Summary: The story of Cupid and Psyche is about a King who has three daughters and the youngest is
the prettiest out of all of them. All of the men got distracted by her beauty so they started to forget
who Venus was. This angers Venus and wanted to get revenge so asks her son Cupid, to use his power
to make Psyche fall in love with the ugliest guy out there. When Cupid goes to shoot Psyche, he sees
how beautiful she is and ends up accidently shooting himself with the arrow. He decides not to tell his
mom about what happened. Psyche ends up not falling in love while her sisters on the other hand are
marrying kings. Her family starts to get concerned that she won’t find anyone to marry so her father
reaches out to Apollo for advice so she can get a good husband. Apollo tells him that he has to leave
her on top of a hill alone where her future husband who will be a winged “serpent” will take her and
marry her. She sits there and waits and then a wind comes and picks her up and put her onto grass
where she falls asleep. When she wakes up, she’s in a stunning luxurious mansion. She eats really
good food and is being treated very well. She falls in love with her husband. They were happy
together but then he told her that her sisters wanted to see her so she started to beg to see them. He
eventually gave in and let her sister come over. When they visit they get jealous of her beautiful
mansion. They soon find out that Psyche has never met her husband and they tell her to sneak a peek
of him at night. In the night she turns on the lamp and sees cupid and is relieved that he was no
monster. Cupid awakens and leaves and says “Love cannot live where there is no trust.” Cupid goes to
Venus and Venus again wants revenge on Psyche. To forgive Psyche, Venus sends her out to do tasks
and Psyche completes them but not by herself so Venus tells her to have Persephone to put a little bit
of her beautifulness in a box. Psyche manages to get the beauty in the box on her way to give it to
Venus she opens it out of curiosity and it make her fall asleep. Cupid finds her and wakes her up and
they go to Zeus to make her immortal. Zeus makes Psyche an immortal goddess and because of that
Venus accepts their marriage and is happy because men don’t get distracted by Psyche’s beauty
anymore and her son married a goddess.
Quote: “Love cannot live where there is no trust.”
Analysis: When Psyche saw who her husband was and wat he looked like he woke up and left and
said, “Love cannot live where there is no trust”. To me this quote is saying that you have to trust
someone to love them. In my opinion this is one of the most important quotes because it’s kind of a
turning point or near the turning point in the story. Psyche got to curious about what her husband
look liked that it got in the way of her actual love for him. She should’ve just listened to him and
trusted him, the story would’ve turned out completely different. I do though understand where’s
she’s coming from like how are you supposed to be married to someone and love them yet not know
how they look like. Even though they went through this roadblock in the story they ended being
together and it seemed to make their love for each other stronger.
The universal theme: The power of true love will always come through.
Relevance to the story: This theme is totally relevant to the story. Through one little mistake or big
mistake of Cupid shooting himself with the arrow, Psyche and Cupid fell in love with each other. They
went through many roadblocks and still ended up together is amazing. Not all relationships are
perfect especially their situation but Psyche did everything she can to be with Cupid and she didn’t
give up at all even with his mother trying to get revenge on her but she didn’t let that stop her from
getting her true love. Another thing is that they ended up happy together with her becoming a
goddess, his mom’s blessing of the marriage and the happiness that Venus had now that all the men
were being attracted by her beauty once again.
Symbol:
Symbol explanation: The meaning of my symbol is that all of Cupid’s
and Psyche’s love began with the arrow that Cupid was supposed to
shoot Psyche with. If he wouldn’t have shot himself with the arrow,
their whole love wouldn’t have existed and everything would’ve just
turned out completely differently. So it was because of this arrow
that they found each other and found their true one and only.
Pyramus and Thisbe
Summary: Two Babylonians named Pyramus and Thisbe are neighbors and as they grow up they start
to fall in love with each other. However their families hate one another so they don’t allow them to
get married. They find a crack in the wall between their houses so they start to whisper to each other
through the crack in the wall and telling their love for one another. As time goes on they get tired of
talking through they crack so they find an opportunity to meet up at a guy’s tomb named Ninus.
Where his tomb is a mulberry tree grows inside it and that’s where they were supposed to meet up.
Thisbe arrives to the tomb first and as she waits a lioness who just made a recent kill approaches her I
her direction but Thisbe had enough distance to run and while she ran her cloak fell off her. The
lioness made its way to the cloak where she tore it up and went to the woods. Shortly after, Pyramus
arrives and sees the footprints of the lioness and what was left of the cloak that was now bloody. He
assumes that the lioness devoured Thisbe and he blames himself for her death. With that he got his
sword and stabbed himself on the side and his blood dyed the white berries a dark red. Thisbe comes
back to see Pyramus on the ground bleeding to death and she makes it just in time to say, “It is I, your
Thisbe, your dearest.” Right after she said that he died and then she stated, “Your own hand killed
you… and your love for me. I too can be brave. I too can love. Only death would have the power to
separate us. It shall not have the power now.” The she got his sword that still had some of his blood
on it and stabbed herself right in the heart with it. Her blood then as well turned the white berries
red. The Mulberry tree then becomes a memorial as the white fruit all turn red.
Quote: “Your own hand killed you… and your love for me. I too can be brave. I too can love. Only
death would have the power to separate us. It shall not have the power now.”
Analysis: Where this quote appears is right after Pyramus dies. Thisbe says, “Your own hand killed
you… and your love for me. I too can be brave. I too can love. Only death would have the power to
separate us. It shall not have the power now.” In my opinion this was the saddest part of the story
because it shows her love for him and how she would die just to be with him for eternity. I have to say
she was pretty brave to give up her life to be with him. This quote explains that his death would
separate them if she stayed alive and that’s just like being behind the wall with the crack. I think she
was just tired of them being separated and she was fed up with something always preventing them
from being together so she finally ended by not letting death separate them but rather bring them
together where they can always be together in peace.
The Universal theme: Nothing can’t separate real genuine love
Relevance to the story: I think the theme is that nothing can’t separate real genuine love because
Pyramus and Thisbe had many obstacles preventing them from seeing each other. First it’s their
parents. Their families hate each other, because of that they weren’t allowed to see each other yet
they found a way to communicate with one another through a crack between a wall. Second, they are
forbidden to get married so they make a plan to escape and meet up where they can be together for
one night. Well we all know how that went and how they got another roadblock by Pyramus killing
himself thinking it was his fault for the death of Thisbe when really she was unharmed. Then this is
where it gets to the real genuine love part. Thisbe doesn’t want death to separate them again like
everything else so she decides to kill herself with the same sword and from there can be together
forever and their love can be for eternity.
Symbol:
Symbol explanation: I chose the sword to be the symbol because
Thisbe stabbed herself with it in the heart so she can be with
Pyramus once and for all. I think the part where it says that his
blood was still on the sword was very symbolic because when she
stabbed herself there blood probably mixed so I think it represents
their love in a way. Also the sword is the weapon or tool that was
used in both of their deaths. Another thing is that I think that she
specifically uses that sword to kill herself for a reason and that is
because he used it on himself because of her so she wanted to do
the same.
Orpheus and Eurydice
Summary: There was a man name Orpheus and he was a son of one of the Muses and a Thracian
prince. He was such a good musician his only competition was the gods. With his music he “wooed”
Eurydice. They fell in love and they eventually got married. After the wedding she took a walk and a
viper bite her and she eventually died. When she died she got sent to the Underworld so Orpheus
wanted to go to the Underworld to get her back. When he got to the Underworld he used his lyre to
get past Cerberus and other creatures. He then reached Hades underworld begged Hades and
Persephone to let her go through a song. They liked the song and they would let Eurydice go back
with Orpheus on one condition. The one catch was that on the way through the Cavern back to the
Upper world Orpheus cannot take a peek at Eurydice until they both made it out to the Upper world.
As Orpheus made it out first he couldn’t wait and thought Eurydice was out to so he turned around
and took a look at her and she wasn’t out yet so she started to disappear. As she disappeared into
thin air she said, “Farewell.” He tried to grab her but he couldn’t and then he tried to get back into the
underworld but that is impossible to go their twice while sill alive. He played his music and he ran into
Maenads. The Maenads ripped his limbs and threw his head in the swift river and was found by muse
where they then put it in a tomb at Mount Olympus.
Quote: “He saw her in the dim light, and he held out his arms to clasp her; but on an instant she was
gone. She had slipped back into the darkness. All he heard was one fainted word, “Farewell.””
Analysis: In my opinion I think this quote is important because this is the part of the story when you
think that they’re going to make it out together but then something bad happens and what you think
is going to happen doesn’t. This part changes the story in a whole different direction and then you
don’t know what to expect. I’m still wondering how come she said, “Farewell” and not say see you
later or something like that. There wasn’t no foreshadowing in this part of the story and I find it
interesting because then you don’t know what’s going to happen next. Anyways I like this part of the
story because it’s like that dang it moment in the book when you didn’t expect it.
The Universal theme: You sometimes may go through extreme measures to get back the love of your
life.
Relevance to the story: I think the theme is that you may at times go through extreme measures to
get back the love of your life because that’s basically what the story is generally about. Orpheus
would go to the Underworld and risk his life to get the love of his life back. When he didn’t succeed he
still tried to find a way to get her back but there wasn’t. The only way to possibly see her was to die
and be with her there in the Underworld which I assume he did after the Maenads ripped him apart.
Symbol:
Symbol explanation: I chose the lyre to be the symbol because that is
the instrument Orpheus played Eurydice that made her all in love
with him. The lyre is also what Orpheus used to get past Cerberus as
well as other creatures. He also used it to convince Hades to let
Eurydice go. It’s also what he played his last song on before he died.