Even If It’s a Lie
this is terribly written and I butchered a beautiful myth and I hate myself but fuck it @ima-dead-girl-walking you’re the worst but ily
Based on The Myth of Psyche & Eros (Cupid)
Writing in Italics are directly from the written myth
A long time ago, when gods and humans walked along the same paths, a king and queen had three daughters. The two eldest daughters had charms that were more than common amongst mere mortals, but the beauty of the youngest was so extraordinary that the poverty of language is unable to express its due praise. The fame of the youngest daughter’s beauty was so great that strangers from far and wide visited in crowds to awe, looking at her with admiration, paying her that homage which is due only to Venus herself. However, Venus found her altars deserted, while men turned their devotion to this young virgin. As she passed along, the people sang her praises and strewed her way with chaplets and flowers. The homages to a mortal gave great offense to the real Venus.
"Am I then to be eclipsed in my honors by a mortal girl? In vain then did that royal shepherd, whose judgment was approved by Jove himself, give me the palm of beauty over my illustrious rivals, Pallas and Juno. But she shall not so quietly usurp my honors. I will give her cause to repent of so unlawful a beauty." Venus exclaimed, shaking her ambrosial locks with indignation.
Filled with anger and jealousy, Venus called upon her winged son Cupid. Cupid was mischievous enough in his own nature, and rouses and provokes him yet more by her complaints. She points out Veronica of Psyche to him.
"My dear son, punish that contumacious beauty; give your mother a revenge as sweet as her injuries are great; infuse into the bosom of that haughty girl a passion for some low, mean, unworthy being, so that she may reap a mortification as great as her present exultation and triumph."
In his mother’s garden, there are two fountains, one of sweet waters, the other of bitter. He prepared to obey the commands of his mother, filling two amber vases, one from each fountain, and suspending them from the top of his quiver. He traveled to the chamber of Veronica, who was asleep when he snuck through her window. Shedding a few drops from the bitter fountain, he glossed them over her lips, though the sight of her almost moved him to pity. With the point of his arrow, he poked her side. Veronica awoke at the touch and opened her eyes upon Cupid (himself invisible). She startled the God that in his confusion he had pricked himself with his own arrow. Regardless of his wound, his whole thought now was to repair the damage he had done. Thus he poured drops of the sweet waters over her silken ringlets.
From then on, Veronica of Psyche was frowned upon by Venus who derived no benefit from all her charms. True, all eyes were cast eagerly upon her, and every mouth spoke her praises; but neither king, royal youth, nor peasant presented himself to demand her hand in marriage. Her two elder sisters of moderate charms had long been married to two royal princes; but Veronica, in her lonely chamber, deplored her solitude, sick of that beauty which, while it procured abundance of flattery, had failed to awaken love.
The king and queen, afraid that they had angered the gods, sought for guidance from the Oracle of Apollo, the god of light, reason, and prophecy. Apollo stated that the virgin is destined to be the bride of no mortal lover. That she would marry a cruel and savage, serpent-like winged evil; a monster whom neither gods nor men can resist. The king was told to abandon his daughter on top a rocky crag where her future husband awaited her. The dreadful decree of the oracle filled the people with dismay, and her parents abandoned themselves to grief.
"Why, my dear parents, do you now lament me? You should rather have grieved when the people showered upon me undeserved honors, and with one voice called me a Venus. I now perceive that I am a victim to that name. I submit. Lead me to that rock to which my unhappy fate has destined me." Veronica of Psyche said wistfully.
Accordingly, all things being prepared, the royal maid took her place in the procession, which more resembled a funeral than a nuptial pomp, and with her parents, amid the lamentations of the people, ascended the mountain, on the summit of which they left her alone, and with sorrowful hearts returned home.
While Veronica stood on the ridge of the rocky crag, alone and shivering with fear as her eyes filled with tears, the gentle Zephyr the West Wind lifted her from the earth and carried her to her new home.
When Zephyr set her down, Veronica looked round and came across a pleasant grove of tall and stately trees. Trudging carefully, she entered it. In the midst she discovered a fountain, filtering clear and crystal waters. Behind it was a magnificent palace that was not the work of mortal hands, but the happy retreat of some god. Drawn by admiration and wonder, she approached the building and ventured to enter.
Every object she met filled her with pleasure and amazement. Golden pillars supported the vaulted roof, and the walls were enriched with carvings and paintings representing beasts of the chase and rural scenes, adapted to delight the eye of the beholder. Proceeding onward, she perceived that besides the apartments of state there were others filled with all manner of treasures and beautiful and precious productions of nature and art. While her eyes were thus occupied, a voice addressed her, though she saw no one, uttering these words,
"Sovereign lady, all that you see is yours. We whose voices you hear are your servants and shall obey all your commands with our utmost care and diligence. Retire, therefore, to your chamber and repose on your bed of down, and when you see fit, repair to the bath. Supper awaits you in the adjoining alcove when it pleases you to take your seat there." A voice addressed her while her eyes were occupied.
Though she saw no one, Veronica gave ear to the admonitions of her vocal attendants, and after repose and the refreshment of the bath, seated herself in the alcove, where a table immediately presented itself, without any visible aid from waiters or servants, and covered with the greatest delicacies of food and the most nectarous wines. Her ears too were feasted with music from invisible performers; of whom one sang, another played on the lute, and all closed in the wonderful harmony of a full chorus.
“Your husband awaits you in the bedroom if you dare to meet him.” The voices whispered after her feast.
She was led to the room, twisting the cool feeling doorknob, opening the door. She stepped inside and closed the door behind her, the feeling of fear returning. However, Veronica continued to hold her head up high, telling herself she was brave enough. The bedroom was pitch black, so dark that she couldn’t see her husband. She walked around carefully, coming across a figure. She reached out to touch the figure called her husband, but he didn't feel serpent-like at all. His skin was soft, and his voice and manner were gentle. She asked him who he was, but he told her this was the one question he could never answer.
"Why should you wish to behold me?" he said. "Have you any doubt of my love? Have you any wish ungratified? If you saw me, perhaps you would fear me, perhaps adore me, but all I ask of you is to love me. I would rather you would love me as an equal than adore me as a god."
“But if do not know who my husband is, how will I be able to address my love to the monster I'm supposed to fear? I understand that I mustn’t see your true form in order for us to love each other as equals, all I request is a name that I may associate my husband with.”
The room remained silent for a while, almost as if she was the only one in the room. Veronica could hear herself breathe, but could still feel the presence of the figure in front of her.
“Jason, Jason Dean, JD for short.” The figure spoke.
“Jason Dean, how modern of you.” Veronica couldn’t help but smile, not that it could be seen in the darkness of the room.
This reasoning somewhat quieted Veronica for a time, and while the novelty lasted she felt quite happy. His visits continued night after night as she lived in the palace; but at length the thought of her parents, left in ignorance of her fate, and of her sisters, precluded from sharing with her the delights of her situation, preyed on her mind and made her begin to feel her palace as but a splendid prison. Before long, after many months of night visits and their love being the only light that filled their dark room, Veronica found herself pregnant. She rejoiced but was also conflicted. How could she raise her baby with a man she’d never seen?
Veronica of Psyche resisted as well as she could, but her own curiosity was too strong for her to resist. That night she approached her sleeping husband, prepared her lamp and a sharp knife in case he as cruel a monster as he claimed to be. Hiding them out of sight, when he had fallen into his first sleep, she silently rose. Letting the flame of the oil burn into bright fiery embers, she looked around. Her lamp shined brightly and unveiled her sleeping husband, beheld not a hideous monster, but the most beautiful and charming of the gods. With his golden ringlets wandering over his snowy neck and crimson cheek, with two dewy wings on his shoulders, darker than the night sky, and with shining feathers like the tender blossoms of spring.
As she leaned the lamp over to have a better view of his face, a drop of burning oil fell onto his shoulder. Startled, JD opened his eyes and fixed them upon her. Without saying a word, he spread his black wings and flew out of the window. Veronica, in vain endeavoring to follow him, fell from the window to the ground. With the twinkle of the stars and the moon, she caught a glimpse of his face, seeing that her husband was not only the name ‘Jason Dean’ but Cupid, Eros, the god of sexual attraction. He who sent gods and humans lusting after each other with the pinpricks of his arrows. JD, beholding her as she lay in the dust, stopped mid-flight for an instant, turning to look at his bride.
"Oh foolish Psyche, is it thus you repay my love? After I disobeyed my mother's commands and made you my wife, will you think me a monster and cut off my head? But go; return to your family. I inflict no other punishment on you than to leave you forever. Love cannot dwell with suspicion."
He didn't believe that gods and humans could love as equals. Now that she knew his true form, their hopes for happiness were dashed. So saying, he fled away, leaving Veronica prostrate on the ground, filling the place with mournful lamentations. When she had recovered some degree of composure, she looked around her, but the palace and gardens had seemed to vanish, their beauty no longer visible to her. Left in her despair, once again upset and alone, the unseen voice returned and told her that it was indeed possible for her and JD to love each other as equals. Encouraged, she set out to find him.
Veronica wandered day and night, without food or repose, in search of her husband. She was brought upon a lofty mountain, having its brow a magnificent temple. Sighing, hoping that her husband was inside, she strode in. However, Veronica was met with an angered Venus instead.
"Most undutiful and faithless of servants," said she, "do you, at last, remember that you really have a mistress? Or have you rather come to see your sick husband, yet laid up of the wound given him by his loving wife? You are so ill favored and disagreeable that the only way you can merit your lover must be by dint of industry and diligence. I will make trial of your housewifery." Venus spat with an angry countenance.
Veronica was faced with impossible tasks given by Venus. The first when the goddess ordered Veronica to be led to the storehouse of her temple, where was laid up a great quantity of wheat, barley, millet, vetches, beans, and lentils prepared for food for her pigeons.
"Take and separate all these grains, putting all of the same kind in a parcel by themselves, and see that you get it done before evening."
Then Venus departed and left her to her task; but Veronica, in a perfect consternation at the enormous work, sat stupid and silent, without moving a finger to the inextricable heap. While she sat despairing, watching from afar, Cupid stirred up the little ant, a native of the fields, to take compassion on her. The leader of the anthill, followed by whole hosts of his six-legged subjects, approached the heap, and with the utmost diligence taking grain by grain, they separated the pile, sorting each kind to its parcel; and when it was all done, they vanished out of sight in a moment.
As twilight approached, Venus returned breathing odors and crowned with roses. Seeing the task done, she exclaimed, "This is no work of yours, wicked one, but his, whom to your own and his misfortune you have enticed." So saying, she threw her a piece of black bread for her supper and went away.
Next morning Venus ordered Veronica, demanding that she bring Venus the fleece of the golden sheep, who had a reputation for disemboweling stray adventurers.
"Behold yonder grove which stretches along the margin of the water. There you will find sheep feeding without a shepherd, with golden-shining fleeces on their backs. Go, fetch me a sample of that precious wool gathered from every one of their fleeces."
She obediently went to the riverside, prepared to do her best to execute the command.
"Oh maiden, severely tried, tempt not the dangerous flood, nor venture among the formidable rams on the other side, for as long as they are under the influence of the rising sun, they burn with a cruel rage to destroy mortals with their sharp horns or rude teeth. But when the noontide sun has driven the cattle to the shade, and the serene spirit of the flood has lulled them to rest, you may then cross in safety, and you will find the woolly gold sticking to the bushes and the trunks of the trees." Said a compassionate river god, teaching her how to collect the sheep’s wool that had snagged on briars.
Veronica soon returned to Venus with her arms full of the golden fleece, but she received not the approbation of her implacable mistress.
"I know very well it is by none of your own doings that you have succeeded in this task, and I am not satisfied yet that you have any capacity to make yourself useful. But I have another task for you. Here, take this box and go your way to the infernal shades, and give this box to Proserpine and say, 'My mistress Venus desires you to send her a little of your beauty, for in tending her sick son she has lost some of her own.' Be not too long on your errand, for I must paint myself with it to appear at the circle of the gods and goddesses this evening."
Veronica traveled down to Erebus by foot, determined to convince Proserpina, queen of the dead, to put a drop of her beauty in a box for Venus. Once again, the unseen voice came to Veronica’s aide. Then the voice told her how by a certain cave she might reach the realms of Pluto, and how to avoid all the dangers of the road, to pass by Cerberus, the three-headed dog, and prevail on Charon, the ferryman, to take her across the black river and bring her back again.
But the voice added, "When Proserpine has given you the box filled with her beauty, of all things this is chiefly to be observed by you, that you never once open or look into the box nor allow your curiosity to pry into the treasure of the beauty of the goddesses."
Encouraged by this advice, obeyed it in all things, and taking heed to her ways traveled safely to the kingdom of Pluto. She was admitted to the palace of Proserpine, and without accepting the delicate seat or delicious banquet that was offered her, but contented with coarse bread for her food, she delivered her message from Venus. Presently the box was returned to her, shut and filled with the precious commodity. Then she returned the way she came, and glad was she to come out once more into the light of day, but having got so far successfully through her dangerous task a longing desire seized her to examine the contents of the box.
"What, shall I, the carrier of this divine beauty, not take the least bit to put on my cheeks to appear to more advantage in the eyes of my beloved husband!"
Thus Veronica carefully opened the box but found nothing thereof any beauty at all, but an infernal and truly Stygian sleep, which being thus set free from its prison, took possession of her body. She fell down in the midst of the road, a sleepy corpse without sense or motion.
However, JD, now recovered from his wound, was no longer able to bear the absence of his beloved Veronica. He slipped through the smallest crack of the window of his chamber, flying to the spot where his bride lay. He gathered up the sleep from her body, closing it again in the box, and waked Veronica with a light touch of one of his arrows. He told her he’d been wrong and foolish, that her fearlessness in the face of the unknown proved that she was more than his equal. He brought his bride up to the heavenly assembly, he handed her a cup ambrosia, the nectar of the gods.
"Drink this, Psyche, and be immortal; nor shall I ever break away from the knot in which we are tied, but these nuptials shall be perpetual." JD smiled at her.
Thus Veronica of Psyche became at last united to Eros, her Jason Dean. And in due time they had a daughter born to them whose name was Hedone.
this was terrible and I murdered a myth