Step 2- Ancient Myth

Cupid and Psyche

Once upon a time there was a king with three daughters. They were all beautiful, but by far the most beautiful was the youngest, Psyche. She was so beautiful that people began to neglect the worship of Venus, the goddess of love and beauty. Venus was very jealous, and asked her son Cupid (the boy with the arrows) to make Psyche fall in love with a horrible monster. When he saw how beautiful she was, Cupid dropped the arrow meant for her and pricked himself, and fell in love with her.
Despite her great beauty no-one wanted to marry Psyche. Her parents consulted an oracle, and were told that she was destined to marry a monster, and they were to take her to the top of a mountain and leave her there. The west wind took her and wafted her away to a palace, where she was waited on by invisible servants. When night came her new husband visited her, and told her that he would always visit her by night and she must never try to see him. 
Although her invisible husband was kind and gentle with her, and the invisible servants attended to her every desire, Psyche grew homesick. She persuaded her husband to allow her sisters to visit her. When they saw how she lived they became very jealous and talked Psyche into peeking at her husband, saying that he was a monster who was fattening her up to be eaten and that her only chance of safety was to kill him. Psyche took a lamp and a knife, but when she saw her beautiful husband, Cupid, she was so surprised she dripped some hot wax onto his shoulder, waking him. He took in the situation at a glance and immediately left Psyche and the magnificent palace she had been living in disappeared in a puff of smoke.


Summary:
        In the story, Psyche is the most beautiful out of her three sisters, she is so beautiful that people begin worshiping her instead of Venus, the goddesses of love and beauty. Venus is angry so sends Cupid to shoot her with an arrow so that she will fall in love with a monster, but Cupid is shocked by her beauty and drops the arrow on himself and falls in love with her. Psyche is taken away to a palace where Cupid is her husband and she has invisible servants. She is only allowed to meet with Cupid at night when she can't see him and she learns that he is very kind and gentle. Psyche become homesick though, and Cupid allows for her sisters to come and visit her. When her sisters come they convince her to peek at her husband during the day and when she does she is so shocked by his beauty that she drops hot wax on him, which wakes him up and he runs away never to be seen by her again.

Connection:
      The story of Cupid and Psyche displays beauty in a very unique and creative way. In the beginning when Psyche was only allowed to see her husband at night this represents inner beauty because she learns that he is kind and gentle and Psyche isn't really concerned about his outer appearance. When she sneaks a look at Cupid this represents outer beauty because when she learns how beautiful he is and I think her perception of him changes and I think she would think differently after she saw his appearance. This relates to beauty because I think that this shows that inner beauty and outer beauty go hand in hand, some may think one is more important than the other while some may think the opposite. Someones outer appearance may change your thoughts on their inner beauty and vice-versa.