Questions of Love and Genre
An interpretative essay on Metamorphoses 6.24
Passage 6.24 of Apuleius’ Cupid and Psyche concludes and contains an allegory in the union of Cupid and Psyche. The passage presents a detailed description of the divine, lavish wedding of the two lovers. The wedding celebration happens as a triumph of Cupid and Psyche’s love, despite the challenges they faced. The supreme god Jove has intervened and put a stop to Cupid’s mother’s actions against Psyche and their love. Now the gods can celebrate. All the gods are present for this heavenly union. Divinities such as the Horae, Graces and Muses add their touches to the occasion with decorative dances, sweet smelling balsam and singing. The wedding is presented to be an official ceremony. The officiality of Cupid and Psyche’s wedding shows in the use of “rite” and “in manum” both of which refer to the proper manner of their union. Out of this union also comes a daughter. The final phrase of the passage “quam Voluptatem nominamus” names gives her the name of Pleasure. It is here that we find the allegory. The union of Cupid (Love) with Psyche (Soul) creates Pleasure.
The tale of Cupid and Psyche comments on some aspects of love. Both Cupid and Psyche are young and carefree. Both of them live fairly easy lives with Psyche being a beautiful Princess and Cupid the son of the goddess Venus. Psyche appears as a human who experiences her downfall due to curiosity but ultimately becomes saved by her love and her official union with Cupid. Parker and Murgatroyd’s article “Love Poetry and Apuleius’ ‘Cupid and Psyche’’ describes how the tale fits into amatory Greek and Latin poetry. Cupid fits into the role of a classical lover. He makes his love conquests in secret and at night. He becomes enthralled in the feelings of love and passion for his lady. Cupid is also Psyche when she tries to unknowingly kill him, but he eventually reconciles with her (Parker and Murgatoyd 403).
The question of genre comes to mind in the tale of Cupid and Psyche. Winkler’s article “The Question of Reading” addresses genre in Apuleius’ The Golden Ass. There is no definitive answer. As Winkler states, the work has been considered a novel, comic romance, folk-tale collections, aretalogy, philosophical or religious allegory, fictionalized autobiography, sophistic showpiece, or various combinations of the above (Winkler 2). Reading the work multiple times lends itself to different understandings of its layered nature and its various possible genres. Readers own background and the time in which they are reading both influence the understanding of the text and genre. Winkler says that “the ideal first-reader is defined as an ordinary Latin speaking citizen of the second century C.E” (Winkler 14). Naturally today’s readers will have a different understanding. Therefore, the question of genre will have ever-changing answers varying with the individual reader. This last passage of Cupid and Psyche highlights the mythological and folk-tale aspect of the story. It also talks about their everlasting union of love which draws attention to the romantic nature of the story. However, Cupid and Psyche can also be seen as a philosophical allegory. Therefore, just like the whole work of The Golden Ass, this tale has many possible interpretations and leaves the question of its genre without one definitive answer.
Works Cited
Parker, S., and P. Murgatroyd. “Love Poetry and Apuleius’ ‘Cupid and Psyche.’” The Classical Quarterly, vol. 52, no. 1, 2002, pp. 400–404. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3556474.
Winkler, John J. Auctor & Actor: A Narratological Reading of Apuleius’s Golden Ass. Berkeley, University of California Press, 1985.
