Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Prelude
- PART I THE MIND DIVIDED
- 2 The rage of Aphrodite: The vertical mind
- 3 The marriage of death: Ascent and loss in development
- 4 Night and day: Reason and gender
- PART II THE MIND RESTORED
- Appendix: List of goddesses, gods, other mythological figures, and sacred sites
- Notes
- References
- Author index
- Subject index
3 - The marriage of death: Ascent and loss in development
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 July 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Prelude
- PART I THE MIND DIVIDED
- 2 The rage of Aphrodite: The vertical mind
- 3 The marriage of death: Ascent and loss in development
- 4 Night and day: Reason and gender
- PART II THE MIND RESTORED
- Appendix: List of goddesses, gods, other mythological figures, and sacred sites
- Notes
- References
- Author index
- Subject index
Summary
Psyche, meanwhile, felt no joy in her beauty. Men marveled at her as at a lovely statue finely wrought, but none came to ask for her hand. Her sisters had long been married happily to kings who came to claim them, but Psyche grew increasingly broken in spirit. And so it came that her father the king, suspecting that something divine had gone awry, consulted the oracle of Apollo. To his horror, he was given this advice:
on some high crag, o king, set forth the maid,
in all the pomp of funeral robes arrayed.
Hope for no bridegroom born of mortal seed,
But fierce and wild and of the dragon breed.
But though they mourned and wept, the oracle must be followed. In her ghastly bridal dress of funeral robes, and with the mournful wailing of the procession that led her, Psyche walked to her doom.
THE SURRENDER OF THE FEMININE
Here, the story takes a precipitous turn. Aphrodite's warning that Psyche is to be united with a vile and monstrous being turns into reality as Apollo's oracle ordains that she is to be married in a funeral ceremony to a terrible dragon. But even before this terrifying oracle, we learn that Psyche's extraordinary fame and beauty are not entirely positive gifts. Not only have they enraged Aphrodite, they also have alienated her from other humans. So beyond the reach of mortals is her loveliness that she cannot find the ordinary creature comforts of life – home, husband, and family – that come naturally to her less beautiful sisters.
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- Information
- Psyche and ErosMind and Gender in the Life Course, pp. 64 - 114Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1994