Part Two, Chapters I–

II
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Summary: Chapter I — Cupid and Psyche

● Hamilton draws this story from the Latin writer Apuleius, who, like Ovid, was
interested in creating beautiful, entertaining tales—a style that could not be
further from Hesiod’s pious, fearsome creation stories. Appealing to the
Roman aesthetic sense, Apuleius’s protagonist is Psyche, a princess so
beautiful that men begin to worship her instead of Venus (the Latin name for
Aphrodite). Insulted, Venus sends her son, Cupid (Latin name for Eros), to
make Psyche fall in love with the ugliest creature in the world. Cupid,
however, falls in love with her himself and magically prevents anyone else
from doing so. Apollo convinces Psyche’s father to leave her at the top of a hill
to be wed to a monster. However, Zephyr, the West Wind, carries the waiting
Psyche to a majestic palace where she bathes and feasts royally, attended by
mysterious voices. At night, she feels a man next to her who introduces himself
as her husband.
● For a while, a pattern develops where Psyche remains alone during
the day and then at night sleeps with a husband she never sees. She at
last convinces the mysterious man to allow her sisters to visit her,
even though he warns her it will end in tragedy. Psyche’s sisters,
jealous of her palace, conspire to ruin her marriage. Knowing she has
never seen her husband, they slyly plant the idea in her head that he is
a horrendous monster. Plagued by doubt, Psyche decides she must see
what he looks like and, if he is a monster, stab him through his heart.
That night, she lights a lamp and sees that her husband is the
unbelievably beautiful Cupid. Psyche’s hands tremble, spilling hot oil
from the lamp and burning the god, revealing her deception. Cupid
flees the house and runs to Venus to heal his wound.
● Crushed, Psyche goes to Venus’s home to see Cupid. Venus, enraged
that Psyche has once again defied her, forces her to perform four
seemingly impossible tasks. First, she must sort an enormous mound
of seeds in one evening, but ants come to her aid and she succeeds.
Second, she must fetch the golden wool of a flock of vicious wild
sheep, but a reed by the riverbank tells her where to find wool that the
sheep had snagged on thorns. Third, she must fill a flask with water
from a treacherous waterfall of the river Styx, but an eagle swoops
down and fills it for her. Finally, Psyche must journey to the
underworld and convince Proserpine (Latin Persephone) to place
some of her beauty in a box, but a tower on the way speaks to her and
tells her how to easily complete the task
● On the way back from this final task, Psyche’s curiosity makes her
peek into the box to see what Proserpine’s beauty looks like. The box
appears empty, but a deep sleep overcomes her. Finally healed, Cupid
rushes to her, and he then convinces Jupiter (Latin Zeus) to make her
an immortal, which at last persuades Venus to accept her.
Summary: Chapter II
— Eight Brief Tales
of Lovers
Pyramus and Thisbe

● Not all tales of love end so happily, as we see in Ovid’s tale of

Pyramus and Thisbe. The two lovers reside in Babylon, but their
parents hate each other and forbid their marriage. Talking through a
crack in the wall of the building their families share, they eventually
decide to elope, agreeing to meet outside the city walls at a well-
known mulberry tree. Thisbe gets there first but flees when she sees a
lioness, intending to come back later. But she drops her cloak, and
Pyramus, finding it bloody and torn by the lion, thinks she has been
killed by the lion. Pyramus kills himself, covering the white berries of
the mulberry tree with blood. Returning to find him dead, Thisbe then
kills herself with his sword. The berries of the mulberry tree have
forever stayed red to commemorate the tragic end of their love story
Orpheus and Eurydice

● The next tale introduces Orpheus, the son of one of the Muses and the
greatest mortal musician. Orpheus’s music moves any human, god,
animal, or object that hears it. His wife Eurydice is killed by a snake,
and his music enables him to safely make the perilous journey to the
underworld and convince Pluto (Hades) to let Eurydice return to the
world of the living. The one catch to Eurydice’s return is that she
must walk behind Orpheus on the way back to earth; if he turns to
look at her, she must return to Hades forever. Overcome with desire
and doubt, Orpheus turns around too soon. Having lost Eurydice, he
wanders aimlessly and gets ripped to shreds by Maenads
Ceyx and Alcyone

● Ceyx is a king of Thessaly, and Alcyone is his loving wife. He sets

out on a long journey, and his wife prays to the gods, particularly
Juno, to protect him. Ceyx’s ship unfortunately has already been
wrecked in a storm, but Juno, pitying Alcyone, sends her a dream in
which Ceyx tells what befell him. Alcyone wakes and rushes to the
seashore, finding his body borne in on the tide. The gods transform
her into a bird and also resurrect Ceyx as a bird, out of respect for
their love. These two fly together eternally, and the phrase “halcyon
days” comes from Alcyone, referring to the seven days a year when
she calms the seas in order to lay her eggs on its smooth surface.
Pygmalion and Galatea

● Pygmalion, a sculptor, hates women and finds comfort only in his art.
One day he makes a statue of a woman so beautiful that he falls in
love with it. Intrigued by this new kind of love, Venus rewards him by
bringing the statue to life. Pygmalion names her Galatea. Their son,
Paphos, lends his name to Venus’s favorite city.
Baucis and Philemon

● The love of Baucis and Philemon is also rewarded by the gods. One
day, Jupiter and Mercury (Latin Hermes) descend to earth in disguise
in order to test the hospitality of the people of Phrygia. No one is kind
to them except an old couple, Baucis and Philemon, who are very
poor. Revealing themselves, Jupiter and Mercury drown the rest of
Phrygia’s wicked inhabitants in a flood and offer Baucis and
Philemon any wish they desire. Modest and content, Baucis and
Philemon merely ask never to live apart from one another. The two
thus live to a very old age, when the gods transform them into two
trees—a linden and an oak—growing out of a single trunk
Endymion and Daphne
● Though they are not lovers to each other, Endymion and Daphne each
have an important relation to an immortal. Endymion is a handsome
young shepherd loved by Selene, the Moon, who casts a magic sleep
over him so that she can visit him whenever she wants. She is always
sad, however, as he can never return her love. Daphne is a beautiful,
headstrong huntress-nymph whom Apollo loves. She runs away from
him but he pursues her all the way to the waters of her father, the river
god Peneus. Appealing for instant help, Daphne finds her arms
hardening and twisting—her father turns her into a laurel tree. Apollo
proclaims that the laurel will forever be his sacred tree, and, since that
time, its leaves signify music, songsn and triumphs.
Alpheus and Arethusa

● Arethusa is another huntress who disdains marriage and is also

pursued by a god—the river god Alpheus. When he is about to
overtake her, she appeals to Artemis for help. Changed into a spring
of water, Arethusa plunges deep into the earth. Alpheus changes
himself into a river, and their waters mingle, forming a connection
between the river Alpheus in Greece and Arethusa’s spring in Sicily
Analysis: Chapters I–II
● The different styles of Hamilton’s sources are apparent in these chapters. Except
for the story of Endymion—which, written by the Greek Theocritus, does
indeed stand out as unique—these tales all come from Latin writers, primarily
Ovid. We must remember that the earliest Greek myths date from about 1000
b.c. and Hesiod’s creation stories from about 700 b.c. At this time, Greece was a
violent, unstable set of city-states. Its authors faced a virtual literary void, as no
one had gone before to explain the incomprehensible mysteries of life. The
world of the Latin writers were very different, as many characterize the Roman
world as an even more secure, luxurious, and ordered world than our own today.
Rome was the largest empire known to man, and wealth and luxury abounded to
the point of decadence. Light, gaudy tales of lovers were in demand, since the
Romans preferred pretty accompaniments to aristocratic banquets rather than
dread epics of the beginning of the world or humbling accounts of man’s
modest origins.