The youngest of a certain king's three daughters, Psyche possessed beauty comparable to Venus herself. People came from all over to adore her, and Venus was annoyed that no one was paying attention to her, so she sought the help of her son. She asked Cupid to shoot Psyche with one of his arrows to make her fall in love with the most vile creature on earth. Thus was the punishment for a mortal who dare contend with a goddess, but it would not occur. As soon as Cupid saw the princess, he was the one who fell in love.

Meanwhile, Psyche was not having as good a life as Venus thought. Men would come and marvel at her, but they would eventually leave to marry another. Psyche's older sisters had already wed, but Psyche remained husbandless, loving no man and having no man truely love her. The situation was so bad that her father finally traveled to an oracle of Apollo to seek advice. Cupid had visited the oracle earlier and told him what to say to the king: "Psyche should dress in funeral clothes and be left on the summit of a rocky hill to wait for her destined husband, a savage winged serpent, who would claim her as his wife."

The word of an oracle is the word of the gods, so Psyche was dressed in mourning and placed on the hill. As Psyche wept, a gentle breeze from Zephyrus, the west wind, lifted her up and brought her to a beautiful green valley laden with flowers. Nearby, she saw a spectacular palace suitable for a god. It had walls of silver, ivory carvings, pillars of gold, and a path of gems leading up to it. When she entered the house, it was as magnificent as the outside, and a voice instructed her to bathe and refresh herself. A banquet was then laid before her, and she dined with beautiful music surrounding her. When Psyche was in bed that night, the voice took shape and joined her, and they consummated their marriage. It was too dark to see her husband, but Psyche knew that he was far from the frightful creature whom the oracle had described.

One day, Psyche saw her two sisters mourning for her on the hill and desired so much to comfort them, but her husband told her that to do so would be disastrous for both of them. She spent the rest of the day weeping in frustration until her husband finally allowed it. He warned her that she must not be persuaded by anyone to try to see him, or she would lose him forever. The next morning, Psyche greeted her sisters with great hospitaliy in her new home, explaining that her young husband was on a hunting expedition. When it was time to say farewell, she sent them off with their arms filled with gold and jewels, but the two women were bitterly jealous of their sister's fortune and plotted how to ruin her.

Soon afterward, Psyche began to miss her sisters again, and her husband unwillingly yielded to her pleas for them to return. And so, the two wicked women arrived with their carefully worked out plan. They had ascertained that Psyche had never seen her husband but didn't let on that they knew. They told their sister that they had learned her husband was not a man, but the monstrous serpent that the oracle had described and he would soon devour her. This filled Psyche with terror, and she wondered if this was why her husband wouldn't let her see him. She opened up completely to her sisters and begged for their advice. The two devious women had their advice prepared beforehand. They told their sister to hide a knife and a lamp by her bed that night. When she is sure that her husband is asleep, she is to light the lamp and plunge the knife into the monster. The light from the lamp would let her see her target, who only takes form in the dark. Her sisters would wait nearby and bring her to safety when he is dead.

Psyche was torn by doubt the entire day and couldn't decide if her husband was the hideous serpent described by the oracle or the handsome and kind man she had experienced in bed. She was sure of one thing: she had to have a look at him. So that night, Psyche gathered all her strength and lit the lamp. She stood over her sleeping husband and was relieved to see a creature so fair and sweet that he seemed to make the light shine brighter. She stood there, gazing at her sleeping husband, when a drop of oil from the lamp fell onto his shoulder. He startled awake and saw his wife standing over him with the lamp. He could sense her lack of faith and trust in him and fled from her. Psyche ran after him, but he had disappeared into the night. She could still hear his voice, identifying himself as Cupid and proclaiming that love cannot exist without trust. "If the god of love has no more love for me," she said, "at least I can show him how much I love him." And so, she started on a journey in search of her husband.

Cupid had gone to his mother's chamber to have her tend to his wound, but once he told her that he had chosen Psyche as his bride, she left him there in pain. Venus was furious and set off to show that girl what happens when you displease a goddess. Psyche had been seeking the help of the gods, but none of them wanted to make and enemy of Venus. Finally, Psyche decided to go straight to Venus and offer herself as her servant to try to ease her anger. When the two of them met, Venus laughed at the miserable girl and proclaimed that she proove her obedience. Venus then devised four extremely difficult tasks and set Psyche to complete each of them.

First, Venus took piles of the smallest types of seeds and mixed them together in a large heap. She told Psyche to sort all of them by nightfall and left the despairing girl. A colony of ants felt sorry for her and came to her aid. They diligently worked sorting the seeds, and when Venus came back the next day, she was startled to see every seed with its own kind. Next, Venus told Psyche that there was a flock of sheep with golden wool down by the riverbank. The goddess ordered her to collect some of it, and the worn girl went down to the gently flowing stream. She contemplated jumping into it, but one of the reeds told her not to kill herself and explained how to safely gather the wool. The sheep are very fierce, but when they come out of the bushes to rest beside the river, she could find plenty of golden wool stuck to the briars. Venus was annoyed at Psyche's success, mostly because someone was helping her, and sent her on an even more dangerous task. She pointed to a waterfall in the distance and told her that it was the source of the river Styx. She handed Psyche a flask and wanted her to fill it with the black water. The rocks were too steep and slimy to climb on, so an eagle was her savior this time. It flew over to the waterfall and easily filled the flask.

Psyche's final task was the worst yet. She was given a small box and told to fetch some of Proserpine's beauty. Thinking the only way to the Underworld was to kill herself, she climbed to the top of a tower and prepared to jump. The tower itself stopped her and told her how to reach Proserpine. She had to go through a hole in the earth and travel to the banks of the river of death. There she would give Charon a penny to carry her to the other side. A road leads straight to the palace gates where Cerberus, the three-headed guard dog of the Underworld, does not let anyone pass, but if she gave him a cake, he would be friendly and let her through. Psyche did just as the tower told her and easily made her way to Proserpine. Before returning the box to Venus, Psyche's temptation was too strong, and she opened it. It appeared as if nothing was inside, but the curious girl was suddenly overtaken and fell into a heavy sleep. Cupid hurried over to her and wiped the sleep from her eyes. Putting it back into the box, he was able to awaken his bride with the prick of one of his arrows. He sent Psyche to finish her task and flew up to Olympus where he got Jupiter to bless their marriage. They were married in front of all the gods, and Jupiter himself gave Psyche the ambrosia to make her immortal. Cupid and Psyche lived together on Olympus and soon had a child named Voluptas.

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