———
This Deity, "the boy-god," as poets love to call him, was the offspring of Venus and Mars; when Venus had given birth to him, Jupiter foresaw the mischief he would create in the world, as well as in his more immediate kingdom; he therefore banished him from his court, and menaced him with his wrath, should he return. The Goddess conveyed him to the isle of Cyprus, where he was suckled by the wild beasts of the forest.
No sooner had strength come with years, than Cupid, forming a bow of the ash tree, and arrows of the cypress, ungratefully turned against the animals who had supported him.
"His quiver, sparkling bright with gems and gold,
From his fair plumed shoulder graceful hung,
And from its top in brilliant chords enrolled,
Each little vase resplendently was slung,
Still as he flew, around him sportive clung
His frolic train of winged Zephyrs light,
Wafting the fragrance which his tresses flung:
While odours dropped from every ringlet bright,
And from his blue eyes beamed ineffable delight."
Mrs. Tighe.
Experience gave confidence to the youthful deity, and when an opportunity offered, he sent his arrows to the hearts of men, so bold did he even become, that he ventured to dart one, dipped in the subtle poison against his mother.
"Love! oh! he breathes and rambles round the world
An idol and idolator: he flies
Touching, with passing beauty, ringlets curled,
Ripe lips, and bosoms white, and starry eyes,
And wheresoe'er his colours are unfurled,
Full many a young and panting spirit lies."
Barry Cornwall.
The nymph Perestere felt his vengeance in a different manner. Cupid was wandering with his mother over a meadow, beautifully enamelled with flowers "all fragrance and of various hues," when, in a playful mood, the youthful deity challenged Venus to see which could gather the greatest number in the least time. Cupid would have been triumphant, had not Perestere, who accompanied them, attempted to win the favour of the goddess, by assisting to fill her basket. In revenge, Cupid changed her into a dove.
The beautiful fable of the winged deity's love for Psyche, is the most pleasing of those related of him.
The nymph Psyche was one of those exquisite beings, so seldom met with in the present degenerate days; and even then, so rare was her beauty, that the people of earth looked on her almost as a divinity, and in some instances would have worshipped her in the belief that she was Venus, visiting the earth.
"In her bower she lay, like a snow-wreath flung,
Mid flowers of brightest hue:
Pouting roses about her hung,
Violets 'neath her mantle sprung,
Shedding their light of blue.
"Pillowed on one fair arm she lay,
Beneath her silver veil;
Her golden locks in wanton play,
As sunbeams through the mist make way,
Stole round her bosom pale!
"Falling waters afar were heard,
To lull the slumb'ring fair:
Yet ever and aye, her soul seemed stirred,
In dove-like murmurs, as if the bird
Of dreams sat brooding there.
"All rude winds were hushed to rest;
Only the enamoured south,
Wantoning round her swan-like breast—
The silken folds of her azure vest
Kissed with its fragrant mouth."
Anon.
To one so jealous as Venus, this homage paid to Psyche was an enormous crime, and she determined to take vengeance for the offence, by punishing her in the tenderest part of a woman's nature; for she commanded Cupid to make her fall deeply in love, with the ugliest being he could find.
With the intention of fulfilling this commission, Cupid visited Psyche, but so beautiful was the being he came to see, that he found himself compelled to pay the same homage to her which others had done; and finished by becoming deeply enamoured himself, as he saw
"Upon her purple couch sweet Psyche laid,
Her radiant lips a downy slumber sealed,
In light transparent veil alone arrayed,
Her bosom's opening charms were half revealed,
And scarce the lucid folds her polished limbs concealed.
"He half relenting on her beauties gazed,
Just then awaking with a sudden start,
Her opening eye in humid lustre blazed,
Unseen he still remained, enchanted and amazed."
Mrs. Tighe.
Fearful, however, of his mother's displeasure, he carried on the
affair with great secrecy, and by his divine power, conveyed her to a palace he had formed in a region full of beauty: here, when the shadows of night had visited the earth, Cupid sought the presence of his love.
"————Who first told how Psyche went
On the smooth wind to realms of wonderment?
What Psyche felt, and Love, when their full lips
First touched; * * * *
* * * With all their sighs
And how they kist each other's tremulous eyes:
The silver lamp—the ravishment—the wonder—
The darkness—loneliness, and fearful thunder."
Keats.
But the happiness which had fallen to the lot of the beautiful Psyche, was too delightful and too pure, not to meet with something which should realize the after thought of the poet, that "the course of true love never did run smooth." The restless nature of the nymph would not allow her to remain quietly in possession or her beautiful lot, or in the enchanted place which the power of the God had raised for her, though few could be so delightful, when,
"In broad pinions from the realms above,
Descending Cupid seeks the Cyprian grove;
To his wide arms enamoured Psyche springs
And clasps her lover with Aurelian wings,
A purple sash across his shoulder bends,
And fringed with gold the quivered shafts suspends;
The bending bow obeys the silken string,
And, as he steps, the silver arrows ring.
Thin folds of gauze, with dim transparence flow,
O'er her fair forehead and her neck of snow;
The winding woof her graceful limbs surrounds
Swells in the breeze, and sweeps the velvet grounds;
As hand in hand along the flowery meads,
His blushing bride the quivered hero leads;
Charmed round their heads pursuing Zephyrs throng,
And scatter roses as they move along;
Bright beams of spring in soft effusion play,
And halcyon hours invite them on their way.
Delighted Hymen hears their whispered vows,
And binds his chaplets round their polished brows,
Guides to his altar, ties the flowery bands,
And as they kneel unites their willing hands."
Darwin.
The love which had fallen upon Psyche, and the affection which dropped in honied words from Cupid's lips, was so endearing, that the nymph longed to communicate the delightful story of her good fortune to her less gifted, but envious sisters.
She therefore told them of the glories of her marriage; though her bridegroom had never made himself visible to her, and though to her he had no name save that fond one of husband, yet still she could talk of the beauties of her magic palace, of the musical voice of her invisible lover, and of the heart-touching and passionate endearments he bestowed on her.
But all this was no pleasant intelligence to them, for with the malice of ill-nature, they determined to be revenged on her for a happiness which was no fault. They affected to believe that her husband had wicked designs in his concealment, and that he would desert his Psyche if he became visible to her—or they asserted that they had no doubt though the lips and skin of this mysterious being seemed so soft to their sister, it was by the power of enchantment, and that the light would reveal a monster whose presence would astonish no less than it would frighten: and succeeded in persuading her, by their next meeting, to provide herself with the means of procuring a light, and a dagger to stab him, should he prove the monstrous being they averred.
The next night came, and Psyche, when she heard the thrilling tones of her husband's voice, could scarcely keep her secret. Dreading the anger of her sisters, however, she waited until Cupid was locked in slumber, and from its hiding place procured the light and the dagger.
———————"She softly rose,
And seized the lamp—where it obscurely lay,
With hand too rashly daring to disclose
The sacred veil which hung mysterious o'er her woes."
Tighe.
For a time the nymph scarcely dared to cast a glance on the being she was so anxious to view; and stood half shrinking from the desired sight.
——"In her spiritual divinity,
Young Psyche stood the sleeping Eros by,
What time she to the couch had, daring, trod;
And, by the glad light, saw her bridegroom God!
O'er him she knelt enamoured, and her sigh
Breathed near and nearer to his silent mouth,
Rich with the hoarded odours of the south!"
Bulwer.
But who can conceive her rapturous delight, when, instead of the fearful being she dreaded, she beheld one whose every limb, and every feature, shone with a radiant and celestial beauty.
"All imperceptibly to human touch,
His wings display celestial essence light;
The clear effulgence of the blaze is such,
The brilliant plumage shines so heavenly bright,
That mortal eyes turn dazzled from the sight;
A youth he seems in manhood's freshest years;
Round his fair neck, as changing with delight,
Each golden curl resplendently appears,
Or shades his darker brow, which grace majestic wears."
Tighe.
Her eyes were rivetted on his exquisite form, until they forgot all else; even her love, her kindness, and her passionate endearments, all vanished in that long, earnest, and delighted gaze.
"Speechless with awe; in transport strangely lost,
Long Psyche stood, with fixed, adoring eye;
Her limbs immoveable, her senses tossed
Between amazement, fear, and ecstacy,
She hangs enamoured o'er the deity."
Tighe.
In the trembling transport which pervaded her, however, there fell a drop of burning wax from the light which she held, on the marble-like shoulder of Cupid, and he awoke.
"From her trembling hand extinguished falls
The fatal lamp. He starts—and suddenly
Tremendous thunders echo through the halls,
While ruins hideous crash bursts o'er the affrighted walls."
Tighe.
The spell was broken—the palace vanished—the God disappeared, and Psyche, mourning in bitter tears for her foolish curiosity, found herself standing on a desolate rock.
"Dread horror seizes on her sinking heart,
A mortal chillness shudders at her breast,
Her soul shrinks, fainting, from death's icy dart,
The groan scarce uttered, dies, but half expressed,
And down she sinks in deadly swoon oppressed:
But when at length, awaking from her trance,
The terrors of her fate stood all confessed,
In vain she casts around her timid glance,
The rudely frowning scenes, her former joys enhance.
"No traces of those joys, alas! remain;
A desert solitude alone appears.
No verdant shade relieves the sandy plain,
The wide spread waste, no gentle fountain cheers;
One barren face the dreary prospect wears;
Nought thro' the vast horizon meets her eye
To calm the dismal tumult of her fears,
No trace of human habitation nigh,
A sandy wild beneath, above a threatening sky."
Tighe.
The abandoned Psyche attempted to drown herself in the neighbouring waters. The stream, fearing the power of the God, returned her to earth upon a bank of flowers.
She then went through the world in search of her lost love, persecuted, and subjected to numerous trials by Venus; who, determined on destroying, sent her to Proserpine with a box to request some of her beauty. The mission was accomplished in safety, but Psyche nearly fell a victim to curiosity and avarice; for she opened the box to look at its contents, and endeavoured to take a portion of it to herself, that she might appear more beautiful in the eyes of her lost husband. On opening it, a deep slumber fell on the unwary mortal, and she lay upon the earth, until Cupid, luckily escaping from the confinement to which his mother had subjected him, found his lost love, and reproached her for her curiosity.
In addition to this, Venus imposed upon Psyche the most difficult tasks; she poured upon the nymph torments the most excruciating, and took delight in rendering her miserable, who, not content with being taken for the goddess of beauty, had concluded by seducing from her the duty of her son.
Jupiter, however, was moved to pity by this relentless rigour, and by the touching nature of the story; he took her up to heaven, restored Cupid to his place, and making Psyche immortal, gave her in marriage to the God of love, in the presence of the celestial inhabitants. To use the elegant language of Mr. Keightley,
"The hours shed roses through the sky, the Graces sprinkled the halls of heaven with fragrant odours, Apollo plays on his lyre, the Arcadian God on his reeds, the Muses sing in chorus, while Venus dances with grace and elegance, to celebrate the nuptials of her son."
"So pure, so soft, with sweet attraction shone
Fair Psyche, kneeling at the ethereal throne;
Won with coy smiles the admiring court of Jove,
And warmed the bosom of unconquered love.
Beneath a moving shade of fruits and flowers,
Onward they march to Hymen's sacred bowers;
With lifted torch he lights the festive strain,
Sublime, and leads them in his golden chain;
Joins the fond pair, indulgent to their vows,
And hides with mystic veil their blushing brows.
Round their fair forms their mingling arms they fling,
Meet with warm lip, and clasp with nestling wing.
Hence plastic nature, as oblivion whelms
Her fading forms, repeoples all her realms;
Soft joys disport on purple plumes unfurled,
And love and beauty rule the willing world."
Darwin.
Thus Cupid was at length re-united to his beloved Psyche, and their loves were speedily crowned by the birth of a child, whom his parents named Pleasure.