Psyche

Psyche is the wife of Cupid, and the daughter-in-law of Venus. She was a mortal girl who was turned immortal to stop Venus from picking on her out of jealousy.

Background

Venus had become jealous once of a mortal girl by the name of Psyche. It was said that Psyche's beauty was so great it rivaled that of Venus. For that reason, the goddess demanded that her son, Cupid, shoot Psyche with his arrow of love. Cupid's love-arrows bring great joy or great sorrow to whomever they touch, and the goddess planned that the girl would fall in love with some ugly, stupid oaf and be miserable for the rest of her life. This was not to be; Cupid accidentally scratched himself with an arrow when he saw Psyche and fell in love with her himself, but left her alone. Eventually Psyche was exiled to a mountaintop, a place where, it was predicted, she would marry a monster. There, the West Wind befriended her and took her to a lovely valley where she found a palace with a wide, tiled pool. She finally met her husband there but was never allowed to see him. They only met at night, and he said it was for the best that she did not know what he looked like.

Unable to bear not seeing her lover, Psyche crept to his bed one night with an oil lamp. As she discovered that her husband really was the god Cupid, a drop of oil dripped on his shoulder. He awoke startled and angry and flew away, abandoning Psyche. Venus, however, kept harassing the girl out of blind jealousy, and gave her a number of impossible tasks to perform. Cupid finally interceded for his wife with Zeus, who decided that Psyche should become immortal. She was given a cup of ambrosia to drink and thus it was. This made Venus feel much better, since no longer would a mere mortal be as beautiful as the goddess.