Eros & Psyche

A Modern Retelling

Number One in a Series of Six

By Seamistress

Spring 2000


A tale of an ancient day love that no mortal nor god could break. This is the story of Eros, the god of Love, and Psyche, his very own Twin S-elf. Love * defy * live. . . and be free!




Eros was not only the god of love but also Aphrodite’s son, the goddess of love. He was her charming and willing boy who would do anything for her. The golden boy (so named because of his beautiful blonde hair) was a master archer and made people fall in love by shooting at them arrows of love.

Psyche was daughter to a king, the youngest of three. She was very beautiful and could and would charm any man that lay his eyes on her. She was even said to be as beautiful if not more so than Aphrodite. Before long every man was courting her and asking for her hand in marriage. This meant that less and less attention was being paid to the goddess of love, her temples were not being visited anymore and she received not even a glance from other men.

And can you just imagine what Aphrodite did when she found out that men from all over the land were going to a mere mortal who was thought to be more beautiful than she? Well after throwing a hissy fit (which with goddess power ended up being enormous!) she called forth her son and told him of what had happened.

“Can you believe? A MERE mortal thinking she is more beautiful than me! I’ll show her. Eros! Go to this “beauty” and shoot her with your arrow, make her fall in love with the most despicable man there is in all the land. The most disgusting, the most horrible, the most unattractive male you can find. And hurry! My temples need attending!”


And so off went Eros to find Psyche and do as his mother bid him. That night Eros watched the young Psyche walking home with men from around the world courting her, as soon as the men left her side he prepared his arrow and was about to shoot her when he caught a glimpse of her. She stood there in the dark with moonlight shining off her face. Her gentle brown hair glistened and her pale face only accentuated her ruby-red lips and almond shaped eyes that looked like the ocean. He immediately fell in love with this woman and decided that she was the girl for him.




He went back to his mother and told her of his love for Psyche. This only drove Aphrodite more mad with jealousy and everyday she plagued the innocent Psyche with little things that finally drove her mad. Everyday Eros would watch her suffer, he felt so helpless not being able to save her from his mother’s wicked intents.

Finally, having enough of this torture, Psyche threw herself off a cliff and into the ocean below. But as always, Eros was watching her and just as she was falling into the awaiting waves he flew down and caught her in his loving arms, taking her off to an island nearby.

Psyche was unaware of all this because she had fainted on the way down but she awoke on the island and couldn’t work out what had happened. Suddenly she was on a beautiful island with birds chirping and a large castle with music playing in the distance. Wandering around the grounds, Psyche couldn’t work out where she was.

“Am I in the Elysian Fields?” she pondered, yet she knew that she was alive. Psyche was a Water sign also, so her intuition was well defined.

She walked into the castle and found everything she could possibly want. There was a master bedroom with a beautiful and inviting bed that Psyche immediately jumped onto it and fell asleep.

That night Eros came to her, the darkness cloaked his identity as he talked to Psyche reassuring her that all was well. It was love at first sight for Psyche as well, they both loved each other dearly and she was happy to live on the island with him. Yet she did not know who he was, nor was she ever to find out. All she could do was trust him.

And so everyday Psyche would spend her time on the island alone, waiting for the Moon to come and deliver her love. Each night they spent nestled in each other’s arms and when Apollo brought out his Sun chariot, Eros would quickly leave and do his work on Earth, making people fall in love.





One night while Eros and Psyche were talking to each other, she said, “Eros I love you. Truly I do, but I get so lonely being on this island all alone everyday. I need someone to talk to, couldn’t you bring me my sisters? I miss them so very much.”

Eros, also being a Water sign and thus intuitive, hesitated. He knew that her sisters being there would only meddle and bring her trouble and misery. But his forewarning could not break her longing to see her sisters and so he finally relented and promised her he would bring them tomorrow.

With much heartache and worry he delivered his promise and Psyche was overjoyed to see her siblings again. Once they saw each other they laughed and cried tears of joy. Yet her sisters were jealous of Psyche’s newfound treasures and immediately began asking questions.

“Who is the man who gave you all this wealth Psyche?”

When she told her sisters that she had never seen him and did not know who he was they grew even more suspicious and filled poor Psyche’s head with all manner of evil ideas.

“Why for all you know, he could be a monster! A terrible ogar that abducts innocent women and then kills them and eats them!”

Psyche KNEW that this was not true but could not help doubting her intuition.

“Here’s what you do Psych. This evening, prepare a lamp and a knife before he comes. Then once he is asleep, light the lamp and see who he is . . . . then kill him!!”

Psyche drew back in instant horror. “Kill him? But he has never done me any wrong, how could I possibly kill him?”

“Because if you don’t kill him he’s SURE to kill you!” her sister blurted out.

And so Psyche did as she was told and once her lover was asleep, Psyche got out of bed and lit the lamp and with a trembling hand, lifted the knife, ready to plunge it in her sleeping lover’s heart. She lit the lamp and held it over Eros’ face only to see a beautiful and peaceful angel sleeping.

“How stupid of me!” she thought. “How could I doubt the only person in the world who has loved me more than anything?!”

As she thought this she began to feel sick at the thought of what she had been about to do. For a moment she thought she was going to faint and almost fell. As she stumbled the oil bottle on the lamp came loose and spilt all over Eros. He screamed out in agony and when he looked up he saw Psyche standing at him in absolute horror.

She begged for Eros’ forgiveness but he couldn’t even talk, partially because of his disbelief and partially because of the pain he was going through. Psyche leant against the bed and cried and cried for what seemed like days. She couldn’t get up or even face the outside world but lay in bed mourning for her loss.

Eventually she gathered together all her courage and might and went to Aphrodite. She pleaded with the goddess of love to let her see Eros but she was turned away.

“Eros cannot see you now,” said the usually lovable goddess in a cold and stern voice. “Thanks to you he is bed ridden with a fever and his shoulder is badly injured.”

Still, Psyche begged until finally she offered to work as Aphrodite’s servant. Aphrodite consented to this, if she’s kept busy by me then no man will see her and I’ll still be thought of as the most beautiful woman ever to grace the Earth.

And so day after day Aphrodite would give the poor Psyche impossible tasks to do. First she was given a pile of seeds, several different sorts and told to sort them out into piles of their own type before sunset.

Dismayed at this impossible task Psyche fell to the ground and began to cry until she saw thousands of ants coming. They soon turned into millions and before sunset they had sort all the different types of seeds. At first Aphrodite was surprised but then returned to her cool self.

“You had help, I can tell. Your next task will not be as easy, and you will do it on your own!”

With that, she gave the poor servant a ration of bread and water and sent her off to sleep in the dungeon of her castle.

The next day the goddess took her to the riverside and pointed up to a hill. “Do you see that? Down there in the valley below? That is where the krios live, in the bushes covered with thorns. The wild rams with the Golden Fleece. I want you to get me some of that fleece, and promptly. I shall be in my castle upon your return sipping lemonade, now go!”

And so Psyche began to walk down to the valley. The closer she got the more she saw that she could never get the golden fleece without dying for the rams were mighty dangerous. As she walked she heard a noise.

“Psyche. Pssssssssyyyyyyyyyccchhhhhhheee!!”

It was the water nymphs in the water that were talking to her. “Wait. Wait until the rams come out of the thorny bushes they hide in to get out of the Sun. Upon evening they will come to rest near the river, then you must go into the bushes and take out some of their fleece caught in the thorns.”


So Psyche did as the nymphs had advised and once more Aphrodite was upset and plotted. Each day she would give her something even more impossible to do (by the way, have you noticed in lexigrams that IMPOSSIBLE means I’M POSSIBLE!).

The next day Psyche’s mission was to go up to a river that came from out of a cave. It was the River Styx that led to the Underworld. She was to go up to the river and collect a small portion of the water. But even a small portion was too much as the rocks leading up to the mountain where the river was were slippery and dangerous.

Soon an eagle came down to Psyche and took her bottle with which to take the Styx water. Up he flew and collected some water into the bottle, then holding it in his claws until he delivered it to Psyche he flew back down again.

The next day Aphrodite gave the already weary girl a box. “This is for you to take to the Underworld. You are to go to Persephone and ask her for some of her beauty to give to me. Now go!”

This seemed to Psyche as nearly impossible! Why would Persephone give the goddess of beauty even more beauty? But then Psyche told the goddess of the Underworld that Aphrodite was very sick and had lost some of her beauty and was wondering if she could give her some of her own. Persephone was more than willing to do so.

And thus Psyche returned to Aphrodite’s castle exhausted of her errands that she collapsed on the floor just before the entrance. Eros, now seemingly better, was walking among the grounds when he saw a woman lying on the floor. He rushed to her and when he looked into her eyes he saw it was his love. Enraged and what his mother had done to her and also at himself for ever leaving Psyche he picked her up, stopping to give her a little lecture on trust, and carried her to Mount Olympus where Zeus gave them his blessing to marry and so they were. Zeus’ wedding present to Psyche was a goblet filled with ambrosia, the food of the gods that made her immortal.


Now that Psyche was immortal, Aphrodite had no reason to think her unworthy of her son and so she too gave them her blessing. And now Eros and Psyche together live on their island happily and forever!


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