Out of the corner of my eyes I see a shadow. I whip around to see what might be watching me. Nothing. "Who's there?" I cry out. Something rustled near by. With my heart pounding in my chest I yell, "I'm not afraid!" My voice fails me and it comes out more like a croak than a roar. Next to the trees, on the outskirts of the meadow I see the shadow step forward. "What do you want? Who are you?" The shadow does not move. "Show me your face!" I command. I hear a man's laugh. "Don't you remember Psyche?" says the voice. "That's what got you in this mess in the first place." The man stepped into the meadow, his golden hair glistening in the sunlight. "Cupid?!" I say with relief. "Yes! You remember!" he replies with a smile and a kiss on the cheek. "It's time to wake up sweetheart." I look around at the meadow and glance at my hands. Shaking my head in confusion I reply, "What do you mean? I feel awake.""No Psyche," Cupid stated gently, "You opened the jar of what you thought was beauty, but it was really Stygian sleep." Looking around at the meadow, I know he is right. This place cannot be real, it is too perfect. "Okay how do I wake up?" "That is easy" he says as he gingerly cups my face into his hands. "Close your eyes and count to three." Closing my eyes I count to three. I wake up to Cupid holding me. "Thank goodness you are alright!" he declares while engulfing me in a bear hug. "Now," he says, "let's go talk to my uncle. We have a wedding to plan!"
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| Wedding Banquet of Cupid and Psyche by Raffaello Sanzio from Web Gallery of Art |
Author's note: I chose to base this weeks storytelling off of The Sleep of the Dead from the story of "Cupid and Psyche" by Apuleius. Psyche has been given different tasks from Venus as punishment for hurting and loving her son Cupid. Her latest punishment is to get a jar of beauty from the underworld. After escaping the underworld Psyche decides to try a little bit of the beauty, but the jar isn't what it seems. Instead of beauty, the jar held sleep. This made Psyche very tired. In the original story, there is not a lot said about what happened when she was asleep. It only says she went to sleep and was later reawakened by her lover, Cupid. I wanted to focus more on what Psyche was experiencing during her "death sleep." I felt that it should be a place that she would never want to leave and that the only reason she would leave is because Cupid came for her. My version is a "true love conquers all" kind of a story where love can defeat all types of darkness.
Bibliography: "Cupid and Psyche" from Apuleius's Golden Ass translation by Tony Kline (2013) Web Source: Untextbook
Chelsey, when I first was reading your story my first impression was at how detailed the story was! And come to find out, that was all part of the story that you created as the dream that the original story did not even touch on. So I was impressed that you created up the dream scene so detailed on your own, good job!
ReplyDeleteI also think you did good at adding a theme to the story of "love conquers all". I can definitely see it in that it was the only thing to bring her back from a perfect and beautiful world. Overall, I really enjoyed your storytelling!
I loved reading this. You did a great job retelling that part of the story. I like that you told it from her point of view and how much detail you used. Like you said, the original story was had very little detail in this section and just said that she was asleep and Cupid found her. I think focusing on what she felt during her sleep is really interesting.
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