The Allegory of Cupid and Psyche

While one may read this as merely a story, in truth it is far more than that. This story means much more than the words on the page. Cupid represents desire, one of the greatest forms of love and lust. He is shown to be more than just the God of love in many places. When it is said that Psyche falls in love to Love (Amoris incidit amorem), Apuleius is saying that the love is more than a person, it is a being in itself. Another example of Cupid being desire is the relationship they have. Cupid knows that a god and a mortal should not be together, but they are anyway. This is desire in its most basic form; love regardless of anything else, not location or social rank or any other factor. Cupid shows this love throughout the tale even though there is great opposition to it mainly from his mother, Venus. However, his desire even passes that.

Pyche is also a symbol in the novel. She represents the soul. The soul is one's true being, their actual self and when shown hides nothing about the person. Psyche shows this on many occasions. She goes through great ordeals because the love she has is real. She is tortured by Venus (... she leaped upon Psyche, tore her clothes into shreds, tugged out her hair and beat her black and blue. From english translation). If she truly did not love him, she would not have been able to go through all of this abuse without raising a hand to stop her. Because she truly loves Cupid she is prepared to go through with the torture so she can finally have the love of her life. Another example of Pysche being the soul is in the times she tried to kill herself, with the knife, in the river, she realized that she had loved him even before she had truly known him and was so angry at herself for giving into the evil wishes of her sisters. She realized that if she lost him because of the attempted murder, she would be at such a great loss in her life that she could no longer continue living. This truly shows her soul as one completely devoted to Cupid.

The final example of this being an allegory is in Desire and the Soul's offspring, Pleasure. When the greatest form of love comes together with the pure, unfacaded view of a person, pleasure is what occurs. This is the conclusion of the allegory telling people that if you can find true love that you really do love with all your heart, everything else doe not matter because regardless of any other factors, you will have pleasure in your life.

The Fate of the Sisters

I do not believe that the sisters' fate was just. They tried to ruin a marriage for their personal gain, (anxiae te exspectabimus cunctisque istis thesauris tecum relatis). They merely wanted the treasure that she had such great amounts of. However, they were also extremely jealous of the divine baby she was bearing. (...does become the mother of a divine babe, I'll string myself up on the spot in a noose. From English translation). The sisters cannot bear the to have their younger sister surpass them in importance and even though they are married to kings, a divine child would be far above them.

Despite all the bad of the sisters, they did not deserve their fate. Jealousy is a normal human emotion which they experienced in reaction to their situation. They have to look down at their younger sister in great jeaousy (here are we, elders by birth, delivered as bondsmaids to foreign husbands... and her is the youngest daughter... owning all the wealth and a god for a husband). They had a right to be jealous of what she had and because of their culture, the place amongst in her family which she had it. This does not excuse their actions, but they did not deserve to die. (for her limbs were torn by the jutting rocks and strewn down the face of the cliff, as she deserved; and her entrails provided nourishment for the birds and beasts. English translation). Apuleius may say that it was justified, but no one deserves to have their corpses feasted upon by animals, it is such a barbaric fate which could have been resolved in so many more peaceful ways.