wheels.)
The East Wind has never been to the castle, but takes her to his brother, the West Wind, for he is stronger. The West Wind takes her to the South Wind, who takes her to the North Wind. The North Wind recalls blowing an aspen leaf to the castle once, and remembers being exhausted after. He agrees to take her.
The next morning, she takes out her golden apple, which sparks the interest of the wicked stepmother's daughter. The girl lets her have the apple in return for a night with the prince. The evil daughter gives the prince a sleeping drink and the girl cannot wake him. The next day, the same thing happens, but with a trading of the golden comb. Again, the prince can't be woken. The third day, some of the imprisoned townspeople in the castle had heard of the girl and told the prince. The girl sat outside with her golden spinning wheel and traded it for a third night with the prince. This time, the prince does not drink what the evil princess brings him and tells the girls how she can save him. He will declare that he can only marry the woman who can clean the shirt stained with tallow drops. The next day, he makes his speech to the castle, insisting it's his wedding shirt. The stepmother and her daughter can't do it; in fact, they only make the shirt more dirty. When the princess tried, the shirt was made perfectly white and clean. The stepmother and her daughter, enraged, exploded on the spot (whaaaaaaat?) and the prince married the girl.
Cupid and Psyche:
Venus is jealous of the mortal Psyche's beauty and tells her son, Cupid, to shoot her with his golden arrows and make her fall in love with an ugly creature. Cupid agrees, but seeing her asleep, he takes pity on Psyche and accidentally scratches himself with his own arrow. He falls in love with Psyche and Venus is enraged. The goddess places a curse on Psyche that prevents her from finding a husband. Cupid strikes against Venus and refuses to use any of his arrows, causing Venus' temple to fall. Venus finally lets Cupid have his way and love is restored to the world.
However, Psyche's curse isn't lifted and her parents consult an oracle. They are told to leave Psyche on top of a mountain, for she is too beautiful for a mortal man. Zephyrus, the west wind, carries her to marry and sleep with Cupid. He visits her every night, but doesn't allow any light to identify him. Zephyrus takes Psyche back to her sisters; Psyche is warned not to listen to her sisters' argument that she should try to find out who he really is. Her jealous sisters tell Psyche that she is rumored to be married to a serpent who is going to eat her and her unborn baby (oh, forgot to mention she's pregnant at this point in the story). They convince her to light a lamp and kill her husband. When she lights the lamp, she sees her husband is the god Cupid and accidentally pricks herself on one of his arrows. Consumed with desire, she tries to kiss him, but drops oil on his shoulder and wakes him. He flies away and she falls from the window.
Psyche finds she's in the city where one of her jealous sisters lives. When she tells her what happened, the sister convinces her that Cupid has chosen another wife. Her other jealous sister tells her the same thing. Both sisters go to the top of the mountain and jump, awaiting Zephyrus, but fall to their deaths.
Searching for her lover, Psyche is approached by the god Demeter who tells her to call to Venus. Juno gives her the same advice. Psyche finds a temple to Venus. The goddess orders her to separate a huge basket of mixed grains before dark. An ant helps her separate the grains and Venus is outraged. The goddess then tells her to go to a sheep grazing field and retrieve some of their golden wool. The sheep are vicious and strong, but a river-god advises her to wait until mid-day when the sheep move to the shade; then, she can pick wool stuck to tree branches. Again, Venus is outraged and orders her to get water from a cleft guarded by serpents. An eagle helps her with this task. For a fourth task, Venus sends Psyche to the underworld to retrieve some of Persephone's beauty in a box. On her way back with the bit-o-beauty, she is curious and decides to sneak a peek. She finds there is nothing in the box, but is overcome by an infernal sleep. A forgiving Cupid flies to his love and wipes the sleep from her eyes back to the box. He then flies the two of them to Mount Olympus and asks Jupiter to help them. Jupiter gives Psyche a drink of ambrosia and she is made immortal.
Did you catch any similarities? This really seems too obvious to list them out.
