Apuleius: Psyche and cupido
No writer has ever inspired and intrigued me as much as our beloved Lucius Apuleius of Madaura. His masterpiece ‘The Metamorphoses’ has survived the test of time, becoming the bedside book of both the young Russian genius Pushkin and the young French genius Jean de Lafontaine, influencing Voltaire in the composition of his anticlerical pamphlets (‘The Virgin of Orleans’) and of course Boccaccio, author of the Decameron. I bet that in a few years‘ time, once his major work (’The Metamorphoses or The Golden Ass”) has been adapted and translated into the Mazigh language (Kabyle, Shawi, etc.), Apulée will rise from the ashes like a phoenix. The rebirth of the Numidian author of the world-famous ‘Greek myth’ of Love and Psyche, who has become ‘Latin’, will be an essential element in the rebirth of our people and its heritage. It is almost certain that Apuleius, who wrote in both Greek and Latin, had an excellent command of his native Numidian language (Kabyle and Chawi unified) and of the mythology of the people to whom he belonged. He was known as ‘the Magus of Madaure’ and in my opinion this is simply the Latin term for a true Numidian priest, a ‘druid’ if I dare say so. His reference to Osiris and Isis is undoubtedly the most difficult message to decipher. As for the myth of Love and Psyche, I can already tell you that it’s a parable with a very rational meaning in relation to systems of measurement, with an established link to the Egyptian deity Ptah, god of architects and craftsmen. The Palace of Love is the cornerstone of this tale, technically speaking of course. I’ve already explained the etymology of Psyche (‘fainting’ in Kabyle) and Amor, which became Eros in Greek and Cupid in Latin, on my blog and in the columns of the ADN website. Today, we’re beginning to understand the exact, rational meaning of the Mazigh myths, which, like the Greek myths, are nothing more than parables that we’ll gradually come to decipher. Read and reread this lovely myth of Love and Psyche, it will give you a glimpse into the Mediterranean Numidian tradition of Antiquity.
Psyche and Cupido
A king and queen have three very beautiful daughters, but the youngest is so beautiful that she outshines Venus, much to her chagrin.
Venus calls her son Amour. “Avenge your mother. Make Psyche fall in love with the vilest man’. Psyche is admired like a beautiful statue, no one asks for her hand in marriage, she mourns her loneliness. Her two sisters have married great kings. The father consults the oracles: ‘Expose your daughter for a funeral hymen, a monster will take her away’. Desolation. Psyche is abandoned on a rock. Zephyr takes her to a paradisiacal place, near a marvellous palace. Psyche enters. She hears voices but sees no one. Bath, meal, concert, she is sumptuously served. She goes to bed. In the darkness, an unknown husband makes her his wife and leaves before daybreak. And so it goes on, day after day. One night, he warned Psyche: ‘Your sisters will go to the rock to mourn your death. Don’t answer them or you’ll be the cause of misfortune for me and disaster for yourself. Psyche laments being deprived of human contact, but her husband agrees to let her see her sisters and give them gifts. What’s more, if she tries to see her husband’s face, it will be her undoing. Psyche wants to keep her happiness more than anything else in the world.
Zephyr takes the sisters to Psyche’s palace. During several visits, they insist on knowing what her husband is like. Psyche makes things up and gets tangled up in her lies. The sisters leave laden with gifts. They are consumed with jealousy. Their husbands are old and stingy. The sisters misinterpret everything Psyche says and decide to punish her.
The husband warns Psyche of her sisters’ evil plans. Psyche is pregnant. If she keeps the secret, her child will be a god; if she reveals it, it will be mortal. The sisters ‘reveal’ to Psyche that her husband is a monstrous serpent who will devour her and her child. They urge her to take a lamp and a razor to kill him. That night, when the husband is asleep, Psyche takes out a lamp and sees the most delicious god, Love (long poetic description). At the foot of the bed, quiver, bow and arrows. Psyche takes an arrow and wounds her finger. She is now in love with Love. A drop of hot oil falls from the lamp onto Amour’s shoulder. He wakes up and flies away. Psyche clings to his legs, reaches into the clouds and falls back to earth. From a cypress tree, the god speaks to her: ‘I failed my mother’s orders, I preferred to make love with you. But you believed your sisters and regarded me as an evil beast. I will take revenge on your sisters and you, I leave you.”
Psyche sets off in search of Love. She arrives in a country where one of her sisters is queen. She tells him that her husband is wonderfully handsome, that he rejects her and wants to marry her sister. The sister goes straight to the rock, calls Zephyr, leaps into the void … and crashes into the stones. The same game is played with the second sister. Amour is hurt. On earth, there is no more beauty, no more unions, no more friendship, no more filial piety. Psyche wanders the earth. She meets Venus. Venus orders her to pass a series of tests. Psyche passed all the tests thanks to ants, a reed, and Jupiter’s eagle. Venus then ordered her to go and ask Proserpine to put some of her beauty in a box. Psyche opened the box and fell into a deep sleep.
Amour, having recovered, comes to Psyche’s aid and asks Jupiter to intervene. The god’s verdict: let Amour enjoy happiness in the arms of Psyché, who drinks a cup of ambrosia and becomes immortal. Psyche and Amour have a daughter named Volupté.