After she had crossed the river, she would see before her the palace of Persephone, and at the gate the fierce three-headed dog Cerberus, who stands ever guarding it against those who would enter. To him she must give a piece of the bread, still without speaking, and then he would allow her to pass by him.
She would then be brought before Persephone, but here, also, would danger await her. A feast would be set before her, and she would be urged to eat, but no crumb or drop must pass her lips, for whosoever eats or drinks with Persephone may never again return from her palace to the green world of sunshine above. But if she were steadfast and neither ate nor drank, nor spoke one word, Persephone would give her in the box the beauty that Aphrodite desired. Then on her return she must give the second piece of bread to Cerberus, that he might let her pass, and to Charon the other piece of money, that he might ferry her over in safety.
“But oh, Psyche, open not the box, nor look within it,” counseled the voice, “for if thou shouldst raise the lid, then all thy labors will have been in vain, and the wrath of Aphrodite will surely overtake thee.”
Until the voice was silent, Psyche stood and listened, and all that was said she stored away in her heart and remembered; and when it was still she came down at once from the tower and set out for the city of Achaia.
Long and rough was the journey, but at last she came to the city, and there she procured for herself the two pieces of silver money and the barley bread soaked with honey. With these she set out for the mountain that lay over beyond the city. There she found the gap of which the voice had told her, and she followed the path that led down from it, and always away from the green and sunlit world above her and toward the darker world of the lower regions where Persephone reigns.
Before she had gone far, she met the old man driving the ass, even as the voice had warned her, and he looked so poor and miserable, and begged so piteously for help, that Psyche’s heart melted within her, and she longed to give him either bread or money, but she remembered the voice and its warnings and passed by him without speaking.
Soon she came to the river, and saw the boat lying there, and the dark boatman Charon. She stepped into the boat, and he took from her lips one of the pieces of silver. In silence he rowed her out upon the river.
Then up through the water rose a face, and two hands were stretched out to her; and it seemed to Psyche the face was the face of her father. He begged and pleaded with her to give him the other piece of money, that Charon might row him also across the water.
Then it seemed to Psyche that it would break her heart to refuse him, but again she remembered the voice that had warned her, and she knew that the face and the hands were only an appearance caused by Aphrodite, and that it was sent there to tempt her so that she would give up her money and never be able to return from those lower regions. So she kept silence, and the face and hands sank back under the water out of her sight.
