Reading Notes: Cupid and Psyche, Part A

One of Cupid and Psyche's bigger draws is its cast of colorful, emotionally diverse characters. The story would change drastically if changed to first person, or a closer third person, and there is no shortage of views to write from:

• What's going on with Venus? How is her rage against an innocent girl justified in her mind?
• Why does Cupid choose to hide his identity, and how does he, as an agent of Love, react to being pricked by one of his own arrows?
• Does Psyche believe she's a goddess incarnate the way everyone else does? There's one passage that sheds light on this, but being put on a pedestal doesn't seem to massively impact her personality the way I think, realistically, it would:

"Psyche, for all her conspicuous beauty, reaped no profit from her charms. Gazed at by all, praised by all, no one, neither prince nor commoner, wishing to marry her, sought her hand. They admired her divine beauty of course, but as we admire a perfectly finished statue... Psyche was left at home, a virgin, single, weeping in lonely solitude, ill in body and sore at heart, hating that beauty of form the world found so pleasing."

I would contend, though, that one of the biggest influences in the story is someone mentioned only three times so far. Says Psyche: "Too late you see the blow that falls is dealt by wicked Envy. When nations and countries granted me divine honours, when with one voice they named me as the new Venus, that’s when you should have mourned, and wept, and grieved as if I were dead. I know now, I realise that her name alone destroys me."

Envy, known also as Invidia, Rivalitas, or in Greek as Nemesis, is the goddess who represents retribution against and resentment caused by "those who committed crimes with apparent impunity, or who had inordinate good fortune," according to Theoi. Envy's place in this story, then, is thematically huge. Psyche's beauty represents a breakage of equilibrium--mortals worshiping a mortal instead of the gods. In this sense, what happens to Psyche is very much representative of Envy's cosmic punishments. She also appears later after having figuratively (or literally?) bitten Psyche's sisters, who are jealous of her new home and husband.

So, I argue that the most interesting and appropriate character's point of view to see from this story is also the most neglected one.

Other minor spirits of envy:
Zelos, also called Invidia in Roman; god of zeal and rivalry; sibling of Nike, Bia, and Kratos
Phthonus, Zelus in Roman; god of jealous passion and love, and counterpart of Nemesis

Source: Cupid and Psyche from Apuleius' Golden Ass, translated by Tony Kline. Web source.

Image: Nemesis and Dike, painted by Pierre Paul Prud'hon. Web source.