The story of Psyche and her husband.(Roman myth)

This is one of my favorite ancient  Roman myth story Lucius Apuleius wrote it  in the 2nd century AD. 

In Psyche is a mortal princess so astonishingly beautiful that people start admiring her almost as if she were a new Venus. Venus becomes furious and orders her son Cupid to make Psyche fall in love with the vilest man alive. But when Cupid goes to carry out the command, he instead falls in love with her himself.

Psyche’s beauty brings her admiration, but not happiness. No one marries her. Like a beautiful object everyone worships and no one touches. Her parents ask Apollo’s oracle what is wrong, and they are told to dress Psyche for a funeral wedding and leave her on a mountain crag, where a dreadful husband awaits her.

She is abandoned there, but instead of being destroyed, she is carried gently by the west wind to a marvelous hidden palace. In that palace, unseen servants care for her, and at night an invisible husband comes to her bed. He is tender and loving, but he gives her one command: she must never try to look at him. She agrees, and for a while they live happily together in darkness and secrecy.

Then Psyche begins to miss her sisters. Her husband warns her that they will ruin everything, but he allows them to visit. The sisters see her luxury and become consumed with envy. They tell Psyche that her unseen husband must be a monster, and that he is only waiting until she is pregnant so he can devour her. They urge her to hide a lamp and a knife, and when he sleeps, look at him and kill him if he is truly monstrous.

That night Psyche does exactly that. She lights the lamp and sees, not a monster, but the beautiful god Cupid asleep beside her. Overcome with amazement, she leans in too close, and a drop of hot oil falls from the lamp onto his shoulder. Cupid wakes, sees that she has betrayed his trust, rebukes her, and flies away. With him gone, the palace and all its splendor vanish.

Psyche falls into misery and wanders in search of him. She confronts her sisters, tells each of them that Cupid really wanted one of them instead, and each sister, greedy and deluded, throws herself from the mountain expecting the wind to carry her to Cupid. Instead, each dies.

Psyche then tries to find help from goddesses such as Ceres and Juno, but they refuse to oppose Venus openly. At last Psyche gives herself up to Venus directly. Venus humiliates her, beats her, mocks her pregnancy, and sets her a series of impossible tasks.

First, Venus dumps together a huge heap of mixed grains and seeds and orders Psyche to sort them all by dawn. Psyche cannot do it, but an army of ants takes pity on her and sorts them for her.

Second, Venus orders her to fetch golden wool from savage sheep. Psyche, in despair, thinks of throwing herself into the river, but a reed speaks to her and tells her to wait until the sheep calm down and then gather the gold wool caught in the bushes. She succeeds.

Third, Venus commands her to bring back water from a deadly high source connected with the Styx. The place is nearly unreachable, but Jupiter’s eagle helps her by filling the vessel for her.

Finally, Venus sends Psyche to the underworld to ask Proserpina for a box containing a portion of divine beauty. Psyche again despairs, and a tower instructs her exactly how to survive the journey: what offerings to carry, whom to ignore, and above all not to open the box on the way back. Psyche follows the instructions, reaches the underworld, receives the box, and returns safely.

But near the end, Psyche gives in to curiosity one more time. She thinks she looks worn and exhausted and wants to make herself more beautiful for Cupid. So she opens the box. Inside is not beauty for her use, but a deathlike sleep, and she collapses unconscious.

By this time Cupid has recovered from his burn and still loves her. He escapes from his mother, finds Psyche lying there, wipes the sleep from her and puts it back into the box, wakes her, and tells her to finish the errand to Venus while he handles the rest. Then he goes to Jupiter and asks permission for the marriage. Jupiter agrees, calls an assembly of the gods, gives Psyche ambrosia so that she becomes immortal, and makes the marriage lawful and permanent. Venus is reconciled.

At the end, Cupid and Psyche are fully united, and Psyche gives birth to a daughter named Voluptas usually translated as Pleasure