Fairy tales from far and near

by Katharine Pyle

Now the sheep of Aphrodite were very fierce and terrible, so that no one might approach them without being torn to pieces. This Psyche knew, but she thought, “Better to perish at once than suffer from the wrath of Aphrodite.”

So she took the bag the goddess gave her and set out for the pasture. But on the way she met Pan, and he had pity on her because of her beauty and her sorrow.

“Psyche, do not venture near the pasture,” he warned her. “Wait until evening when the sheep are resting and then turn aside into yonder wood, and gather the wool you will find there in the thickets; for in the heat of the day the sheep take shelter there, and their wool catches on the thorns and briers and is torn from them.”

Gratefully Psyche thanked him for his advice, and she waited until on toward evening, and then stole into the wood and there about her, on thorny branches, glittered the tufts of golden wool the sheep had left behind them. Psyche gathered them, handful after handful, until her bag was full, and then she hastened back with it to Aphrodite.

When the goddess saw that again Psyche had succeeded, her heart was hot within her. But when the Princess asked her, “Will you not yet plead for me with Eros?” the goddess answered, “Wait until to-morrow. It may be that he himself may wish to see you.”

But on the morrow it was a new task that she set for Psyche. She gave her a crystal urn, and bade her take it to the fountain of Oblivion, and there fill it with water, and fetch it back with her.

Now the fountain of Oblivion flows forth black and cold as ice from a deep crevice in a rock at the top of a high mountain, and the rock is so steep that it is impossible for any human being to climb it. Thence the waters pour down through a deep channel, and this channel is guarded on either side by dragons that never sleep.

Psyche took the urn and set forth upon her journey, and as she journeyed on her way she wept, for she knew that no one could go near the stream of Oblivion and live, because of the dragons that guarded it.

But once more Eros had pity on her, and he asked of Zeus, the All-Father, that he would lend him his eagle, that it might take the urn and carry it to the fountain and fill it, and return with it to Psyche.

Zeus, the All-Father did not refuse, and so as Psyche sat resting by the wayside, the eagle swept down upon her, and caught the urn from her hand, and flew away with it.