#psyche goddess

[faer1etale]

I think more Psyche designs should include camels as one of her sacred animals, yeah butterflies are pretty and make sense symbolically but like, the camel. The camel is underrated. Give Psyche her camel

[cikorui]

My lovely parents

[the-little-robyn]

The union between love and soul gave birth to joy 💘🦋

Baby Hedone is here and I change Psyche's wings design. My version of Hedone takes a lot from her dad lmao though her curls and freckles haven't set in yet. I would really like share their full design in the future.

[rinasunny]

Eros and Psyche family life headcannons

Knowing what Eros has been responsible for, Psyche tries to convince him to be less of a jerk when it comes to matchmaking. But Eros responces that he might be the one who inflicts desire but mortals (and gods) are still the ones who are responsible for their actions.

To prove his point he sometimes lets Psyche to decide/shoot who's going to fall in love with whom. And adds that he himself can't be 100% sure himself whether the lovers will stay faithful to each other or not. Still with her he tries to be more wise with decisions. But when he's on the "hunt" with Hedone he goes for pure childish chaos.

Speaking of Hedone, Eros is a total girl dad.

Also Hedone has her mom's curiosity, her dad's mischeviousness and devilishly adorable looks from both.

Even though Aphrodite is still a bit salty about Psyche, she absolutely adores Hedone to the point she presents her as her own daughter. Eros ahems on the background while Psyche is just happy that her mother-in-law doesn't try to kill her daughter.

Upon gaining godhood Psyche received power to affect people's mental state. She can ease someone's grief but also send depression if someone talks shit about her husband.

Similarly Eros won't tolerate disrespect towards his girls and will make the one's lovelife a total mess.

[highestelf420]

Psyche’s biggest strength is her curiosity.

This curiosity leads her to uncover Truth, and it helps her survive the trials she went through and pull through every obstacle she faces all the way to completion.

Psyche cries and feels suicidal through every impossible task she is assigned, but she never gives up. She could have enjoyed godly levels of wealth and material comforts for the rest of her mortal days, not fully knowing Love (like you see some women choose under patriarchy). At any point in her journey she could have turned around, went home, and lived a normal life disillusioned with and untouched further by the Divine; but she doesn’t do this. She would rather risk death than suffer that fate.

Psyche is not just a sweet princess, she is a lot more brave, clever and strong than most give her credit for and I love that she has this unmovable stubbornness about her to not accept bullshit and half-truths, and to also not accept what mortals deem “impossible.” Psyche is a goddess who sees things through by any means necessary, and can’t help but to do this because it’s just her nature.

[all--hail--venus]

" The princess's fame was carried farther and farther to distant provinces and still more distant ones and people made long pilgrimages over land and sea to witness the greatest wonder of their age. As a result, nobody took the trouble to visit Venus’ shrines at Cyprian Paphos or Carian Cnidos or even in the isle of Cythera where her lovely foot first touched dry land; her festivals were neglected, her rites discontinued, the cushions on which her statues had been propped at her sacred temple feasts were kicked about the floor, the statues themselves were left without their usual garlands, her altars were unswept and cluttered with the foul remains of months-old burned sacrifices, her temples were allowed to fall into ruins.

When the young princess went out on her morning walks through the streets, victims were offered in her honour, sacred feasts spread for her, flowers scattered in her path, and rose garlands presented to her by an adoring crowd of suppliants who addressed her by all the titles that really belonged to the great Goddess of Love herself. This extraordinary transfer of divine honours to a mortal naturally angered the true Venus. Unable to suppress her feelings, she shook her head menacingly and said to herself:

“Really now, whoever would have thought that I’d be treated like this? I, all the world’s lovely Venus whom the philosophers call ‘the Universal Mother’ and the original source of all five elements! So I’m expected to share my sovereignty, am I, with a mortal who goes about pretending to be myself? And to watch my bright name, which is registered in Heaven, being dragged through the dirty mud of Earth! Oh, yes, and I must be content, of course, with the reflected glory of worship paid to this girl, grateful for a share in the expiatory sacrifices offered to her instead of me? It meant nothing, I suppose, when the shepherd Paris, whose just and honest verdict Jupiter himself confirmed, awarded me the apple of beauty over the heads of my two goddess rivals? No, it’s quite absurd. I can’t let this silly creature, whoever she may be, usurp my glory any longer. I’ll very soon make her sick and sorry about her good looks: they are dead against the rules.”

She at once called her winged son Eros, alias Cupid, that very wicked boy, with neither manners nor respect for the decencies, who spends his time running from building to building all night long with his torch and his arrows, breaking up respectable homes. Somehow he never gets punished for all the harm he does, though he never seems to do anything good in compensation. Venus knew that he was naturally bent on mischief, but she tempted him to still worse behaviour by bringing him to the city where the princess lived — her name, by the way, was Psyche — and telling him the whole story of the new cult that had grown up around her. Groaning with indignation she said:

“I implore you, darling, as you love your mother, to use your dear little arrows and that sweet torch of yours against this impudent girl. If you have any respect for me, you’ll give me my revenge, revenge in full. You’ll see that the princess falls desperately in love with some perfect outcast of a man — someone who has lost rank, fortune, everything, someone who goes about in terror of his life and in such complete degradation that nobody viler can be found in the whole world.”

She kissed him long and tenderly and then went to the nearby seashore, where she ran along the tops of the waves as they danced foaming towards her. At the touch of her rosy feet the whole sea suddenly calmed, and she had no sooner willed the powers of the deep to appear, than up they bobbed as though she had shouted their names. The Nereids were there, singing a part song; and Neptune, sometimes called Portunus, with his bluish beard; his wife Salacia, the naughty goddess of the deep sea, with a lapful of aphrodisiac fish; and little Palaemon, their charioteer, riding on a dolphin. After these came troops of Tritons swimming about in all directions, one blowing softly on his conch-shell, another protecting Venus from sunburn with a silk parasol, a third holding a mirror for her to admire herself in, and a whole team of them, yoked two and two, harnessed to her car. When Venus goes for an ocean cruise she's attended by quite an army of retainers.

Meanwhile Psyche got no satisfaction at all from the honours paid her. Everyone stared at her, everyone praised her, but no commoner, no prince, no king even, dared to make love to her. All wondered at her beauty, but only as they might have wondered at an exquisite statue. Both her less beautiful elder sisters, whose reputation was not so great, had been courted by kings and successfully married to them, but Psyche remained single. She stayed at home feeling very miserable and rather ill, and began to hate the beauty which everyone else adored. "

— The Myth of Cupid and Psyche, The Golden Ass / Metamorphoses of Apuleius (trans. Robert Graves)

[diana-thyme]

Greek Gods 101: Psyche

Psyche is a goddess of the soul. Excluding the universal offerings, some common offerings include:

Butterfly Figurines or Statues

Anything with Butterflies on It

Depictions of Wings

Pendants

Planting Wildflowers & Other Pollinator-Attracting Plants

Arrows

Lily of the Valleys

Flowers

Anything Relating to Hearts

For devotional acts, some activities that can be done for her include:

Taking Care of your Mental Health

Gifting Things to Close Friends and Significant Others

Visiting a Butterfly Sanctuary

Visiting a Waterfall

Going on Dates

Meditating

Going to Therapy

She is not celebrated in any Athenian holidays.

[eltairnate13]

(Disclaimer, I don't study classics, nor have I read NEAR ENOUGH translations of Eros and Psyche's story. This is just my opinion. And it's gonna be long as hell, I apologize in advance.)

For some reason, when talking about "The greatest love stories of all time" people normally go to Romeo and Juliet, and I can understand why. They're one of the more known couples and we even have to read their story for school.

But sometimes there's variation if you've read some Greek stories, and then majority of the time people say Hades and Persephone, and yes, they are very devoted to each other and love each other deeply. But depending on what version you read, Hades cheats on Persephone with Minthe. (I say depending on which version because some place Minthe before Persephone.) And Persephone sometimes even has a thing going on with Adonis.

And yes of course there's Achilles and Patroclus, Apollo and Hyacinthis, Penelope and Odysseus, Dionysus and Ariadne, and a number of others.

But it's rare for people to ever mention Eros and Psyche. And I personally don't understand why?

I have yet to find ANY translation or story that suggests or mentions Eros ever being unfaithful once he's with Psyche, and their story in my opinion, is very sweet and ACTUALLY HAS A HAPPY ENDING.

(This is just going off translations I'VE READ.)

Aphrodite gets jealous about people starting to, basically worship this mortal girl for being, "Beautiful enough to rival Aphrodite." So she sends Eros, her son, to make Psyche fall in love with a disgusting pig, (a literal pig, in this version) and Eros listens. He goes out, grabs a pig from a farm near Psyche's family palace and takes it to her chambers under the cover of night.

He gets the pig into her room and just when he's about to shoot her with his golden arrow, he either trips, or the pig knocks him over and he stabs himself with his own arrow. Therefore falling for Psyche in that very second. So Eros has to do something, because he can't make her fall in love with a pig, no! He loves her now and he wants her to love him, so he comes up with a plan.

Meanwhile, Psyche's parents are freaked because they want to marry Psyche off but they don't know how to do it? Or Aphrodite got angry and wanted them to get rid of Psyche? I'm a little fuzzy about this part, feel free to correct me. But they go to see the Oracle in Delphe and ask for guidance, because that always goes so well for these people.

Anyway, the Oracle says something along the lines of, "You're going to have to tie Psyche to a rock over on this hill, and basically marry her off to this horrible beast." And her parents go, "Well shit, can't really argue with Apollo now can we?" And head back to do just that.

So her parents dress her up in a wedding gown, get the whole town together, and take her up to the top of the hill to the rock. She says goodbye to her parents and her sister's (they're important), and gets tied to the rock to be taken away, and then everybody leaves.

After a while she feels this wind loosen her bindings and start to slowly lift her up, (if I remember correctly this is Zephyr) and it takes her away to a palace that from the appearance, clearly belongs to a God.

She hears these voices and music coming from inside and enters the palace and there's no one to be seen, and yet she still hears voices. So she's just walking around trying to find them and she's going in all the rooms like, "This place is beautiful, I'm actually going to live here now??"

Eventually she comes across this bedroom with a dress laid out on the bed and she hears something say, "Don't be afraid, we are your handmaidens, were here to take care of you. There's a warm bath waiting for you in the next room, we'll prepare dinner while you clean up."

This isn't odd at all.

Anyway she cleans up, puts on the dress, and navigates her way to the dining room where she finds food and cutlery being moved around by invisible servers. She eats, goes back to her room, and settles down to the best of her ability.

And then she feels someone climb into bed with her.

"Don't be frightened," he says like it's no big deal, "I am your new husband."

I don't think he even gave her a name to call him. But he did something right because they did it not to long after.

But this routine goes on for awhile, she's free to do whatever she pleases, all he asks is that she NEVER looks upon his face.

Simple request right?

Anyway after a while she starts missing her family and wants to go visit them. Husband warns her that this probably isn't a good idea, but lets her go anyway because he doesn't want her to be sad.

Zephyr picks her up and takes her to the rock they left from, and leaves her to walk to her old home.

She arrives, there are happy tears, and they start talking. Psyche tells her sisters about her new husband, his gorgeous palace, and how she's never seen his face but knows he must be handsome sense his body and voice are.

Her sisters laugh.

"Psyche you ignorant girl! The Oracle said you where to marry a horrible beast! You probably haven't seen his face because he doesn't want you to die of disgust!" They continue to taunt and tempt her to look at his face, and out of rage she says she will.

So she returns to the palace and acts as normal as she can. The routine goes smoothly and after they've made love (they screw almost NIGHTLY btw, he's good at something-) and her husband is asleep, she gets up, grabs a candle, lights it, and-

Holy fuck he's beautiful.

She realizes that her husband is the God Eros, and out of pure wonder and entrancement, leans down towards his face... making wax spill onto his chest, waking him up.

He startles, realizes what Psyche has done, and disappears. Along with all the invisible handmaidens, leaving Psyche completely alone.

Somehow Aphrodite found out about Eros' love for Psyche, and again, feel free to correct me, either finds Psyche and holds her prisoner, or Psyche goes to Aphrodite to hopefully find her husband and apologize.

Either way, Aphrodite puts Psyche through these trails that were designed to kill her/be impossible, but Psyche gets help throughout the trails from Gods and Nature alike, making her succeed.

And then the way they reunite changes, but in the end they get married correctly, this time, Psyche becomes the Goddess of the Soul, and they actually live happy lives together and have a child.

My point is, they are an EXTREMELY underrated couple and deserve a lot more attention than they currently have.