Stories of Old Greece and RomeBaker, Emilie K. (Emilie Kip)
General
Stories of Old Greece and Rome
Baker, Emilie K. (Emilie Kip)
Mythology, Greek -- Juvenile literature; Mythology, Roman -- Juvenile literature
At night she sought the palace where the unseen servitors again
ministered to her wants; and in the darkness, Cupid came to woo her.
He did not reveal his name, but he told how he had rescued her from
death and brought her to this island, that she might never again be
persecuted by jealous Venus. Everything that she wished for would be
hers for the mere asking, and the invisible attendants would always be
on hand to do her bidding. He himself would ever be her loyal lover;
and would come each night to cheer her solitude. The only thing that
he asked in return was that she should never seek to know his name or
try to see his face. Psyche listened to the words of Cupid, and was
won by the soft pleading of his voice. She was content to stay on the
unknown island, and to be with her unseen lover, whose name and face
must remain forever a mystery. Many happy weeks passed, and Psyche
never wished to leave her new home, for though she was often lonely as
she walked each day in the rose-garden, she forgot the long hours of
solitude when Cupid came at night to gladden her with his love and to
tell her of his wanderings.
As time went on Psyche began to wonder how things were faring at her
father's palace; and she wished very much to see her sisters who must
have long since believed her dead. Cupid had told her she might ask for
anything that she wished save the two forbidden things, so she summoned
the west wind and bade him bring her sisters to her. Zephyrus gladly
obeyed, and soon Psyche saw her two sisters standing beside her, more
astonished than she to find themselves there. For hours they talked
together, and Psyche told them of her adventure on the mountain and how
she had been rescued by the friendly west wind. She told them of her
mysterious lover, of his riches and his great kindness, and regretted
that she could not describe his appearance; but, she explained, this
was impossible since she herself had never seen him. As the sisters
listened to Psyche's story, their hearts were filled with bitter envy
that she should be thus favored above all other maidens; and they
planned to rob her of her happiness. They reminded her of the words of
the oracle that she should marry a monster; and under the pretense of
a loving interest in her welfare, they urged her to break her promise
to her lover and to find out whether he was in truth a monster that
was only waiting his time to devour her. Psyche at first scorned these
malicious suggestions, but by and by they began to make an impression
on her troubled mind, and she found herself ready to listen and to
believe. Finally she agreed to carry out the plan that her sisters
arranged, which was to secrete a sharp knife in her room and use it to
kill the monster as he slept.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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