Cupid and Psyche

The old woman telling the fable of Cupid and Psyche in The Metamorphoses promises “a pretty story” (74), and Lucius, who has been turned into a donkey, wishes he had writing tablets and a stylus so he might take it down (114). Many readers have been drawn to what appears to be a simple but powerful love story. Its messages that love conquers all, true love is worth any struggle, and love forgives betrayal when there is real contrition all accord with modern beliefs about romantic love, making the story accessible and adaptable to contemporary audiences, which perhaps explains its longevity and popularity.

Cupid’s demand that his wife not look upon him suggests the ancient adage, known to the Greeks and Romans, that love is blind. As Helena says in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (a play in which Shakespeare refers to The Metamorphoses): “Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind” (I.i.234). On the surface, the story can be read as a fable instructing the reader about the nature of passionate love, the trials and sufferings a lover might undergo, and the virtues that make a shared, mutually fulfilling love possible.

“Cupid and Psyche” bears many marks of a fairy tale.