Tag Archives: Cupid and Psyche

The Arnolfini Portrait: mise en abyme

03 Wednesday Dec 2014

Posted by in Art, Literature

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Van_Eyck_-_Arnolfini_Portrait

The Arnolfini Portrait, Jan van Eyck, 1434 (National Gallery, London, UK) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A year ago, I wrote a post on Magical Realism and used Marc Chagall as an example of a strange blend of the real and the unreal and, the “unreal.” I then quoted Professor Matthew Strecher. Magical or magic realism is “what happens when a highly detailed, realistic setting is invaded by something too strange to believe.”[1]

Apuleius‘ (c. 125 – c. 180 CE) Golden Ass features magic realism. The Golden Ass is a short novel and the only novel to have come down to us from Greco-Roman antiquity. It has an ‘outer tale’ within which are inserted several ‘inner tales,’ called “digressions,” most of which reflect the ‘outer tale,’ with the possible exception of Cupid and Psyche.

The story of Cupid and Psyche is a subject-matter borrowed from Greco-Roman mythology (See RELATED ARTICLES, below) Cupid (in Latin, ‘desire’) makes himself invisible, an underlying wish in most human beings, and flies to Milet with strict instructions from his mother Venus, the goddess of love and the Roman counterpart to Greek mythology’s Aphrodite, to kill Psyche, called Psyches in Apuleius’ novel. The story resembles a fairy tale. Instead of killing Psyche, Cupid takes her to a castle, they make love, and she eventually becomes an immortal.

Cupidon, William Bougereau

Cupidon, William-Adolphe Bouguereau (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Cupid and Eros

Although Cupid is a winged creature as is Eros, one of the Greek primordial gods and the god of love, Cupid, Cupidon in French, never quite rises to the stature of Eros and is not a god in Roman mythology. In Greek mythology, Eros’ name is associated with eroticism (sensuality and sexuality). However, Cupid belongs to Jean-Antoine Watteau(10 October 1684 – 18 July 1721) ethereal Pilgrimage to Cythera, a painting in which Watteau all but created the fête galante or fête champêtre.

Eroticism (adj. erotic) is a word associated with Greek mythology’s Eros. As for Cupid, he hovers above as lovers exchange vows waiting for the ship that will take them to Cythera, the birthplace of Venus, a locus amœnus. He is the little “angel” whose arrows make people ‘fall in love.’ There is very little room for Cupid in angelology, the study of angels, but Cupid has wings, as does Pegasus, and he is a rather lovely departure from the realm of angels. Falling in love, in amorous literature, is like falling ill. Once stricken by one of Cupidon‘s (FR) arrows, one cannot recover.

Mise en Abyme or the Droste Phenomenon

In literature, in-set tales are usually linked to the outer tale. Sometimes, a teller makes a story-teller tell the tale. This technique is sometimes called a “mise en abyme,”[2] but in the visual arts, such an effect is the image within the image, repeated ad infinitum. It is the box within the box, within the box. There is no end to that picture. It is a vanishing point: a point de fuite. (See Cupid and Psyche, Wikipedia.)

Droste

The woman holds an object bearing a smaller image of her holding the same object, which in turn bears a smaller image of her holding the same object, and so on. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Mise en abyme: the Mirror Effect

Mise en abyme is perhaps better called the picture within the picture or the mirror effect. The concept was presented to me when I studied the fine arts. We were discussing the Arnolfini Portrait. In Jan van Eyck‘s (before c. 1390 – before c. 9 July 1441) painting, a small round mirror reflects the larger picture and gives it dimensionality. We see the people the Arnolfini couple are looking at, one of whom may be the artist. We also see the objects that are behind the Arnolfini couple, not all of which belong together.

For instance, the frame of the mirror has images showing the passion of Christ. Moreover, the head of the bed features a carving reminiscent of a misericord  showing two elements, one of which is a winged animal (zoomorphism) There is a tassel and a set of beads. I think these objects are symbols. Jan van Eyck‘s rather large signature is on the wall: writing on the wall!

Genre Painting and Illusionism

The Arnolfini Portrait is one of the visual arts’ most intriguing and complex images. It includes oranges, a little dog, slippers, a window, an oriental rug, a chandelier, a bed… These are the mostly ordinary elements of genre painting[4]. The Arnolfini Portrait may in fact be the first example of “genre” painting. However, the convex mirror creates a mise en abyme, which may serve illusionism or mimesis.[5] According to Wikipedia, it is a painting that gives the impression that the artist “shares the physical space with the viewer.” (See Illusionism, Wikipedia.)

There can be no doubt that the artist strives to create as representative an image as possible. However, techniques are required to guide the eye, such as “trompe-l’oeil,” literally “to fool the eye,” or foreshortening which “is basically concerned with the persuasive projection of a form in an illusionistic way, it is a type of perspective.”[6] There had been little depth or dimensionality to previous paintings and these had not featured mise en abyme: one little convex mirror that does “shar[e] the physical space with the viewer.”

The Arnolfini Portrait, Jan van Eyck

The Arnolfini Portrait (detail), Jan van Eyck (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Conclusion

The Arnolfini Portrait dates back to 1434, an early date, but a time when Flanders was part of the Duchy of Burgundy and the cultural hub of Europe. There was a Giovanni di Nicolao Arnolfini (c. 1400 – after 1452). He was an Italian merchant from Lucca, Tuscany, who lived in Bruges with other members of his family. He traded in fabrics and the manner in which he and his wife are dressed demonstrates wealth. Both are wearing fur-lined garments. Arnolfini’s wife is not pregnant, but is holding her “full-skirted dress.” (See Jan van Eyck, The National Gallery, UK). It was customary at that time in history to receive guests in a bedroom.

The Golden Ass is an outer story with inner stories called “digressions,” but these stories within the story, may be mises en abyme. The Golden Ass was first entitled Metamorphoses, but Augustine of Hippo gave it its current title. Ovid‘s (20 March 43 BCE –  17/18 CE) Metamorphoses is the better-known Metamorphoses and one of world literature’s most influential texts. However, The Golden Ass is an ancestor to such authors as Chaucer (see Apuleius’ Cupid and Psyche, RELATED ARTICLES below) and its tales within tales may also make it an ancestor to mise en abyme.

If a text is penned by one author, the same author, can there be such a thing as a true digression? It could be a subtle reflection of the text, a mise en abyme. It is all so mysterious.

As for the Arnolfini Portrait, its mirror is the instrument of a mise en abyme and a possible key to its meaning.

My kindest regards to all of you.

RELATED ARTICLES

Sources and Resources

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[1] Matthew C. Strecher, “Magical Realism and the Search for Identity in the Fiction of Murakami Haruki,” Journal of Japanese Studies (Volume 25, Number 2 [Summer 1999], pp. 263-298) p. 267.

[2] Lucien Dällenbach, Le Récit spéculaire. Essai sur la mise en abyme (Paris, Seuil, 1977).

[3] “fête champêtre”. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2014. Web. 03 dec.. 2014
<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/205482/fete-champetre>.

[4] “genre painting”. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2014. Web. 03 dec.. 2014
<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/229297/genre-painting>.

[5] Erich Auerbach, Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2013 [1946]).

[6] “foreshortening”. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2014. Web. 03 dec.. 2014
<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/213452/foreshortening>.

Arcangelo Corelli – Concerto Grosso in D Major – Mov. 3-5/5
Arnolfini_Portrait_1

The Arnolfini Portrait (detail) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

© Micheline Walker
3 December 2014
(Revised: 4 December 2014)
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Cupid and Psyche, or Magical Realism

07 Wednesday Aug 2013

Posted by in Art, Literature

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the-fiddler-1913

The Fiddler, by Marc Chagall, 1913 (Photo credit:  Wikipaintings)
Marc Chagall  (6 July 1887 – 28 March 1985) 
 

Cupid and Psyche  as Magical Realism

Mythology and Magical Realism

According to Professor Matthew Strecher’s magic realism is “what happens when a highly detailed, realistic setting is invaded by something too strange to believe.”[1] Magical Realism is a main characteristic of Latin-American literature, but it has gained adherent elsewhere and it is not new. It present readers with a juxtaposition of what is usually considered the “real,” the “unreal,” and the “surreal.” An angel just may enter a room and play a role in a fictitious text. (See Magic Magic Realism, Wikipedia,)

The author of Wikipedia’s entry on magic realism states that “[t]his critical perspective towards magical realism as a conflict between reality and abnormality stems from the Western reader’s dissociation with mythology, a root of magical realism more easily understood by non-Western cultures.” (See Magic realism, Wikipedia)

Marc Chagall

In the visual arts, Marc Chagall (6 July 1887 – 28 March 1985) presents us with better examples of what could be called “magical realism,” whatever “school” his paintings are attached to. In the so-called “real” world, people seldom float in mid-air. But the world is not always real and the human imagination pushes its limits. We know that angels do not exist, but we nevertheless make room for them. In fact, we swear on the Bible, in which, ironically, angels dwell.

Apuleius’ Golden Ass

Apuleius‘ (c. 125 – c. 180 CE) Golden Ass is a novel, the first novel we have inherited in its entirety from Greco-Roman antiquity. First entitled Metamorphoses, the novel was renamed by Augustine of Hippo (St. Augustine). It is rather lewd, but The Tale of Cupid and Psyche isn’t, and mere mortals mix with immortal gods. This may confirm that magical realism has replaced mythology, but it may not.

It consists of a frame story and inner stories called “digressions.” One of these digressions, the third, The Tale of Cupid and Psyche, belongs to mythology and is a distant forerunner of magical realism in that its dramatis personæ  includes mortals and immortals who mingle informally. Venus, the immortal Roman goddess of love, whose Greek counterpart is Aphrodite, is featured next to Psyche’s father and seems a mere mortal.

Paris through the Window, by Marc Chagall, 1913 (Photo credit: Wikipaintings)
The Birthday, by Marc Chagall, 1915 (Photo credit: Wikipaintings)
 
paris-through-the-window-1913
the-birthday-1915_jpg!HD.2 

The Tale of Cupid and Psyche

In The Golden Ass, Lucius is transformed into a donkey, which normally is not  possible. Metamorphoses belong to a realm most would look upon as “unreal.” It is fantasy. Yet Ovid‘s (20 March 43 BCE – 17/18 CE), Metamorphoses is one of Western culture’s most influential books. Human beings do not float in mid-air, with the exception of astronauts, nor can they fly, but the human imagination can imagine another reality and that reality possesses a form of “truth.”

It remains, however, that Apuleius’ mythological third digression, The Tale of Cupid and Psyche, is pure fiction. Psyches lives in a world where gods and mere mortals mingle, which is not possible outside fiction. Consequently, The Tale of Cupid and Psyche seems an instance of magical realism avant la lettre, i.e. before the term was coined.

For instance, early in the narrative, Psyches’ father, who would like his unfortunate daughter to find a suitable husband, went to Milet, an ancient Greek city, now found in Turkey, and called Miletus, “to receive the Oracle of Apollo, where he made his prayers and offered sacrifice, and desired a husband for his daughter whose elder daughters are married to kings.” Although Apollo is a Greek god, he replies in Latin and says:

Let Psyches corps be clad in mourning weed
And set on rock of yonder hill aloft:
Her husband is no wight of humane seed,
But Serpent dire and fierce as might be thought.
Who flies with wings above in starry skies,
And doth subdue each thing with firie flight.
The gods themselves, and powers that seem so wise,
With mighty Jove [Jupiter] be subject to his might,
The rivers blacke, and deadly flouds of paine
And darkness eke, as thrall to him remaine.
 
(Apuleius, The Golden Asse, Book 4, Chapter 22
Translated by William Adlington
The Gutenberg Project [EBook #1666]) 
 

Having heard the Oracle, Psyches’ father does take her up a hill and sets her “on rock of yonder hill aloft” where she is left “weeping and trembling,” but is “blowne by the gentle aire and of shrilling Zephyrus, and carried from the hill with a meek winde, which retained her garments up, and by little and little bought her downe into a deepe valley, where she was laid in a bed of most sweet and fragrant flowers.” 

Instead of taking her where “she may fall in love with the most miserablest [that word should be reinvented] creature living,” as Venus has asked Cupid, Venus’ son, makes himself invisible and has the wind “Zephyrus” transport her to a “bed of most sweet and fragrant flowers.” Here again, we have an example of magical realism, even if Psyches is “clad in mourning weed,” which suggests that she has died. However, her sisters, mortals, visit her.  

The “fairy tale” begins and, after the compulsory tasks—three in most fairy tales—have been performed, Psyches is transformed into a goddess, which may be her rightful self. In the “real” world, she is the victim of envy. In fact, Venus herself, a goddess who mingles with mortals, which is magical realism, is so envious of her that she wants her destroyed. However, In fact, Venus herself, a goddess who mingles with mortals, which is magical realism, is so envious of her that she wants her destroyed. However, as the most beautiful woman in the world, Psyches is an oddity, so her becoming a goddess seems appropriate.

The Golden Legend

We may have forgotten the names of the god and goddesses of mythology. However, the human imagination is such that if mythology did not exist humans would probably invent a replacement, such as magical realism. The bestseller of the Middle Ages was not the Bible, but Jacobus de Voragine’s fanciful Golden Legend (Legenda Aurea), an embellished hagiography or telling of the lives of saints, in general, and martyrs (martyrologies), in particular. 

RELATED ARTICLES

Sources and Resources

LIST OF MODERN AUTHORS: Magical Realism

the-promenade-1918
The Promenade, by Marc Chagall, 1918  (Photo credit: Wikipaintings) 
                      

[1] Matthew C. Strecher, “Magical Realism and the Search for Identity in the Fiction of Murakami Haruki,” Journal of Japanese Studies, Volume 25, Number 2 (Summer 1999), pp. 263-298, at 267.

W. A. Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791)
Piano Concerto n° 23 (Adagio)
 
the-blue-house-1917The Blue House, by Marc Chagall
(Please click on the image to enlarge it.)
 
© Micheline Walker
6 August 2013
WordPress
 
 

Apuleius’ Cupid and Psyche

04 Sunday Aug 2013

Posted by in Love, Metamorphosis, Myths

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waterhouse_psyche_opening_the_golden_box
Psyche opening the Golden Box, by John William Waterhouse (1903) 
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
(Photo credit: Wikipaintings)
 
The Golden Ass is a Project Gutenberg publication: [EBook #1666] Book 4, Chapter 22[i]
Ovid (20 March 43 BCE – CE 17/18) is the author of the Metamorphoses, a fifteen-book Latin narrative written in dactylic hexameter, the “noble verse.”
 
Apuleius (c. 125 – c. 180 CE) is the author of the Golden Ass (Asinus Aureus) an eleven-book Latin narrative, first entitled Metamorphoses, but renamed The Golden Ass by Augustine of Hippo (St Augustine).
 
 800px-WLA_brooklynmuseum_Wedgewood-Marriage_of_Cupid_and_Psyche 
 
Marriage of Cupid and Psyche (ca. 1773), jasperware by Wedgwood based on the 1st-century Marlborough gem, which most likely was intended to depict an initiation rite (Brooklyn Museum) Photo credit: Wikipedia
 

Fables

In November 2011, I wrote a post on Apuleius‘ Golden Ass, the only novel that has come down to us from Latin Antiquity in its entirety and which happens to be about metamorphoses. I am revisiting the Golden Ass because we have looked at fables in which a cat and a mouse are metamorphosed respectively into a woman and a maid.  In the world of fables, a realistic world, nature will out, so our cat and mouse return to their natural selves.

Other fiction featuring metamorphoses

  • Fairy tales;
  • Werewolf stories (lycanthropy).[ii]

Fairy tales are home to metamorphoses. Beast is turned into a beast and will remain a beast until Beauty accepts to marry him as he is, i.e. as Beast. The moment Beauty tells Beasts that she will marry him, a curse is lifted and beast returns to his former princely self. Such is the stuff of fairy tales. But let us look at sources.

Ovid and Apuleius

The theme of metamorphosis is rooted mainly in Ovid‘s Metamorphoses and, to a lesser extent, in Apuleius‘ The Golden Ass, first entitled Metamorphoses. In The Golden Ass, Lucius is accidentally metamorphosed into an animal and that animal happens to be a donkey, which may explain why Augustine of Hippo (St Augustine) “demoted” Apuleius’ Metamorphoses by giving it a different title. Augustine renamed the book The Golden Ass and The Golden Ass it has remained, despite one rather lofty “digression,” the tale of Cupid and Psyche. Psyches, the most beautiful woman in the world, will be metamorphosed into a goddess by the ultimate fairy godmother, the gods of Greco-Roman antiquity assembled.

The Golden Ass

The Outer Story

The Golden Ass combines an outer story and inner stories. The outer story is called a frame story. The inner stories are sometimes called in-set stories. In the case of The Golden Ass, the outer story is a rather lewd account of the transformation of Lucius, as in Lucius Apuleius (Apulée), into a donkey.

Lucius wishes to become a sorcerer, or a witch, so he can transform himself into a bird and is told by his friend Milo that Milo’s wife is a witch who can transform herself into a bird. Lucius watches her metamorphosing herself into a bird and accidentally turns his own person into a donkey. At the end of the novel, after all sorts of trials and tribulations, Lucius retrieves his human form, assisted by Isis, a goddess and a magician.

The Inner Stories or “Digressions” are:

  1. Aristomenes’ Tale
  2. Thelyphron’s Tale
  3. The Tale of Cupid and Psyche
  4. The Tale of the Wife’s Tub
  5. The Tale of the Jealous Husband
  6. The Tale of the Fuller’s Wife
  7. The Tale of the Murderous Wife

By and large, the inner or in-set stories or tales bear some resemblance to the outer story. The story is different but the tone is that of Lucius, now transformed into a donkey. The exception is Cupid and Psyche. We are transported into a world filled with gods and goddesses, but these gods and goddesses sometimes mingle with mere mortals. We therefore have a taste of magic realism. Professor Matthew Strecher defines magic realism as “what happens when a highly detailed, realistic setting is invaded by something too strange to believe.” (See Magic Realism, Wikipedia.)

In psychology the word “psyche” refers to the mind but to a large extent, it also refers to the soul, which is immortal. The “digression” or in-set tale is entitled Cupid and Psyche, but Psyche’s name is Psyches. She is the third daughter of a King, a motif which links her to fairy tale protagonists. Moreover, Psyches has two married but jealous sisters, as does Cinderella. However, the third daughter marries a god. Cinderella has to settle for a mere prince.

Consequently, the tale of Cupid and Psyche is a “digression.”  The main link between Cupid and Psyche and The Golden Ass is a metamorphosis, except that  Psyches does not turn into an animal. On the contrary, her appearance does not change and her story is one of upward mobility. Psyche means soul. She escapes mortality, the human condition, by becoming a goddess. The soul is immortal.

psyche-and-amour-1889love-and-psyche-1899

Cupid and Psyche, by William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1889)
(Photo credit: Wikipaintings)
 

Cupid and Psyche  

(quotations, including the spelling, are from [EBook #1666] Book 4, Chapter 22)
The Romans borrowed Greek mythology but changed the name of each god.  Venus is the Latin name for Aphrodite. 
 
The story has several variants, but basically it is about jealousy. Venus (Aphrodite), the goddess of love is jealous of a human being, Psyche or Psyches, the third and only unmarried daughter of a King and Queen. She is considered more beautiful than Venus and people travel long distances to see her. Venus is jealous and sends her son Cupid (Eros) to find “the most miserablest creature living” and make him Psyches’ husband. 
 
Meanwhile, Psyches has been placed at the top of a hill as her parents think a man might take her at last. She is not married. Cupid, who has made himself invisible, does not perform his dastardly deed. Psyches is “blowne by the gentle aire and of shrilling Zephyrus” to a castle. They become man and wife: “after that hee had make a perfect consummation of the marriage.” But he only visits during the night and he has directed her not to look at him during his nightly visits.
 
Psyches is pregnant and misses her sisters, so Cupid allows them to visit. When they arrive, they praise her: “O dear sister Psyches, know you that you are now no more a child, but a mother: O what great joy beare you unto us in you belly?”
 
Both older sisters are unhappily married and jealous of Psyche who lives in a castle. To get rid of the husband she is not allowed to see, they fool Psyche into thinking that Cupid is a monstrous serpent and must be killed. As her sisters suggest, Psyches carries a candle so she can see Cupid and kill him: “with your bare feet goe and take the lampe, with the Razor in your right hand and with valiant force cut off the head of the poisonous serpent, wherein we will aid and assist you: and when by the death of him you shall be made safe, we wil marry to some comely man.” Psyches sees Cupid and falls in love, but a drop of hot wax falls from the candle and burns Cupid inadvertently. He wakes up and leaves as he had warned he would: “hee commaunded Zephyrus to carry me away from the bounds of his house.”
 
After she has been abandoned, Psyches goes looking for Cupid. At one point, she seeks the help of Venus, not knowing that Venus is her enemy. Venus asks Psyches to perform impossible tasks, the last of which is deadly. Venus wants Psyches to fetch beauty from Proserpina, Queen of the Underworld, put some of that beauty into a golden box, and return the box to her. Alas, one does not return from the Underworld, which means that Psyches will die if she goes to the Underworld. 
 
Knowing that she must die, Psyches climbs to the top of a tower and is about to throw herself down when the tower starts to speak. She is told how to appease Cerberus (Kerberos), the three-headed dog who guards the entrance to the Underworld. Proserpina (Persephone) gives Psyches the box, but instead of beauty, it contains infernal sleep. Psyches is curious, opens the box, and lapses into a coma.
 
By then, Cupid (Éros), who has wings, the equivalent of a magic carpet, has forgiven Psyches and flies to her rescue. A kiss revives her and they then go to Jupiter (Zeus). Cupid asks Jupiter to transform Psyches into a goddess. Jupiter appeases Venus and he then convenes the gods who, after deliberating, grant Cupid’s request. Cupid’s Psyches is therefore transformed into a goddess by drinking ambrosia (“ambroisie,” or Nectar), the drink of Greek gods, and therefore escapes the human condition: mortality.
 
“And then he [Jupiter] tooke a pot of immortality, and said, Hold Psyches, and drinke, to the end thou maist be immortall, and that Cupid may be thine everlasting husband. By and by the great banket and marriage feast was sumptuously prepared, Cupid sate downe with his deare spouse between his armes: Juno likewise with Jupiter, and all the other gods in order, Ganimedes filled the port of Jupiter, and Bacchus served the rest.  Their drinke was Nectar the wine of the gods, Vulcanus prepared supper, the howers decked up the house with roses and other sweet smells, the Graces threw about blame, the Muses sang with sweet harmony, Apollo tuned pleasantly to the Harpe, Venus danced finely: Satirus and Paniscus plaid on their pipes; and thus Psyches was married to Cupid, and after she was delivered of a child whom we call Pleasure.”
 
 
287px-Dante_Gabriel_Rossetti00
Proserpina, by
Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1874),
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
 

Comments

Psyche

In Apuleius, Psyche is Psyches and has parents. She seems a human being. Moreover, in mythology, gods lose their godliness through sexual contact, generally, with a mortal being. Psyches is a human being and, therefore, a mortal. So it is not possible for her to be transformed into the mortal she already is. Therefore, Apuleius presents us with a complicated “digression.” Psyches is metamorphosed into a goddess, an immortal being, by drinking ambrosia, and then gives birth to a child named Pleasure. It is all very fanciful. Psyche means the soul and the soul is immortal.

A Fairy Tale: to a certain Extent

The tale of Cupid and Psyche provides us with a template associated with fairy tales: the rags to riches narrative of Cinderella. Psyches becomes a goddess. We also have jealous sisters, not to mention a jealous Venus, a mother-in-law (a stepmother). As for the invisible Cupid, he could well be a monstrous beast, in which case, Cupid and Psyche could be associated with Beauty and the Beast. The tale of Cupid and Psyche  is in fact associated with Beauty and the Beast.

“The fairy tales which modern scholars most often discuss in relation to an antecedent myth are those which involve an animal as bride-groom, best known by versions of ‘Beauty and the Beast’.”[iii] 

According to the Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales, the story of Cupid and Psyche is both a myth and a fairy tale, but the theme is not consistent with fairy tales. Unlike Beauty, Psyches does not have to lift a curse by saying she will marry Cupid. She must perform chores,  imposed by Venus, to be reunited with Cupid, but there is no disenchantment, i.e. no curse has turned Cupid into an animal-groom, so no curse has to be lifted.

“In fairy tale versions the question normally ends with a disenchantment motif as the heroine regains her partner by ending the spell which has enchanted him.”[iv]

Conclusion

Although Cupid and Psyche has affinities with fairy tales, it may be prudent not to classify it as such, except loosely. Classifications are helpful, but they should not be a Procrustean bed. The bed would always be too short or too long, and limbs therefore stretched or amputated. In Cupid and Psyche a man, albeit a god, comes to the rescue of a damsel in distress who is despised because she is the most beautiful woman in the world. The story moves forward propelled by a feeling inextricably linked with love which, in literature,  may be jealousy.

However, in Cupid and Psyche, the wedding that constitutes the proper ending of fairy tales and comedies seems out of place, but is it?  Cupid and Psyche became man and wife after he flew her to her castle: “after that hee had made a perfect consummation of the marriage.” She was not allowed to look at him, but when night fell, he “visited” her. This seems consistent with a myth. However, the tale of Cupid and Psyche is that of a pre-existing union. Consequently, the wedding takes on other virtues.  It could well be the official celebration of a threatened marriage. “All’s well that ends well.”

From the point of view of literary history, authors such as Chaucer (the many Tales), Shakespeare, Dante and Boccaccio (The Decameron) were inspired by tales contained in Ovid‘s Metamorphoses. The first translation of the Metamorphoses in English was by William Caxton in 1480. Caxton is also the first English printer. He printed Reynard the Fox. Apuleius’ Golden Ass inspired Laurence Sterne (Tristram Shandy), Henry Fielding (Tom Jones) and Jean de La Fontaine. 

800px-Edward_Burne-Jones001

Psyche’s Wedding, by Sir Edward Burne-Jones (1895), Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood

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[i] The Golden Asse. Translated by William Adlington, first published 1566. This version is as reprinted from the edition of 1639. The original spelling, capitalisation and punctuation have been retained. [EBook #1666]
[ii] A werewolf, also known as a lycanthrope is a mythological or folkloric human with the ability to shapeshift into a wolf or an therianthropic hybrid wolf-like creature, either purposely or after being placed under a curse or affliction (e.g. via a bite or scratch from another werewolf). Early sources for belief in lycanthropy are Petronius (c. 27 – 66 BCE) and Gervase of Tilbury (c. 1150 – c. 1228 CE). 
(See Werewolf, Wikipedia.)
[iii] John Stephens, “Myth/Mythology and Fairy Tales,” ed. Jack Zipes, The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales (Oxford University Press, 2000), pp. 330-334.
[iv] Loc. cit.
 
 
César Franck (10 December 1822 – 8 November 1890)
Psyché et Éros
William Revelli (12 February 1902 – 16 July 1994)
 
 
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4 August 2013
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Psyche Revived by Cupid’s Kiss
Antonio Canova (1757 – 1822)
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Beauty and the Beast

11 Friday Nov 2011

Posted by in Fairy Tales, Metamorphosis

≈ 7 Comments

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La Belle et la Bête, by Anne Anderson

La Belle et la Bête by Anne Anderson (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Anne Anderson, illustrator (1874 – 1930)

Many men are more truly beasts than you. A good heart and an ugly face are better than a fair face and a rotten heart.

In 1757, Mme Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont (26 April 1711 – 8 September 1780) translated and published Beauty and the Beast.  She shortened Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve‘s long version of Beauty and the Beast.

Beauty and the Beast is my favourite fairy tale because beast is transformed into a prince by a beautiful woman who sees beauty beneath a beastly form. Being recognized as handsome and being loved by a woman despite his monstrous appearance is the only way Beast can escape the curse that has turned him into a truly ugly animal.

As the story goes, during a snowy night, Beauty’s father, an impoverished trader, gets lost in a forest where, to his astonishment, he finds a castle. It is a beautiful castle. On the table, there is a meal and logs are burning in a fireplace. Moreover, a bed awaits him in a lovely room and, upon waking, Beauty’s father finds clean clothes and a good breakfast. Obviously, the trader’s host is a generous person.

However, after meeting Beast, matters change. The former trader’s horse is saddled and awaits the lost father, but he picks up a rose for his daughter, as she has asked. Beast is furious and tells Beauty’s father to return three months later, when he will kill him. The father is also told that if he does not come back, one of his three daughters will die in his place. Yet, Beast gives him a trunk filled with gold, which is surprising.

This is a fairy tale, so the number three is again used. The trader lives on a little farm and has three daughters and three sons. Beauty is the youngest and the most beautiful of the three daughters. Unlike her jealous sisters, she is also kind and compassionate.

When three months have elapsed, the trader is ready to return to the castle and die, but Beauty manages to convince her father to let her go in his place.

Beast does not kill Beauty upon her arrival at the castle. In fact, she finds that he has given her an apartment: “Beauty’s apartment.” This is also surprising. The apartment contains many books and a grand piano. At night, she and Beast have supper together and, after a while, he start asking her to marry him. But she keeps refusing.

One day, her mirror tells her that her father is ill. She asks Beast to let her visit with her ailing father. She promises to return. Beast, who was supposed to kill her, is devastated, but he lets her go and provides her with a ring that will allow her to find herself in the castle the morning after she puts it on. There is magic in this fairy tale, as is usually the case.

Beauty is away from the castle for more than a week, so when she returns, Beast is dying. She asks him to live and tells him she loves him and will marry him. She unknowingly lifts the curse that has transformed a prince into Beast. Beast is again a beautiful prince.

According to the Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales (pp. 45-49), this tale is related, in plot, to Apuleius’s c. 125 – c. 180) “Cupid and Psyche,” an inner fable within Apuleius Golden Ass, the outer fable. In motif, it is also related to the ancient Pañchatantra tale “The Girl who Married a Snake.” So now you know why I blogged on “Cupid and Psyche.” Versions of this fairy tale were also written by Straparola (c. 1480 – c. 1557) and Basile (c. 1575 – 23 February 1632), whom you know.

In 1946, Jean Cocteau (5 July 1889 – 11 October 1963), a poet, novelist, playwright, etc. made a film based on Beauty and the Beast. Cocteau’s La Belle et la Bête is still considered one of the finest films in its genre, fantasy. Beauty and the Beast is a film produced in 2017.

Resources

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“Every evening he paid her a visit.”
Beauty and the Beast
(Photo credit: Gutenberg, eBook #31431)
William Heath Robinson, illustrator (1872 – 1944)

© Micheline Walker
11 November 2011
23 February 2018
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