The Tale of Eros and Psyche - (2)
The goddess of beauty and love, Aphrodite, had ordered him to descend to the mortal realm. Grumbling the entire way, Eros flew down with his small white wings flapping busily. He headed straight for the royal palace where Psyche was said to reside.
A high window opened of its own accord, creating a path for the god of love. The invisible intruder slipped quietly into Psyche's chamber.
“Whoa…”
Even Eros, who saw the goddess of beauty and love every single day, couldn’t help but gasp. What were other goddesses compared to this? The woman sleeping peacefully before him truly seemed like a goddess herself.
The moment he laid eyes on Psyche lying in her bed, Eros fell in love at first sight. His body, that of a young boy, rapidly matured and transformed into a handsome young man.
Gods are immortal and usually maintain the personality and physique they were born with. Yet sometimes their divine nature shifts, or certain triggers cause them to change. A young god who had only now come to understand love growing into a man was exactly that kind of transformation.
‘Mother told me to punish her, but… she’s too beautiful. Do I really have to?’
Eros agonized over it. How could he abandon this mortal woman he had fallen for in a single glance? Even if it was his mother’s command, did he truly have to obey? Unlike the other gods, he hadn’t even married yet…
His hesitation didn’t last long. The god of love, experiencing the power of love for the very first time, reached into his robes and pulled out a small bottle. It contained two liquids: bitter water that could steal away the power of love, and sweet water that would make beauty shine even brighter.
‘My future wife can’t marry anyone else.’
Eros sprinkled the bitter water that sprang from the courtyard fountain of Aphrodite’s palace onto Psyche’s lips. With this magical bitter water upon her, no one would ever propose to her.
‘Maybe the bitter water was a bit much. Still, I feel bad…’
He reached into his robes again and took out the bottle of sweet water. This one would enhance the beauty of whoever it touched, ensuring Psyche would receive even greater praise from mortals.
‘What am I going to tell Mother?’
The god of love gently kissed the sleeping Psyche on the forehead, then turned and left.
When Eros returned to Aphrodite’s palace, he avoided his mother’s piercing glare. Of course she was furious. She had ordered him to deliver divine punishment, yet he had returned having grown into a man.
“Eros…?! I believe you have quite a lot of explaining to do…!”
“Well… I was going to shoot Psyche with a lead arrow, but…”
“But?”
“I accidentally pricked myself with the golden arrow. That’s why I ended up like this.”
It was nonsense. Aphrodite was stunned. An accident? A god who could perfectly control his own divine body had an accident? Moreover, even if it were a mistake, the golden and lead arrows were powers only Eros could wield—powers even she could not touch. Was there any god who could actually be harmed by his own authority? And even if harmed, couldn’t he simply shake it off?
Of course, Eros’s arrows possessed a power that not even he could escape, but the enraged Aphrodite couldn’t think that far. She was certain her son had simply lost his mind over a human woman. The very fact that he had grown from a child who knew nothing of love into a young man proved his heart had changed.
“I would sooner believe the nonsense that Thanatos was overpowered by a mere mortal!”
“…It’s true.”
“Haa… Adonis! Are you there?”
“Yes! Lady Aphrodite. What do you need?!”
As Aphrodite clutched her head and sighed, she called for a servant. A young man’s voice answered. He was an impossibly handsome man in his twenties. The moment Eros saw him, he grumbled.
“…Mother, you can’t resist handsome mortals either. He’s about the same as…”
“That and this are completely different! He’s merely a servant, whereas you’ve clearly fallen for a human! Adonis, bring me a cup of nectar from outside.”
“Understood, Lady Aphrodite.”
Adonis obediently stepped outside. Surprisingly, Aphrodite’s words were true. She had simply taken a liking to the beautiful Adonis and kept him around. She held no other feelings toward humans. Though Adonis was more handsome than any mortal she had ever seen…
“He possesses quite remarkable beauty for a human, but the man I would want for even one night is not someone like him.”
“Then is it Lord Ares?”
“…Ares is close, but his status… I would prefer a male god with proper position, decent character, trusted by all, and possessing charisma…”
Weren’t there almost no male gods who perfectly matched his mother’s tastes? No, wait…
A single male god who met every condition suddenly came to Eros’s mind. One of the three chief gods, so his status was high. The god of mercy acknowledged by both humans and gods alike. Even Zeus, the king of the gods, trusted him. As the chief god who ruled the Underworld, he also possessed great dignity…
“You mean someone like Lord Hades?”
“Yes, exactly like… Tch! That’s not what we were talking about! We were discussing that wench Psyche and you!”
Eros’s attempt to change the subject made his expression turn awkward as he watched his mother’s reaction. Aphrodite’s face hardened once more as she delivered her stern decree.
“I can understand falling for the girl who damaged my honor… but I will never allow it!”
“But… please just watch a little longer. I’m sure Psyche will win Mother’s heart too.”
“Hmph. Who’s winning whose heart? Fine. You test her yourself. I will decide after seeing how she behaves.”
In the past she would have immediately delivered divine punishment, but perhaps because of her recent divorce from Hephaestus, Aphrodite had softened considerably. She crossed her arms as she spoke. Maybe she was overlapping her own past—when she had been forced into marriage and gone looking for Ares—with her son who had fallen in love with a human.
And so, without knowing it, Psyche received a divine trial from the gods.
The praise for Psyche, the third princess of the kingdom, grew with each passing day. This was, of course, thanks to the sweet water Eros had sprinkled on her.
“Princess Psyche is undoubtedly the most beautiful woman on earth.”
“Obviously. That beauty surpasses even the goddess Persephone whom Pluto took away, or the goddess of beauty, Lady Aphrodite…”
“You said it! Though strangely, I don’t feel any desire to propose to her.”
“You feel the same? Her beauty is breathtaking, but…”
Yet because of the bitter water’s power, no one came forward to propose to her. While rumors praising the princess grew larger by the day, the king and queen found it strange that no suitors appeared. In the end, they visited the temple at Delphi.
The oracle given by Apollo of Delphi was this:
This child is fated never to marry a human. Abandon her upon the mountain.
“T-then what does that mean? Who is she supposed to marry?”
“My daughter Psyche… this cannot be…”
A wicked monster more terrible than any venomous serpent or wild beast would take Psyche away. Psyche’s parents wept. Their daughter was fated to marry a horrifying monster—and it had been foretold by the gods. Yet they could not defy a prophecy. They knew the stories of King Oedipus and Perseus.
Wait… but hadn’t the great hero King Perseus managed to avoid his oracle?
“Dear… do you remember the tale of King Perseus?”
“You mean the hero who received an oracle that he would kill his own grandfather? Ah… surely not!”
King Perseus had received an oracle from Pluto, the god of the Underworld and mercy, and was able to send his grandfather to the afterlife peacefully. The story of the great hero who escaped the terrible fate of killing his own kin was well known even here.
“Exactly. The god Pluto, who pitied mortals trapped in unfortunate fates, showed him a way to twist the prophecy, didn’t he?”
“Then perhaps our Psyche as well…”
To be precise, he had circumvented the prophecy, but seeing even the slightest hope of saving their child from a monster, they headed for the temple of Pluto.
And that was exactly why people had been making such a racket at my temple in Thebes for the past week. They had been prostrating themselves and begging so loudly that I couldn’t help but hear them.
A week ago, the king and queen of a certain nation began wailing and begging at the temple of Pluto.
“O great Pluto! Please show mercy to our daughter!”
“Our youngest daughter, the apple of our eye, is to be married off to a monster… Please take pity on us…”
The news that a king and queen had come to the temple in person and were sobbing loudly spread in an instant. Yesterday, the gods under my command had come to me asking if we should help those humans.
“Hades… what do you think about helping those humans who have been prostrating themselves at the temple every day lately?”
“Lethe?”
“Yesterday they even prayed in front of my statue… I heard they have an incredibly beautiful daughter…”
“They must truly cherish their daughter.”
“Hypnos. Why do you ask?”
“Morpheus visited their dreams last night and said their minds are filled with nothing but worry for their daughter…”
Many humans believed oracles were absolute fates that could never be defied. In reality, it was a little different. In the cases of Oedipus and Perseus, they truly had been fixed fates. Even Zeus, the king of the gods, could not change them. The only thing permitted was to slightly twist them—an absolute nature.
But this oracle… what? A woman fated to marry a monster?
As far as I, the chief god of the Underworld, knew, there was no woman in this era fated to marry a monster. Therefore the conclusion was obvious. The oracle given to Psyche was not a fixed fate, but the will of Apollo, master of Delphi.
“Morpheus, go to Olympus and tell Apollo that I am looking for him. I need to ask him directly what this is about.”
“Have you finally decided to help them? Those humans really were quite pitiful.”
Who was playing strange pranks on the surface world again?