Back in the day when gods were bigger than life and beyond the grasp of the average person, Aphrodite, the deity who liked to control every aspect of the affections of human beings, according to Greeks, grew so vain that she instructed her son to go to earth and destroy one of the famed, beautiful women among human beings. Aphrodite would not allow anyone to be in competition with herself. So, her son, Eros, went to Earth to destroy Psyche, the woman whose beauty was reported to rival Aphrodite's.
But, as Eros spied Psyche, he fell head over heels in love with her. So, instead of doing away with her, he created a beautiful castle for them to live in as long as she never looked on him because he was a deity. She agreed to feeling his presence without looking at him. But, Psyche's sisters convinced her to look one day. When that happened, Eros left, and with the absence of his presence, the beautiful castle with all of its gardens instantly changed to weeds and a pile of rubble. Psyche loved Eros so much that she went looking for him. Of course, it came to the attention of Aphrodite that someone beautiful was again walking the Earth.
She would brook no rival, so she met Psyche and told Psyche she had to bring Aphrodite the piece of the soul or essence (the meaning of the Greek word psyche) of one of the goddesses of the underworld. Psyche succeeded through a little trickery to get a part of that soul, but the effect of the goddess' soul in the box where Psyche carried it caused her to fall into an eternal sleep. Eros could not believe what his mother required of Psyche, so he went looking for his wife and found her eternally asleep.He went to plead the case for her life with Zeus, king of the Gods. Zeus relented, gave Eros his wife back to him, and Eros and Psyche lived happily ever after in a beautiful castle with extravagant flower gardens.
We are told the story by a Roman, Ovid, so the names were changed to those of the Roman pantheon, Venus, Jupiter, and Cupid.
The allegory is a great one to show that the human essence (Psyche) longs for the sweet fruits of attraction, falling for someone completely. Of course, that explanation came from a world far away and long ago.
Today, we understand the world so much more clearly. We frame the affection that consumes us so totally for someone as something innocent, pure, and sweet, saying it is sweeter than summertime. It's the taste of honey. Our busy work days ask us to be everything to others, causing us to miss out on the sweet nectar of our lives, our American Honey. That's the modern version, and I'm sticking to it on this day celebrating Cupid's expression of his eternal affection for the most beautiful woman of his life.
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