PSYCHE, in Greek mythology, the personification of the human soul. The importance, in Platonic philosophy, of love (in the highest sense) as an agent of the soul's progress leads, in art from the 4th century B.C., to representations, allegorical or play ful, of Psyche (generally represented as a winged girl, a relic of the old conception of the soul as a bird or insect) in company with Eros (q.v.), usually in amatory scenes. The tale of Cupid and Psyche, in the Metamorphoses of Apuleius, is interesting as the only ancient fairy-tale which is told as such. In it Psyche, the youngest daughter of a king, arouses the jealousy of Venus, who orders Cupid to inspire her with love for the most despicable of men.
Cupid, however, falls in love with her and carries her off to a secluded spot, where he visits her by night, unseen and unrecog nized by her. Persuaded by her sisters that her companion is a hideous monster, and forgetful of his warning, she lights a lamp to look upon him while he is asleep; in her ecstasy at his beauty she lets fall a drop of burning oil upon the face of Cupid, who awakes and disappears. Wandering over the earth in search of
him, Psyche falls into the hands of Venus, who forces her to undertake the most difficult tasks. The last and most dangerous of these is to fetch from the world below the box containing the ointment of beauty. She secures the box, but on her way back opens it and is stupefied by the vapour. She is only restored to her senses by Cupid, at whose entreaty Jupiter makes her im mortal and bestows her in marriage upon her lover.