EROS AND PSYCHE
By Shannon Steel and Julia Story
Myth Summary
 Psyche was an extremely beautiful mortal
woman and became famous for her beauty.
The whole world rushed to see her. She had
three sisters who were often envious of her.
 Aphrodite became jealous and asked her son
Eros to kill men’s desire for Psyche. In the
process of doing this, Eros himself fell in
love with her.
 Psyche remained unmarried and this worried
her parents greatly. They became desperate
because of their daughters destiny and asked
for advice from an oracle.
Myth Summary
 The oracle told them that she would marry
an ugly beast whose face she would never be
able to see and that the beast would be
waiting for her at the top of the mountain.
 Despite her parents devastation, they
arranged a wedding for their lovely daughter
and the beast.
 When they were married, Psyche was only
able to be with her husband at night time.
However, he fulfilled her expectations with
the enormous amount of love he showed her.
Myth Summary
 Psyche jealous sisters convinced her that her
husband was not an ugly beast, but a
monster that would someday kill her. So, in
order to save herself, she should kill him
first.
 One night, she was ready for the murder and
had an oil lamp and a knife with her.
 When she shown the light on her husband,
she did not see an ugly beast, but instead
the beautiful god Eros.
Myth Summary
 She was completely taken by surprise and
accidentally spilled oil from the lamp on
Eros’ face. This wakened Eros and told her
that this ruined their relationship and told
her that they could never be together again,
she betrayed him.
 After this, Psyche started searching all over
for Eros and finally not knowing where else
to turn, went to Aphrodite to beg to see
him. Aphrodite had imprisoned Eros in the
palace.
Myth Summary
Aphrodite made Psyche prove her love for
Eros by completing three impossible tasks.
Psyche would do whatever it took to see
her lover again,she was fearless.
Myth Summary
 The first task required Psyche to visit Hades
in the underworld and bring back the box of
magic makeup to Aphrodite. She wasn’t
allowed to open the box. However, the
curious Psyche indeed opened the box and
found Morpheus (the god of sleep and
dreams) inside the box instead of magic
makeup and was instantly put to sleep.
Myth Summary
 The next task Psyche was to complete was to
separate various seeds that were in a big
pile. This put her in despair because she
thought it was an impossible task. However a
group of ants were passing by and saw her
misery. They helped her separate the seeds,
something that they were experts at.
 When Aphrodite saw that Psyche had
completed yet another task, she became
angry.
Myth Summary
 The last and final task was very dangerous.
She had to fill a bottle with water from the
river Estige whose black waters cascaded
from a hill. When she reached the waterfall,
she saw that the rocks were slippery and
wet. The only thing that could approach the
awful waters was a winged creature. When
an eagle was passing overhead, it swooped
down and grabbed the bottle out of her
hands with its beak. The eagle filled it with
some of the black water and then returned it
to her.
Myth Summary
 Now that all of the tasks were complete,
Psyche returned to Aphrodite, who was
furious. Aphrodite told her that she would
never let her go and that she would always
be her servant.
 The gods saw all that had happened and sent
Hermes(messenger of the gods) to Eros to
narrate all of the misfortunes his wife had
gone through. Eros was touched and left his
room to find Psyche exhausted in his
mothers garden.
Myth Summary
 From then on, Eros and Psyche lived happily
ever after.
 As a wedding girl, Zeus made Psyche
immortal and allowed her drink ambrosia.
 Even Aphrodite was happy because Psyche
was living in the sky with her husband. Men
on Earth forgot about her and returned to
worshiping the true goddess of beauty.
Symbols
 Psyche represents the innocent in this
story, whose goal is to simply be happy
and in this case live a life with Eros. She
never gives up in this myth.
 Eros represents the lover who will do
absolutely anything to gain Psyche’s
love.
 Aphrodite represents the ruler because
she holds all the power in this situation,
and she is sort of running the show.
Symbols
 Mountains- Psyche went to the top of
the mountain where the oracle said
her husband would be waiting
 Represent arrogance
 Darkness- Psyche open the box with
the magic makeup and sees darkness.
 Represents- the unknown
Theme
 Love always wins in the end.
 This is true in the story because even
though Eros and Psyche go through
many challenges, their love conquers
overpowers in the end.
Notes
 Great detail – consider highlighting
information that students should
definitely note down during your
presentation
 Consider – is Psyche the lover, or is it
the other way around? Remember that
the innocent often does something
terrible by accident.