cupid and psyche

• Beauty is a curse, as evidenced by Psyche, who was born with physical perfection so complete that she was worshipped as a new incarnation of Venus, the goddess of love.
• Real-life human lovers were too intimidated even to approach Psyche.
• Psyche's father asked for guidance from the Oracle of Apollo, the god of light, reason, and prophecy, who told him to abandon his daughter on a rocky crag where she would marry a cruel and savage serpent-like winged evil.
• On the crag, Psyche felt Zephyr the West Wind gently lifting her into the air, setting her down before a palace where an unseen voice told her she was home and her husband awaited her in the bedroom.
• Psyche's husband was not serpent-like at all, his skin was soft, and his voice and manner were gentle.
• Psyche asked her husband who he was, but he told her this was the one question he could never answer, saying if she loved him, she would not need to know.
• Psyche was pregnant with her husband's child, but was conflicted about how she could raise her baby with a man she'd never seen.
• Psyche approached her sleeping husband holding an oil lamp, burning Cupid with hot oil.
• Cupid, the god of love, was in love with Psyche ever since his jealous mother, Venus, asked him to embarrass the young woman by pricking her with an arrow.
• Cupid used the arrow on himself, believing gods and humans could not love as equals.
• Psyche and Cupid were left in despair until the unseen voice returned and told them it was possible for them to love each other as equals.
• Psyche set out to find Cupid, but Venus intercepted her and said she and Cupid could only wed if she completed a series of impossible tasks.
• Psyche was first asked to sort a huge, messy pile of wheat, barley and millet in a single night, which an ant colony helped with.
• Psyche next had to bring Venus the fleece of the golden sheep, who had a reputation for disemboweling stray adventurers, but a river god showed her how to collect the fleece the sheep had snagged on briars, and she succeeded.
• Psyche had to travel to the Underworld and convince Proserpina, queen of the dead, to put a drop of her beauty in a box for Venus.
• Cupid gave Psyche ambrosia, the nectar of the gods, making her immortal.
• Psyche bore their daughter, Pleasure, and she, Cupid, and Psyche have been complicating people's love lives ever since.