Story Of Cupid And Psyche example essay topic

410 words
Best Friends and Lovers as Community of Two In the reading by Lucius Apuleius Cupid and Psyche (A.D. 150), We are asked to determine whether Cupid and Psyche represent a community together. "Psyche is a princess so beautiful that the goddess Venus becomes jealous. In revenge, she instructs her son Cupid to make her fall in love with a hideous monster; but instead he falls in love with her himself. He becomes her unseen husband, visiting her only at night. Psyche disobeys his orders not to attempt to look at him, and in doing so, she loses him. In her search for him, she undertakes a series of cruel and difficult tasks set by Venus in the hope of winning him back.

Cupid can eventually no longer bear to witness her suffering or to be apart from her and pleads their cause to the gods. Psyche becomes an immortal and the lovers are married in heaven. (The Tale of Cupid and Psyche) ". The story of Cupid and Psyche has many aspects of community, but not all of the characteristics are present. Community is defined as "affecting the people or community as a whole; 'community leaders'; 'community interests'; 'the public welfare' [syn: community (a), public] 2: belonging to and maintained by and for the local community; 'community parks' n 1: a group of people living in a particular local area; 'the team is drawn from all parts of the community' 2: a group of people having ethnic or cultural or religious characteristics in common (Wordnet 1.6) ".

In the story, there are communities composed of all mortals, and those who are immortal as well as gods and goddesses. Psyche begins the story as a princess who is so beautiful the goddess Venus becomes jealous while Cupid is the god of love, "some call cupid and others Love, against whose arrows there is no defense, neither in heaven nor on the earth (McCormick 199) ". The only reason that Venus gave Psyche all of those tests was because she wanted to punish her for breaking Cupids heart "Venus was determined to show Psyche what it meant to draw down the displeasure of a goddess (McCormick 203) ". These are all communities composed of more than just Psyche and Cupid, the only community which Cupid and Psyche are solely members is their marriage and conceiving the same children.