The main goal of Roman religion was to organize how mortals interact with gods. There are various ways in which mortals could communicate with, or feel closer to, the Gods. Sacrifices were the most detailed ritual that was performed in the name of a God. There were also vows people took and prayers they said (Scheid ch. 6). Another way this was accomplished was through myths. Myths were stories about Gods that were used to explain a natural phenomenon or to show how Gods affected the lives of mortals. The story of Psyche and Cupid, as told in Apuleius’ The Golden Ass, described a mortal’s journey through the land of the Gods. This story brought mortals closer to the Gods in two ways. The first way was through Psyche herself and her direct …show more content…
The first was Cupid the God of love. The most obvious connection between Psyche and Cupid was their love for each other. Following the instructions from his mother, Venus, Cupid kidnapped Psyche and locked her away in an extravagant palace. It is in that palace that they fell in love and became husband and wife. But Cupid would not let Psyche see his face or know who he was. Cupid also forbade Psyche from seeing her family. He said that she should not listen to anything her sisters said (Apuleius *). These first few encounters connect God and mortal. They showed that, like mortals, Gods are not perfect. Cupid was adamant about not letting Psyche see her sisters but Psyche eventually wore him down and he agreed. This showed that Cupid had a weakness. He let Psyche sway him against his better judgment (Morwood 113). The next significant encounter between Psyche and a God was her surrender to Venus. Psyche was tortured and given a task to sort out a pile of seeds. I believe this to be a sacrifice. People of authority usually performed sacrifices but slaves did the manual labor that was involved. Psyche was performing manual labor while being enslaved by Venus. Plants were common objects brought to offerings which connected the seeds that Venus had Psyche sort through (Scheid ch. 6). This brought Psyche closer to the Gods because it showed her performing a common ritual in the presence of a God. It brought the
...s talk and the two sisters become awfully jealous of her. After they try to find out the truth of Psyche and her husband, they leave with some jewels. The night after the two sisters leave, Psyche can’t sleep at night and order her servants to bring her a lamp. She sneaks into her husband’s room, to find a beautiful creature with great, white folded, feathered wings. He is the son of Aphrodite’s, Eros – she says. As she quietly moves away, her oil lamp drops oil on Eros burning him and waking him up. He explains to Psyche that “mortals and gods are forbidden to marry” (p.137) that’s why she couldn’t see him and now he must go away from her. In this play we see that Pandora should’ve listened to her husband, Eros, and it caused herself bad in not listening to Eros, but we see that things can work out after something terrible occurs, such as the birth of a child.
"PSYCHE : Greek Goddess of the Soul | Mythology, Psykhe, W/ Pictures." THEOI GREEK MYTHOLOGY, Exploring Mythology & the Greek Gods in Classical Literature & Art. Web. 8 Oct. 2011. .
Human sacrifice was a very common ritual in that time and area. But this is not enough to prove to the world that the answer to the mystery of the bog bodies is human sacrifice. However, I hope that the evidence I am about to show you is enough to convince you that human sacrifice is what killed the bog bodies.
The Greek gods were portrayed as humans, which meant that they were not perfect. That is, the gods made mistakes, felt pain (e.g. Aphrodite in love with the mortal Adonis), and succumbed to anger and their tempers (e.g.
The myths which prove the contradictory behavior of the gods, acting as both benefactors and tormentors of man, can readily be explained when viewed in light of the prime directive for man, to worship the gods and not “overstep,” and the ensuing “Deus ex Mahina” which served to coerce man to fulfill his destiny as evidenced by the myths: “Pandora,” “Arachne, and “Odysseus.” Humankind and it’s range of vision over the gods beauty and power portrayed them to be benefactors but unseemingly it depicted their affliction towards humans.
From before the dawn of civilization as we know it, humanity has formed myths and legends to explain the natural world around them. Whether it is of Zeus and Hera or Izanami-no-Mikoto and Izanagi-no-mikoto, every civilization and culture upon this world has its own mythos. However, the age of myth is waning as it is overshadowed in this modern era by fundamental religion and empirical science. The word myth has come to connote blatant falsehood; however, it was not always so. Our myths have reflected both the society and values of the culture they are from. We have also reflected our inner psyche, conscious and unconscious, unto the fabric of our myths. This reflection allows us to understand ourselves and other cultures better. Throughout the eons of humanity’s existence, the myths explain natural phenomena and the cultural legends of the epic hero have reflected the foundations and the inner turmoil of the human psyche.
Caldwell, Richard S. The origin of the gods : a psychoanalytic study of Greek theogonic myth
Throughout the history of Rome, from the monarchy to the late empire, religion had played a great role in it's society and was involved in almost every aspect of the life of the Roman citizen. It was common for each house to have it's own patron god/gods and ,on special occasions, the head of the house would make a sacrifice to the personal gods of the family. Also, great festivals were usually held in honor of certain gods and would include spectacles like chariot races and Gladiatorial fights.
Cupid gave his wife a second warning about the sister’s evil plotting, “These treacherous bitch-wolves are scheming for our destruction: they will urge you to look at my face, though I have often told you, once you see it, you lose me forever.” Psyche’s sisters convinced her that she had married a snake. A snake that preyed on pregnant women. Psyche used a lamp to illuminate her husband that night while clutching a knife to kill the monster. The lamp revealed Cupid.
This backfires and Eros falls in love with Psyche instead. In his shame from his mother, who’d decided to marry the two, he kept himself invisible from the
To begin with, the ancient Greeks explained the creation of the universe, in particular the Earth and its elements, by a system of anthropomorphism in which their gods are human-like and are representatives of these elements. For example, Zeus is the god of heaven while Hades is the underworld lord (Hesiod, p.145). Unlike the Christians’ god who is “flawless”, the ancient Greeks’ divinities are portrayed as humans and are far from perfect. Their gods behave like ordinary people except they are immortal and have supernatural powers. Like any human being, the Greeks’ gods have love, jealousy, sadness, etc. For instance, in Euripides’ Bacchae, Zeus falls in love with Semele, which makes Hera becomes jealous and tries to kill Semele and Dionysus (Euripides, p.209). The Greeks even have a physically imperfect god, Hephaestus. This is to say that the gods’ attitude toward mortals is affected by how people treat them as the Greeks’ gods have emotions like humans.
If you already knew Venus you would that she was already jealous of psyche because previously in the story many men traveled far and wide all around to see psyche and not Venus as a matter of fact Venus alters were abandon with cold ashes so this made Venus very angry so she went her son Cupid which was the god of love she told him to shoot her with one his arrows so every creature on earth can fall madly in love with her but consequently her plan didn’t go as
“The Tale of Cupid and Psyche” is a tale about the relationship that the God of Love, Cupid, has with a mortal named Psyche. Venus, the Goddess of beauty and the mother of Cupid, was offended when people believed in a rumour that Psyche, the most beautiful of the three daughters of the king and queen, is Venus’s daughter from a union with a mortal. She ordered Cupid to revenge in her behalf. However, Cupid, fell in love with Psyche.
In this essay, I hope to provide answers to how the actions of Hippolytus and Phaedra relate to the gods, whether or not the characters concern themselves with the reaction of the gods to their behavior, what the characters expect from the gods, how the gods treat the humans, and whether or not the gods gain anything from making the humans suffer. Before we can discuss the play, however, a few terms need to be defined. Most important would be the nature of the gods. They have divine powers, but what exactly makes the Greek gods unique should be explored. The Greek gods, since they are anthropomorphic, have many of the same characteristics as humans.
In conclusion, the the story of Cupid and Psyche is very powerful. It has many different feelings such as, love and jealous. Venus was jealous of Psyche but that got her nowhere because Psyche became her daughter in law. Love overcame Psyche's mistake of breaking Cupid’s promise. In the end they were married with a daughter.