Week 2 Reading Diary: Apuleius's Cupid and Psyche

This week I chose Apuleius's Cupid and Psyche as my reading assignment.

The Reunion of Cupid and Psyche

The Captive Woman

• Sets up the tale, and introduced the character.
• A captured woman weeps uncontrollably, despite an old woman's best efforts.
• Not knowing why she cries creates mystery.

Her Dream

• The story tells us why the captured women is crying so hard, giving her some backstory.
• The story of the dream is a kind of story within a story told by the captured girl

Psyche's Beauty

• The second story within a story, told by the old women.
• This story has the classic fairytale beginning.
• A women so beautiful, people this she is Venus herself and abandon the goddesses temples and statues. This is foreshadowing. It is obvious that Venus will be displeased even before she shows up in the story.

The Oracle of Apollo

• Psyche did not chose to be beautiful, and might have lived a happier life if she was not. It is not fair of Venus to punish a girl for things outside of the girl's control \
• Many ancient tales include prophesies. Things destined to be, and beyond the people's control

The Magical Palace

•  Beautiful description of the house.  
• The voice adds an err of mystery, since we don't know where the voice came from.

The Mysterious Husband

• I've read stories like this before. A modern retelling of a husband or person who only ever visits at night and does not show his face.

The Jealousy of Psyche's Sisters

• Once again, this section has very descriptive language.  It is used to describe the husbands of the older sisters. 
• The sisters jealousy is not justified, especially since Psyche shows them nothing but kindness.

Psyche's Husband Warns Her

• Here is a quote from the story, a warning to Psyche from her husband: "Don’t look at or listen to those evil women who, with their murderous hostility, their disregard of the bonds of blood, you should not call sisters, as they lean from the cliff-top like Sirens and make the rocks echo with that fatal singing."

Fears and Doubts

• It is sometime difficult to put my mind in the position of trusting character such as Psyche, when the author has made it so plain and obvious to the reader that the sisters are bitter and jealous.

Psyche's Husband Revealed

• My favorite sentence in this passage is "Then as her wounded heart beat with the tremor of such bliss, the lamp, in wicked treachery, or malicious jealousy..." It is a great description of the lamp. 

Psyche's Despair

•  At the end of this passage, I tried to think about why the writing would include this story as a story within a story, instead of a standalone.  Is Psyche's fear getting the best of her supposed to tell the captured girl not to let her fears run wild?  Both girls are in their own sort of prison, with people who mean the girls no harm. 
• The revenge was unexpected.  It seems uncharacteristic for kind sweet Psyche.