Love at First Sight (5.22-23)

Hi. I'm doctor Regina May.

I am an associate professor of Latin language and literature in Leeds.

My specialty is working on Apuleius.

My last two books were on Apuleius'

Cupid in Psyche and its reception as it as in how

people have been reading Cupid in Psyche since it was written

up to novels that that are written as we speak.

So it's a really interesting subject.

So in this course,

we're going to look at some themes in your said passage

ending with a close reading of parts of five twenty one.

If you want a broader introduction to Apuleius'

life and career and how the story of Cupid and Psyche fits

into the rest of his novel called Metamorphoses or the Golden Ass,

there is a link below this video to take you to a course on this.

But generally, general advice, read the whole text in English,

not only your set chapters.

Everything makes more sense that way,

and you can draw parallels with the passage you study as well.

You're gonna start with the idea of love at first sight in

five twenty two and twenty three.

Finally, Psyche sees her husband.

She has broken this taboo,

and we as readers as well as Psyche's sisters have guessed

for a while that her husband must be Cupid.

But now she finally sees him,

and he looks like we imagine him and have seen on many

Valentine's cards or ancient art.

So he's a beautiful young man with feathery wings,

blonde curls, and rosy cheeks, smooth all over.

His usual weapons, bow and arrow,

are not on him but at the foot end of the bed.

He's asleep and helpless.

Seeing him is so powerful that Psyche cannot resist and begins to kiss him.

Cupid's attractiveness as the god of love is so strong that

even that lamp that Psyche was carrying becomes personified,

wants to either kiss him as well,

which shows the power over nature and everything in the

world that, that, Cupid has that Venus also

some sometimes shows.

All because the lamp is just jealous.

But both these are very human emotions.

That makes this scene a little funny and a little strange,

but also points out how important that moment is

and how attracted these two are to each other.

Note that it's only when Saiki actually sees Cupid that she,

falls in love and when she pricks herself with Cupid's

arrow when Apuleius writes that she

fell in love with love.

It's not when they first met.

It's not when they were together for months and she

becomes pregnant.

It is seeing which does the job.

In ancient thought, we can see things because little images,

of these things hit our eyes.

So when we see somebody we like,

images of that person hit our eyes physically.

So seeing Cupid and pricking herself with his arrow tip

is basically the same thing for Psyche, falling deeply,

unerringly in love with whom she has just seen.