Apuleius's novel was among the ancient texts that made the crucial transition from
roll to
codex form when it was edited at the end of the 4th century. It was known to Latin writers such as
Augustine of Hippo,
Macrobius,
Sidonius Apollinaris, Martianus Capella, and Fulgentius, but toward the end of the 6th century lapsed into obscurity and survived what was formerly known as the "
Dark Ages" through perhaps a single
manuscript. The
Metamorphoses remained unknown in the 13th century, but copies began to circulate in the mid-1300s among the
early humanists of
Florence. Boccaccio's text and interpretation of
Cupid and Psyche in his
Genealogia deorum gentilium (written in the 1370s and published 1472) was a major impetus to the reception of the tale in the
Italian Renaissance and to its dissemination throughout Europe. One of the most popular images from the tale was Psyche's discovery of a naked Cupid sleeping, found in ceramics,
stained glass, and frescos.
Mannerist painters were intensely drawn to the scene. In England, the Cupid and Psyche theme had its "most lustrous period" from 1566 to 1635, beginning with the first English translation by
William Adlington. A fresco cycle for
Hill Hall, Essex, was modeled indirectly after that of the Villa Farnesina around 1570, and
Thomas Heywood's
masque ''Love's Mistress
dramatized the tale to celebrate the wedding of Charles I and Henrietta Maria, who later had her withdrawing chamber decorated with a 22-painting Cupid and Psyche
cycle by Jacob Jordaens. The cycle took the divinization of Psyche as the centerpiece of the ceiling, and was a vehicle for the Neoplatonism the queen brought with her from France. The Cupid and Psyche'' produced by
Orazio Gentileschi for the royal couple shows a fully robed Psyche whose compelling interest is psychological, while Cupid is mostly nude. exposed the erotic vulnerability of the male figure in his
Cupid and Psyche (1628–30) Another peak of interest in
Cupid and Psyche occurred in the Paris of the late 1790s and early 1800s, reflected in a proliferation of opera, ballet,
Salon art, deluxe book editions, interior decoration such as clocks and wall paneling, and even hairstyles. In the aftermath of the
French Revolution, the myth became a vehicle for the refashioning of the self. In English intellectual and artistic circles around the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, the fashion for
Cupid and Psyche accompanied a fascination for the ancient
mystery religions. In writing about the
Portland Vase, which was obtained by the
British Museum around 1810,
Erasmus Darwin speculated that the myth of Cupid and Psyche was part of the
Eleusinian cycle. With his interest in
natural philosophy, Darwin saw the butterfly as an apt emblem of the soul because it began as an earthbound caterpillar, "died" into the
pupal stage, and was then resurrected as a beautiful winged creature.
Literature In 1491, the poet Niccolò da Correggio retold the story with Cupid as the narrator.
John Milton alludes to the story at the conclusion of
Comus (1634), attributing not one but two children to the couple: Youth and Joy.
Shackerley Marmion wrote a verse version called
Cupid and Psyche (1637), and
La Fontaine adapted the story into a mixed prose and verse romance named
Les Amours de Psiché et de Cupidon (
The Loves of Cupid and Psyche; 1669). '' (1817) by
Jacques-Louis David: the choice of narrative moment—a
libertine adolescent Cupid departs Psyche's bed with "malign joy"—was a new twist on the well-worn subject
Mary Tighe published her poem
Psyche in 1805. She added some details to the story, such as placing two springs in Venus' garden, one with sweet water and one with bitter. When Cupid starts to obey his mother's command, he brings some of both to a sleeping Psyche, but places only the bitter water on Psyche's lips. Tighe's Venus only asks one task of Psyche, to bring her the forbidden water, but in performing this task Psyche wanders into a country bordering on
Spenser's
Fairie Queene as Psyche is aided by a mysterious visored knight and his squire Constance, and must escape various traps set by Vanity, Flattery, Ambition, Credulity, Disfida (who lives in a "Gothic castle"), Varia and Geloso. Spenser's
Blatant Beast also makes an appearance. Tighe's work influenced English lyric poetry on the theme, such as the
Ode to Psyche (1820) by
John Keats.
Letitia Elizabeth Landon's poem
Cupid and Psyche (1826) illustrates an engraving of a painting by W. E. West.
William Morris retold the Cupid and Psyche story in verse in
The Earthly Paradise (1868–70), and a chapter in
Walter Pater's
Marius the Epicurean (1885) was a prose translation. Other literary adaptations include
The Robber Bridegroom (1942), a novella by
Eudora Welty;
Till We Have Faces (1956), a version by
C. S. Lewis narrated by a sister of Psyche; and the poem "Psyche: 'Love drove her to Hell'" by
H.D. (Hilda Doolittle).
Robert A. Johnson made use of the story in his book
She: Understanding Feminine Psychology, published in 1976 by HarperCollinsPublishers. The 2023 novel
Psyche and Eros by Luna McNamara is based on the story.
Translations William Adlington made the first translation into English of Apuleius's
Metamorphoses in 1566, under the title ''
. Adlington seems not to have been interested in a Neoplatonic reading, but his translation consistently suppresses the sensuality of the original. A translation by Robert Graves appeared in 1951 as The Transformations of Lucius Otherwise Known as THE GOLDEN ASS, A New Translation by Robert Graves from Apuleius'', published by
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, New York.
Folklore and children's literature and Psyche'' (1872–74) by Edward Burne-Jones
Origins Folklore scholarship has also occupied itself with the possible origin of the narrative. Swedish folklorist , who authored a long study on the story, German philologist
Ludwig Friedländer and Russian folklorist
Vladimir Propp defended the idea that it originated from a legitimate folklore source. Some scholars tend to look for a single source:
Stith Thompson suggested an Italian origin, while Lesky, Gédeon Huet and indicated a Greek origin. French favoured a North African source, followed by French researchers Nedjima and Emmanuel Plantade, who all argue that the tale is a reworking of
Berber folklore, since Apuleius was born and lived in
Madauros,
Numidia, located in what is modern day Algeria. Another line of scholars argue for some myth that underlines the Apuleian narrative. German classicist
Richard August Reitzenstein supposed on an "Iranian sacral myth", brought to Greece via Egypt. Graham Anderson argues for a reworking of mythic material from Asia Minor (namely,
Hittite: the
Myth of Telipinu). In a study published posthumously, Romanian folklorist also argued for a folkloric origin, but was of the notion that Apuleius superimposed Graeco-Roman mythology on a pre-Christian myth about a serpentine or draconic husband, or a "King of Snakes" that becomes human at night. On the other extreme, German classicist took a hard and skeptical approach and considered the tale to be a literary invention of Apuleius himself.
Literary legacy Friedländer also listed several European tales of marriage between a human maiden and prince cursed to be an animal, as related to the "Cupid and Psyche" cycle of stories (which later became known as "
The Search for the Lost Husband" and "
Animal as Bridegroom").
Bruno Bettelheim notes in
The Uses of Enchantment that the 18th-century fairy tale
Beauty and the Beast is a version of
Cupid and Psyche. Motifs from Apuleius occur in several fairy tales, including
Cinderella and
Rumpelstiltskin, in versions collected by folklorists trained in the classical tradition, such as
Charles Perrault and the
Grimm brothers. In the Grimm version, Cinderella is given the task of sorting lentils and peas from ash, and is aided by birds just as ants help Psyche in the sorting of grain and legumes imposed on her by Venus. Like Cinderella, Psyche has two envious sisters who compete with her for the most desirable male. Cinderella's sisters mutilate their own feet to emulate her, while Psyche's are dashed to death on a rocky cliff. In
Hans Christian Andersen's
The Little Mermaid, the Little Mermaid is given a dagger by her sisters, who, in an attempt to end all the suffering she endured and to let her become a mermaid again, attempt to persuade her to use it to slay the Prince while he is asleep with his new bride. She cannot bring herself to kill the Prince, however. Unlike Psyche, who becomes immortal, she doesn't receive his love in return, but she, nevertheless, ultimately earns the eternal soul she yearns for.
Thomas Bulfinch wrote a shorter adaptation of the Cupid and Psyche tale for his
Age of Fable, borrowing Tighe's invention of Cupid's self-wounding, which did not appear in the original.
Josephine Preston Peabody wrote a version for children in her
Old Greek Folk Stories Told Anew (1897).
C. S. Lewis'
Till We Have Faces is a retelling of Apuleius'
Cupid and Psyche from the perspective of one of Psyche's sisters.
Till We Have Faces is C. S. Lewis' last work of fiction and elaborates on Apuleius' story in a modern way.
Performing arts In 1634,
Thomas Heywood turned the tale of Cupid and Psyche into a
masque for the court of
Charles I.
Lully's
Psyché (1678) is a Baroque
French opera (a "
tragédie lyrique") based on
the 1671 play by
Molière, which had musical
intermèdes by Lully.
Matthew Locke's
semi-opera Psyche (1675) is a loose reworking from the 1671 production. In 1800,
Ludwig Abeille premièred his four-act German opera
(singspiel) Amor und Psyche, with a
libretto by based on Apuleius. In the 19th century,
Cupid and Psyche was a source for "transformations", visual interludes involving
tableaux vivants,
transparencies and
stage machinery that were presented between the scenes of a
pantomime but extraneous to the plot. During the 1890s, when
tableaux vivants or "living pictures" were in vogue as a part of
vaudeville, the 1889 ''Psyché et l'Amour
of Bouguereau was among the artworks staged. To create these tableaux
, costumed performers "froze" in poses before a background copied meticulously from the original and enlarged within a giant picture frame. Nudity was feigned by flesh-colored bodystockings that negotiated standards of realism, good taste, and morality. Claims of educational and artistic value allowed female nudes—a popular attraction—to evade censorship. Psyché et l'Amour
was reproduced by the scenic painter Edouard von Kilanyi, who made a tour of Europe and the United States beginning in 1892, and by George Gordon in an Australian production that began its run in December 1894. The illusion of flight was so difficult to sustain that this tableau'' was necessarily brief.
Frederick Ashton choreographed a
ballet Cupid and Psyche with music by
Lord Berners and decor by Sir Francis Rose, first performed on 27 April 1939 by the
Sadler's Wells Ballet (now
Royal Ballet). Frank Staff danced as Cupid,
Julia Farron as Psyche,
Michael Somes as Pan, and
June Brae as Venus.
Modern adaptations performance from 1897 as Cupid and Psyche
Cupid and Psyche continues to be a source of inspiration for modern playwrights and composers. Notable adaptations include: •
Psyche (
symphonic poem) by
César Franck (1888) •
Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold by C. S. Lewis • "Psyché:poème dramatique en trois actes," (play) by
Gabriel Mourey, Paris, Mercure de France, 1913. "Syrinx" was composed by
Claude Debussy as incidental music for the play. •
Eros and Psyche (opera) with libretto by
Jerzy Żuławski, composed by
Ludomir Różycki (Wroclaw, Poland, 1917) •
Psyche: An Opera in Three Acts (opera) based on the novel
Psyche by
Louis Couperus, composed by Meta Overman (1955) •
Metamorphoses (play) by
Mary Zimmerman, adapted from the
classic Ovid poem
Metamorphoses, including the myth of
Eros and Psyche (
Northwestern University, 1996;
Circle in the Square Theatre, Broadway, NYC 2002) •
The Golden Ass (play) by
Peter Oswald, adapted from
Apuleius, commissioned for
Shakespeare's Globe (London, England 2002) •
Cupid and Psyche (musical) by with book and lyrics by Sean Hartley and music by Jihwan Kim (New York City, NY 2003)
. •
Cupid and Psyche (
verse drama) by Joseph Fisher (
Stark Raving Theatre, Portland, OR 2002; Staged Reading:
Oregon Shakespeare Festival, 2002) •
Amor & Psyche (
pastiche opera) arranged by Alan Dornak (Opera Feroce, part of Vertical Player Repertory, New York City, 2010) •
Cupid and Psyche: An Internet Love Story (play) by Maria Hernandez, Emma Rosecan and Alexis Stickovitch (YouthPLAYS, 2012) •
Psyche: A Modern Rock Opera (
rock opera) by Cindy Shapiro (Greenway Court Theater, Los Angeles, CA, 2014) •
Cupid and Psyche (
verse drama) by
Emily C. A. Snyder (Turn to Flesh Productions [TTF], New York City, NY, 2014). As part of the
Love and Death Trilogy (Staged Reading, TTF, New York City, NY 2018) •
Amor and Psyche (In Times of Plagues) (
Short film) by
VestAndPage (2020) • "Amore e Psiche" (opera) by
Fabio Mengozzi (2023)
Psychology Viewed in terms of psychology rather than allegory, the tale of Cupid and Psyche shows how "a mutable person … matures within the
social constructs of family and marriage". In the
Jungian allegory of
Erich Neumann (1956), the story of Psyche was interpreted as "the psychic development of the feminine".
Cupid and Psyche has been analyzed from a
feminist perspective as a paradigm of how the gender unity of women is disintegrated through rivalry and envy, replacing the bonds of sisterhood with an ideal of heterosexual love. This theme was explored in ''Psyche's Sisters: Reimagining the Meaning of Sisterhood'' (1988) by
Christine Downing, who uses
myth as a medium for psychology.
James Hillman made the story the basis for his critique of scientific psychology,
The Myth of Analysis: Three Essays in Archetypal Psychology (1983).
Carol Gilligan uses the story as the basis for much of her analysis of love and relationships in
The Birth of Pleasure (Knopf, 2002).
Fine and decorative arts The story of Cupid and Psyche is depicted in a wide range of visual media. Psyche is often represented with butterfly wings, and the butterfly is her frequent attribute and a symbol of the soul, though the literary
Cupid and Psyche never says that she has or acquires wings. In
antiquity, an iconographical tradition existed independently of Apuleius's tale and influenced later depictions.
Ancient art and spilling basket of fruit
(Indianapolis Museum of Art) ; on exhibit at British Museum, London. Some extant examples suggest that in antiquity Cupid and Psyche could have a religious or mystical meaning.
Rings bearing their likeness, several of which come from
Roman Britain, may have served an
amuletic purpose.
Engraved gems from Britain represent spiritual torment with the image of Cupid torching a butterfly. The two are also depicted in high relief in mass-produced Roman domestic plaster wares from the 1st to 2nd centuries AD found in excavations at Greco-Bactrian merchant settlements on the ancient Silk Road at Begram in Afghanistan (see gallery below). The allegorical pairing depicts perfection of human love in integrated embrace of body and soul ('psyche' Greek for butterfly symbol for transcendent immortal life after death). On
sarcophagi, the couple often seem to represent an allegory of love overcoming death. In
late antiquity, the couple are often shown in a "chin-chuck" embrace, a gesture of "erotic communion" with a long history. The rediscovery of freestanding sculptures of the couple influenced several significant works of the modern era. Other depictions surviving from antiquity include a 2nd-century
papyrus illustration possibly of the tale, and a ceiling
fresco at
Trier executed during the reign of
Constantine I. particularly those of the
Medici. The choice was most likely prompted by Boccaccio's Christianized allegory. The earliest of these
cassoni, dated variously to the years 1444–1470, pictures the narrative in two parts: from Psyche's conception to her abandonment by Cupid; and her wanderings and the happy ending. With the wedding of
Peleus and
Thetis, the subject was the most common choice for specifying paintings of the
Feast of the Gods, which were popular from the Renaissance to
Northern Mannerism.
Cupid and Psyche is a rich source for scenarios, and several artists have produced cycles of works based on it, including the frescoes at the
Villa Farnesina (ca. 1518) by
Raphael and his workshop; frescoes at
Palazzo del Tè (1527–28) by
Giulio Romano;
engravings by the "
Master of the Die" (mid-16th century); and paintings by the
Pre-Raphaelite Edward Burne-Jones (in the 1870s–90s).
Cupid and Psyche was the subject of the only cycle of
prints created by the German
Symbolist Max Klinger (1857–1920) to illustrate a specific story. The special interest in the wedding as a subject in Northern Mannerism seems to spring from a large
engraving of 1587 by
Hendrik Goltzius in
Haarlem of a drawing by
Bartholomeus Spranger (now
Rijksmuseum) that
Karel van Mander had brought back from
Prague, where Spranger was court painter to
Rudolf II.
The Feast of the Gods at the Marriage of Cupid and Psyche was so large, at 16 7/8 x 33 5/8 in. (43 x 85.4 cm), that it was printed from three different plates. Over 80 figures are shown, placed up in the clouds over a
world landscape that can be glimpsed below. The composition borrows from both Raphael and Giulio Romano's versions. The most popular subjects for single paintings or sculpture are the couple alone, or explorations of the figure of Psyche, who is sometimes depicted in compositions that recall the sleeping
Ariadne as she was found by Dionysus. The use of
nudity or sexuality in portraying Cupid and Psyche sometimes has offended contemporary sensibilities. In the 1840s, the
National Academy of Art banned
William Page's
Cupid and Psyche, called perhaps "the most erotic painting in nineteenth-century America". Classical subject matter might be presented in terms of realistic nudity: in 1867, the female figure in the
Cupid and Psyche of
Alphonse Legros was criticized as a "commonplace naked young woman". But during the same period, Cupid and Psyche were also portrayed chastely, as in the
pastoral sculptures
Psyche (1845) by Townsend and
Cupid and Psyche (1846) by
Thomas Uwins, which were purchased by
Queen Victoria and her
consort Albert, otherwise keen collectors of nudes in the 1840s and 50s. Portrayals of Psyche alone are often not confined to illustrating a scene from Apuleius, but may draw on the broader Platonic tradition in which Love was a force that shaped the self. The
Psyche Abandoned of
Jacques-Louis David, probably based on La Fontaine's version of the tale, depicts the moment when Psyche, having violated the taboo of looking upon her lover, is abandoned alone on a rock, her nakedness expressing dispossession and the color palette a psychological "divestment". The work has been seen as an "emotional proxy" for the artist's own isolation and desperation during his imprisonment, which resulted from his participation in the
French Revolution and association with
Robespierre.
Sculpture Source: File:Statua di Amore e Psiche.jpg|
Cupid and Psyche (from an original of 2nd century BC) File:Altes Museum - Statuengruppe, Amor und Psyche.jpg|
Cupid and Psyche (c. 150 AD) File:0 Psyché ranimée par le baiser de l'Amour - Canova - Louvre 1.JPG|''
Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss'' (1793) by
Antonio Canova, Louvre File:BLW Cupid and Psyche (2).jpg|
Cupid and Psyche by
Clodion (d. 1814) File:Thorvaldsen Psyche ANG Berlin.jpg|
Psyche by
Bertel Thorvaldsen (d. 1844) File:Cupid and Psyche by A.Rodin 1885.jpg|''Cupid and Psyche 'Kiss''' (1885) by
Auguste Rodin, private collection
Paintings File:Jacopo Zucchi - Amor and Psyche.jpg|
Amor and Psyche (1589) by
Jacopo Zucchi File:Anthonis van Dyck 001.jpg|
Cupid and Psyche (1639–40) by
Anthony van Dyck: Cupid finds the sleeping Psyche. File:The enchanted castle.jpg|
Landscape with Psyche Outside the Palace of Cupid (The Enchanted Castle) (1664) by
Claude Lorrain File:Louis Jean Francois Lagrenée - Amor and Psyche.jpg|
Amor and Psyche (1767) by
Louis-Jean-François Lagrenée File:Hugh Douglas Hamilton - Cupid and Psyche in the nuptial bower.jpg|
Cupid and Psyche in the nuptial bower (1792–93) by
Hugh Douglas Hamilton File:Alegoría del Amor o Cupido y Psique por Francisco de Goya.jpg|
Allegory of Love, Cupid and Psyche (between 1798 and 1805) by
Goya File:Pierre-Paul Prud'hon 003.jpg|
Psyche Lifted Up by Zephyrs (
Romantic, c. 1800) by
Pierre-Paul Prud'hon File:Benjamin West - Cupid and Psyche - 2010.44 - Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.jpg|
Cupid and Psyche (1808) by
Benjamin West PRA File:François-Édouard Picot - Cupid and Psyche - WGA17441.jpg|
Psyche Abandoned (c. 1817) by François-Édouard Picot File:Saint-Ours Jean-Pierre-The Reunion of Cupid and Psyche.jpg|
Cupid and Psyche (1843) by
Jean-Pierre Saint-Ours File:Cupid and Psyche by William Page.jpg|
Cupid and Psyche (1843) by
William Page File:Brocky, Karoly - Cupid and Psyche (1850-5).jpg|
Cupid and Psyche (1850–55) by
Károly Brocky File:Edward Burne-Jones (1833-1898) - Cupid Flying away from Psyche (Palace Green Murals) - 1922P193 - Birmingham Museums Trust.jpg|
Cupid Flying Away from Psyche (between 1872 and 1881) by
Edward Burne-Jones File:Edward Burne-Jones (1833-1898) - Psyche Receiving the Casket Back (Palace Green Murals) - 1922P197 - Birmingham Museums Trust.jpg|
Psyche Receiving the Casket Back (between 1872 and 1881) by Edward Burne-Jones File:John Reinhard Weguelin – Psyche (1890).jpg|
Psyche (1890) by
John Reinhard Weguelin File:Annie Swynnerton Cupid And Psyche 1891.jpg|
Cupid and Psyche (1891) by
Annie Swynnerton File:Psyche-Waterhouse.jpg|
Psyche Opening the Golden Box (1903) by
John William Waterhouse File:Edvard Munch - Cupid and Psyche (1907).jpg|
Cupid and Psyche (1907) by
Edvard Munch ==See also==