Soon she came again to the river, and found the dark boatman waiting, and she entered his boat, and he took from her the second piece of money and rowed her back to the other side.
There Psyche left him and followed in haste along the path that led to the upper world and sunlight, but on the way she was weary and sat down to rest. Then she looked at the box she carried, and more and more she longed to see the gift of beauty that Persephone had sent to Aphrodite. At last her curiosity grew so great that it was like a fire burning her, and she could bear it no longer, but opened the box and looked inside.
Then at once the beauty that was in it rose like a pale mist and hovered over Psyche’s head, and she fell into a deep slumber.
Now indeed the wrath of Aphrodite would have destroyed her as she lay there helpless, had not Eros come to her to protect and save her. For he was now cured of his wound, and his love for Psyche had returned, and his pain and the anger he had felt toward her were forgotten. So he came to where she lay, and caught her up, and carried her to Zeus, who reigns high on Olympus. And Eros entreated Zeus to protect Psyche from the anger of his mother and to make her also a goddess, so that she need no longer fear Aphrodite.
To this Zeus consented, and he touched Psyche, and woke her from her sleep, and made of her a goddess.
Then she was made welcome by all the other gods and goddesses, and Aphrodite was obliged to give up her anger, for it is the will of Zeus that there shall be peace among all those who dwell on high Olympus.
After that a great marriage feast was prepared in honor of Eros and Psyche, and to it came all the gods and goddesses, and drank and feasted. Then Eros took his bride away to a palace that Zeus had given them, and which was even more magnificent than the one where Eros had first carried Psyche; and there they lived together in great joy and happiness.
But Psyche’s two sisters were punished as they deserved, for Eros appeared to each one of them in a dream and promised that if she would go to the top of a high cliff and throw herself over, then he would take her as a wife in place of Psyche. Each of them believed her dream, and each secretly, and unknown to the other, went to the cliff and threw herself over, and so perished miserably.
But Psyche lived happy forever after in the palace in high Olympus with her husband Eros.
