True Love Conquers All
Let me tell you a tale of a
controlling mother and her love-struck son. Although I am responsible for
making people fall in and out of love I had never really wanted a serious
relationship. However, my mother Aphrodite always tried to control me, as a
result I always felt the need to rebel against her. One day she asked me to
complete a task for her and I sat next to her as she told me the details of a
woman, named Psyche that had wronged her.
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| (Aphrodite by LinzArcher) |
My mother
told me that there was a woman who was being falsely identified as the goddess
of beauty herself. This made mom incredibly angry and I knew that I must
complete this task to make her happy. She asked me to make her fall in love
with the lowest of men throughout all the earth. I travelled to strike this woman
with my arrows and I saw her from a distance. As I approached her in the night
she turned and my heart skipped a beat. I looked down and realized that I had
impaled myself with my own arrow, but I do not believe it was on accident. I
could not stand the thought of letting this beautiful young woman wed such a
horrid man, and I asked Apollo if he would give a false prophecy to Psyche’s
father. I knew that after hearing of her horrible fate that was prophesied my
mother would be satisfied and would no longer seek vengeance.
I had
Psyche brought to a beautiful palace I had constructed, but I did not want
Psyche to see that I was the man she was to wed. I feared that word would get
out to my mother and we would both face her vengeance. As a result, I only visited
Psyche in the dead of night and would not allow her to see my appearance. I
threatened to leave her forever if she ever attempted to see me in the light. I
realize now that this probably wasn’t the best approach, and any woman would
tell me that I made a mistake only a man could make.
Psyche’s
sisters came to the mountain where she had been brought and I made my next
mistake to allow Psyche to know that they were coming. Upon seeing the glorious
palace and treasures that belonged to my beautiful bride they became envious
and plotted her destruction. They convinced my love to attempt to kill me and
to look at my appearance while I slept. Unfortunately, she listened to the
commands of those harpies and I was awoken to a severe burning sensation on my
shoulder. I opened my eyes and saw the love of my life holding a knife ready to
kill the horrid beast she thought she shared the same bed with. I quickly arose
and flew to the house of the only person I knew could heal the severe burn I
had, my mother Aphrodite.
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| (Image of Fury that Truly Resembles Psyche's Sisters, by DeviantArt) |
Have you
ever wondered why everyone hates seagulls? I may have something to do with
that. One seagull went up to my mother and told her that I had been with the
woman she despised. When I found out about this birds wrongdoing I asked a
couple of gods to help me make them one of the most despised birds on the
planet and I will never lift that curse. My mother was not very happy to find
out about my indiscretions and she went on a rampage. My aunts, Hera and
Demeter, tried to tell her that I was no longer a child and I should be allowed
to find love as we help people do daily. By Zeus, I was more than nine hundred
years old at that time!
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| (Psyche at the Throne of Aphrodite, by Edward Hale) |
She would
not listen and to help wrap up this story she finally found Psyche. She tried
to destroy her by making her complete deadly tasks, but fate ensured that I
would see my love again. She completed all of her tasks and my grandfather Zeus
allowed me to marry the love of my life and made her immortal. We now have a
beautiful daughter named Pleasure and my mother’s cold shoulder towards Psyche
has finally warmed. However, the moral of this story is that it is difficult
for any mother to accept that their child is ready to leave the nest, even
immortal mothers. However, when their child finds the right person nothing can stop
their love, not even mommy dearest.
Author’s Note: I used the story Cupid and Psyche and portrayed
the story in the eyes of Cupid. I used his perspective to explain the feelings
he had for Psyche and what his mother felt against the woman that not only had
incredible beauty, but attempted to steal her son. There are no significant
changes in the story and it follows very closely with the original tale. I
believe this gives a unique perspective on Cupid’s side of the story.
Bibliography:
Title: Apuleius’ The Golden Ass
Author: A.S. Kline
Year: 2013
Web Source: UnTextbook
Hi Justin. I think you did a really good job retelling the story of Cupid and Psyche! The voice you created in the story worked really well. As a student myself, it was very easy to slip into the story of a young adult, who doesn’t always agree with his parents, breaking away and doing things his own way for a change. I think you played really well to your audience. Some of the word and phrase choices you made were also amazing. Lines like “By Zeus, I was more than nine hundred years old at that time!” really helped build the character and the story. Overall, I was very impressed by the storytelling. There was one spot, however, that made me pause. The transition between the paragraph that ends with Cupid returning to his mother to heal his wounds and the paragraph about the seagulls was a bit too abrupt for me. I think smoothing that transition over some would help the story flow a little better for the reader. Even with that, however, it was a very engaging story and a pleasure to read!
ReplyDeleteHey Justin,
ReplyDeleteI loved your story of Cupid and Psyche. You really put a humorous side to it when in reality it is a pretty bad story about a mother's revenge and her son going against it, but you know that's just minor details haha. The way that you write is really eloquent and you made it really easy and fun to read. I also really enjoyed all of your graphics and the how they flowed well with the story! Good Work!
Hi Justin, I enjoyed your retelling of Cupid and Psyche through Cupid's eyes. I've heard of crazy in laws but Aphrodite really took the cake. I agree with Nicole, I really liked the word choices you made in describing the rebellious attitude of Cupid towards his mother. I also really love the artwork you chose to go along with the story. I especially like the image that depicts Psyche's sisters. Good job.
ReplyDeleteHi Justin,
ReplyDeleteI think you did a marvelous job of telling the story from Cupid's point of view. I like your choice of the powerful images that you used, and using several of them helped to keep the readers interest in the story. It had a real feel of maturity to the writing and an insight that can be very helpful to keep the reader invested. I wanted to keep reading because of the wisdom that Cupid was showing towards his mother and her dreadful actions towards him and his chosen partner. I really enjoyed reading your story. I too chose to read this story and I enjoy the original version but yours maybe a little more because your sense of humor and compassion bleeding through in your version of this love story.
Hi Justin,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your story about Cupid and Psyche. I had never heard the story so it was interesting hearing it through Cupid's eyes the first time. Your use of pictures, especially the last one, made it easy to picture the story in my mind. I thought the last line of your story was very clever and wrapped the whole thing up nicely. I look forward to reading more of your stories in the future!
Hi Justin, I really like what you have done with this story. While you have told the same story, you told it from a completely new point of view and really made it your own. I feel like I can really hear your voice in this story. you do a fantastic job telling this story and you make it very easy for the reader to understand what is going on. I also really like the part where you say "By Zeus, I was more than nine hundred years old at that time!" I found this to be very funny and as some good comic relief. The other thing that I really like about your telling of this story is the format. I really enjoyed that you added many different pictures to give the reader an idea about what is going on. I also liked how the kind of broke up the reading so it was not just a large wall of text.
ReplyDeleteI look forward to reading more of your stories.
Hi Justin,
ReplyDeleteGreat story! It was interesting and kept me entertained from the beginning. I really enjoyed your writing style, because I could hear your voice throughout each section.
I like how you told the story from Cupid's side and gave him a voice as well. You did a great job on keeping to the original.
The phrase, "Have you ever wondered why everyone hates seagulls?" really cracked me up.
Overall, great job on adding your own touch and humor to this story.