III
In the meantime Eros, foreseeing danger, again and most emphatically warned Psyche, saying, “Those perfidious she-wolves, your sisters, are plotting against us with all their might, that they may prevail upon you to view my features, which, as I have told you before, as yet you must not see. For before long an infant will be born to us, and child though you be you are pregnant with another child—which, if you are faithful to me, will be of nature divine, but if not, will be mortal. Shun therefore those wicked women, whom, after the deadly hate they harbor against you, it were no longer right to call sisters; neither see nor listen to them, when like Sirens hanging over the crag they once more make the rocks resound with their ill-omened voices.”
Then Psyche, divided between the joy of future motherhood, and anxiety that she might see her sisters again, besought him with tears in her eyes to allow the latter once more to visit her. “By the hope,” she said, “that in my babe I may at least behold your features, whom I so devotedly love, grant me once more the pleasure of embracing my sisters whom I have deserted for your sake—nor doubt for a moment my fidelity which I have already shown, nor my power of keeping a secret that is so necessary for my own happiness.” Then her husband, enchanted by these tender words and her sweet embraces, granted that which she desired, and immediately forestalled the coming of the dawn by flight.
And now the sisters hastened, burning with evil passions, to the rock; and without waiting for the assistant breeze, leapt straightway with unbridled rashness from the height; an act which indeed would have been their last, had not Zephyr, obedient to his mistress’s desire, received them (tho’ reluctantly) in his bosom, and laid them gently on the ground. With rapid steps and without delay they entered the palace, and screening themselves deceitfully behind the name of sister, affected the greatest interest in her condition. “Why, Psyche,” they said, “you are not quite so slim as you used to be, surely before long you will be a mother! What a gift you have in store for us in that satchel of yours beneath your girdle, and with what great joy you will gladden our whole house! How we shall delight to nurse this golden babe, for if it only rivals its parents in beauty, ’twill be a perfect Cupid.”
Thus by false words they gradually stole her heart, while she, after making them rest and refresh themselves with the bath, presently regaled them with an exquisite banquet, to the sound of harps and flutes and all manner of aerial music. But the malice of these evil women was not to be softened by sweet sounds; and so, shaping their conversation with intent to lead her into a snare, they began insidiously as before to inquire what sort of person her husband was, and from what family descended. And she in her simplicity, having forgotten her former account, invented one somewhat different; and then, when they challenged this, in her confusion alas! confessed her ignorance!
But they, as prepared, immediately and in grave tones said: “Happy indeed are you, dear Psyche, and blissful in your ignorance. There you sit, unknowing of your own danger, but we who care for you so deeply are in despair at what threatens you. For we have discovered for a fact, nor can we longer conceal it from you, that your love, that secretly entwines you at night, is nothing but an evil serpent of base and venomous nature. Remember for a moment how the Pythian oracle said you were destined to wed a wild and fierce animal. Besides it is a fact that many of the countryfolk have seen a huge snake, with puffed head and gaping jaws swimming across the rivers in this direction of an evening, on the way back from his feeding-grounds; and indeed they firmly believe that he will devour you.”
Poor Psyche, though she hardly gave credit to what they said, yet could not but be dismayed; and the sisters following up their advantage argued with her, and brought all sorts of trumped-up stories and hearsay evidence to confirm their argument, and to prove that her lover, far from being divine, was nothing but an unclean monster; till she, overcome by all their talk, completely gave way, and allowed that it must be so. Then when they had persuaded her that it was her bounden duty, and her only safety, to rid the world of this thing by stabbing it secretly in the dark; and had extorted from her a faithful promise that she would do so; they left her, and being wafted in the usual way to the summit of the mountain, hastened homeward rejoicing, and full of glee at the success of their machinations.
But Psyche, left to herself, and in the solitude of that place, was overwhelmed by the most dreadful doubts. All that her sisters had said rose up with the most vivid semblance of truth before her, and seemed only to be confirmed by her unknown paramour’s strange conduct: his concealment of his own form, his dread of the light of day, and his terrible threats and forbiddal of all inquiry. All this came back upon her with painful force and distinctness, till at last she was worked up into a perfect fever of determination, and felt no doubt whatever as to what she had to do.
Selecting a knife, the sharpest she could find, she made its edge doubly keen by whetting it on a stone, and even passed it once or twice across the palm of her delicate hand; then after placing it in a nook of safety, she proceeded to prepare a lamp, trimming the wick and providing it with oil, in order that it might be ready for her need. But by the time these preparations were completed, and the evening had arrived, the fever of her anger having now passed away, Psyche fell into a state of utter wretchedness and misery. Her heart was still hardened against her supposed enemy, but it was like lead or a stone. Its weight within her was more than she could bear; and before the usual hour she retired to her couch and lay there motionless like one who could have wept her life away but the fountain of her tears was all congealed.
Long hours she lay. But at last, when it was quite dark, there came that well-known murmuring sound and sweet wafted air as of wings, and in a moment as usual the unknown One lay beside her.