shrieks, and flies away! The unhappy Psyche catches his foot, and clings to the volatile god till her strength is exhausted, and hopelessly she falls on the green margin of a river. Love suspends his flight for a moment; he loiters above a cypress, and in a voice more in sorrow than in anger, reproaches his mistress for her unfaithful credulity, her unjust fears, and above all for her inhuman design. Having said this, the soft luxurious boy waves his wings and flies. Psyche, with eyes dim with tears, traces his course for a moment; but in the midst of the sky, the god melts into a shadow, and the shadow into air. The desolated Psyche, urged on by despair, seeks to precipitate herself into the stream; but the waters, feeling the influence of Love, who rules all the elements, gently swell to receive the beauteous maid, and softly float her to their flowery margin. There Pan receives her, consoles, and exhorts her to soften the anger of Love by her tears and her prayers. Wandering from clime to clime, every where seeking for her husband, and finding him no where; ever suppliant, and ever rejected, the wife of Love can discover no asylum on the earth. In the height of her misery she still hoped her misfortunes would soon terminate; but that most unhappy maid knew not then of the afflictions the anger of Venus still reserved for her. The mother of Love now discovered, that instead of having punished the mortal against whom she was incensed, her son had made her his wife. In the first moments of her rage she would have disarmed her son, broken his arrows, and extinguished his torch. Beauty itself (soft as Beauty is when adulated) is cruel, vindictive, and unforgiving when contemned. She condemns Psyche to the most afflictive torments, and subjects her to the most cruel trials. All nature sympathises with the sufferings of Psyche; when men and gods abandon her, the inanimate creation is represented as endowed with sympathetic affections. She passes into the depths of hell, and there executes the terrible command of the vindictive power. At length Love, who trembles for her fate and shudders lest she should perish under so many persecutions, flies to Jupiter; tells him his adventures with her; talks with all his tenderness of his affection, and who can talk like Love? paints the scenes of her persecu tion, and who can paint so lively? describes the softness, the charms, the innocence of his mistress, and solemnly adjures the father of creation to ordain that he may be for ever united to Psyche, by the indissoluble bonds of a celestial marriage. Jupiter assembles a synod of the divinities. They feel the inquietudes, and approve the vows of Love. To calm the half-forgiving Venus, Psyche is admitted to the rank of a divinity, that Love may not be united to a simple mortal. The celestial assembly applaud the union of Love and Psyche, and from their marriage is born a daughter, whom they name Divine Pleasure. The well-known gem, in the collection of the Duke of Marlborough, represents this mystical marriage; a cameo of such exquisite beauty, and so often engraven in this country, that it will be sufficient to mention it. The gem is described by Dr. Darwin, with his accustomed brilliancy of versification and warmth of fancy, though in this instance his description is not so correct as it ought to have been. Beneath a moving shade of fruits and flowers And hides with mystic veil their blushing brows. This description omits a fine figure of a little winged Love, who precedes Hymen in preparing the nuptial couch which is likewise engraved. Nor is the verse, Beneath a moving shade of fruits and flowers, however elegant, descriptive of its object. This" moving shade" is really a basket filled with fruits, and raised over the heads of the bride and bridegroom. It was an ancient custom with girls, desirous of marriage, to offer these baskets of fruits to Diana at her festivals, and for that reason it was called the feast of baskets; the fruits being emblematical of a happy progeny in marriage. The fable of Cupid and Psyche is perhaps an invention of Apuleius. No mention of Psyche, nor any allusion to such amours of Cupid occurs in any Greek or Latin writer of an earlier date. Apuleius calls it an old woman's story. It is related by an old hag in a cave of robbers to sooth the grief of a young lady, their captive. "Ego te narrationibus lepidis anilibusque fabulis proti nus evocabo: et incipit: Erant in quâdam civitate Rex & Regina: hi tres numero filias formâ conspicuas habuere." An imitation of the story is to be found with little alteration amongst the French Contes des Fees, and English Fairy Tales. The opening of the narrative has become almost proverbially descriptive of such stories. It is worthy of remark, that the figures of Cupid and Psyche embracing, are found on many of the gems called Abraxas, from the name of an Egyptian deity, whose worship the Gnostics and Basilidians in Syria and Egypt contrived to blend with misconceived notions of Christianity. These gems were used as amulets or charms against various maladies and perils. Basilides, heresiarch of Alexandria, was somewhat prior in time to Apuleius. The former died about A. D. 125, the latter under Marcus Aurelius, between forty and fifty years after. Whether Apuleius picked up the rudiments of his story among the Basilidians, in Egypt, or was altogether the inventor, it is probable that the gems which directly allude to this fiction are not of higher antiquity than the time of Adrian. Fulgentius, said to have been Bishop of Carthage in the sixth century, has allegorized the story of Apuleius. The French annotator on Apuleius says, "T. Fulgence a pretendu que cette fable enveloppoit un sens moral fort beau, auquel il n'y a guere d'apparence qu' Apulée ait pensée. La ville dont il est parlè represente le monde. Le roi et la reine de cette ville sont dieu & la matiere. Ils ont trois filles qui sont la chair, la liberte, & l' ame, &c." The describer of the gems, in the Museum Florentinum, says, The learned senator, Philip Bonaroti, has shewn that the fable of Cupid and Psyche is derived from the solemn mysteries of Love celebrated among the Thespians, &c. and carefully concealed from the profanation of the vulgar eye. It is highly probable, that of the many gems in which the God of Love is variously represented, with or without the butterfly, a great number are anterior to the time of Apuleius, and allude to sacred ceremonies; that the butterfly was displayed in those rites as a symbol of the soul: and that the gems, which bear the figure of Cupid chasing, tormenting, caressing, and sporting with the butterfly, are emblematic of desire acting on the human soul: but it does not follow that they have any allusion to a fiction resembling that of Apuleius. They are probably founded on allegories of more ancient and of more sublime inven. tion. Cupid is represented on many of the gems as in a state of bondage: "Compedibus constrictus conspicitur in gemmis 2, 3, 4. Tab. 81. sedensque more captivorum moerore tabescit. In gemma 2. adrepente super compedes papilione alius Cupido ei palmam si victorià potiatur offert."-Mus. Flor. It may be observed that in all the gems on which Cupid appears shackled, and on that in which Psyche is represented sitting with a foot in fetters, or in a snare, the left foot only appears within the curve. This, probably, alludes to some peculiarity of the sacred ceremonies. Omens noticed on the left side were frequently considered as fortunate: there were, however, certain exceptions: as when thunder was heard on the left, or an owl was perceived flying on that side. Catullus, however, expressly shews the left side to be of good omen in affairs of Love. Amor sinistram, ut ante Dextram, sternuit approbationem. Et dulcis pueri ebrios ocellos Illo purpureo ore suaviata, Sic inquit: Mea vita Septimille Mutuis animis amant amantur *. The foot of Psyche, within the bow of the shackle or snare, is naked. It may be remembered that in the tale of Apuleius, when she is first seen by Cupid, she has been led out to a rock, on which she is exposed, with the solemnities of funeral procession. Thus Dido having prepared her funeral pile, Unum exuta pedem vinclis in veste recinctâ In stygiis his nudipedalibus sinistrum pedem nudabant, says a commentator on the line in Virgil. One foot was bared also in magical ceremonies: Secreta nudo nemora lustravi pede, says Medea, Seneca, Med. Act 4. Sc. 2. The foot seems to be rather within a snare than in any thing resembling fetters. It appears to be that used for catching birds; and the application seems not inelegant to the purpose of intangling these little winged airy beings. It is probable the Pedica mentioned in the Georgics: Tunc gruibus pedicas & retia ponere cervis, &c. VIRG. G. 1. The Cupid bound to a pillar is thus noticed in the Museum Florentinum. "Ipse Cupido pœnis a Psyche affligitur, vinculisque ad columnam ligatus statuitur ludibrio ab omnibus, quasi sævissimus tyrannus habendus." Tab. 79. V. I. Montfaucon, Vol. I. exhibits a figure of Cupid bound: underwritten Spon. He wears a singular cap, resembling a turban, which passes as a bandeau * An imperfect attempt to translate, in verse, the delicate Lines of CATULLUS is offered to readers unacquainted with the original. Cupid sneezing in his flight, Breathing murm'ring soft and low, Thus might life for ever flow! In homage at his happy shrine. 1 Plutarch in his Paμaixa, Roman Questions, after assigning several reasons why omens observed on the left were thought to bode good fortune, observes that the augurs, considering the earth to be in opposition to the heavens, might think that what came from the right in heaven would be perceived upon the left on earth, and vice versâ. E round the head, and suffers the hair to appear above it. The head of an ox is seen at the base of the pillar or terminus. A chain passes round the body of the Cupid, and fetters one of his legs. He raises his finger towards his eye, expressive of juvenile sorrow. The figure is not remarkable for elegance. The Greek lines of Kgvayopos, in Brodai Anthologia, 1500. Francfort. Wechel. folio, and three more epigrams on the same subject, obviously refer to this or similar representations. On a gem in the Florentine collection Psyche appears bound. On another the enraged deity prepares to inflict severe corporal chastisement on his kneeling spouse. Others represent them happily locked in mutual embraces. Those which represent Cupid with the butterfly, without the Psyche, sometimes exhibit the little deity captived, while the butterfly crawls over the bow of the snare. On one he appears bound, and the butterfly is settled on the knot that holds his hands. On other gems he holds the butterfly by its wings, and prepares to throw it into the fire upon an altar, or to singe it with a torch. On a greater number he caresses or sports with it. In amore hæc sunt mala: bellum HOR. Sat. 3. lib. 2. It has been observed (Polymetis) that the figures of Cupid with the butterfly, correspond with representations on other gems which introduce the female form in lieu of the insect. On one, Cupid is drawn in a triumphal car by two butterflies: on another by two Psyches. It is, however, remarkable, that although the poetry and sculpture of the ancients are continually illustrative of each other, no allusion to the butterfly or to Psyche occurs in any of their poetical productions. For descriptions of Cupid see Spence's Polymetis, and the references. Ος κάλλιστος εν αθανατοισι θεοισι. HESIOD THEOGONIA, V. 120. |