Maleficent: Oh come now Prince Phillip. Why so melancholy? A wondrous future lies before you – you, the destined hero of a charming fairy tale come true. Behold – King Stefan’s castle. And in yonder topmost tower, dreaming of her true love, the Princess Aurora. But see the gracious whim of fate – why, ’tis the self-same peasant maid, who won the heart of our noble prince but yesterday. She is indeed, most wondrous fair. Gold of sunshine in her hair, lips that shame the red red rose. In ageless sleep, she finds repose. The years roll by, but a hundred years to a steadfast heart, are but a day. And now, the gates of a dungeon part, and our prince is free to go his way. Off he rides, on his noble steed, a valiant figure, straight and tall! To wake his love, with love’s first kiss. And prove that “true love” conquers all!
[she laughs]

For Psyche’s final trial, Venus sent Psyche to the Underworld to obtain “the secret of Persephone’s beauty,” a box called a pyxis. Generally the myths say Psyche was sent to retrieve a beauty cream of some sort, but that gets pretty vague. Psyche planed to get to the Underworld by throwing herself off a tower (this girl had more suicidal tendencies than Bella Swann) but the tower talked her down. Personally, I would have fallen in surprise when the tower talked, but for a girl that’s constantly “in despair,” she’s made of some pretty tough stuff.

The tower told Psyche how to get to an entrance of the Underworld and told her to carry two coins in her mouth (for Charon), two barley cakes in her pockets (for Cerberus), and to ignore any souls begging for help by not speaking a word herself until she reaches the queen. She followed the instructions to a ‘T’ and found the queen of the Underworld more than sympathetic to her cause. Persephone filled the box with her “beauty cream” and sent Psyche safely on her way.

But Psyche wanted to be pretty, too. So after she left the Underworld, she opened the box which Persephone has actually filled dark Stygian Sleep. Once freed, it put Psyche into a death like coma.

Meanwhile, Cupid finally healed and escaped his mother’s house by flying out the window. When he found his bride, he awakened her with true loves kiss, by drawing the Stygian Sleep from her body like venom and spitting it back in the Pyxis. As soon as Psyche woke up, Psyche and Cupid went to Venus (in front of an audience this time) to prove she’s completed the trials and to ask Zeus to bless their marriage.

Zeus was more than happy to bless their marriage (though why you’d want the blessing of a serial cheater is beyond me) provided Cupid promised to help him catch any girls that catch Zeus’ attention in the future (sorry, did I say serial cheater? I meant serial rapist.) Cupid doesn’t have a problem being Zeus’ accomplish, so Zeus gave Psyche  ambrosia so she could be immortal and wed her husband as an equal. The married before Zeus could change his mind, gave birth to the goddess Hedone (pleasure), and lived happily ever after.

“He smells like night-blooming flowers Crushed, juicy petals on the pillows His voice is full of ocean Humming like the surf He kneels before me like I am his goddess He is a god” ― Francesca Lia Block, Psyche in a Dress

When we last left off, Psyche was sent to gather some water from the source of the Styx and the Cocytus rivers. Both of these rivers flowed through the Underworld but they also had bits and pieces of river in the mortal realm. To truly understand why this trial was a big deal, there’s some stuff you have to know about the rivers. The Styx was an important river to the gods. If they swore an oath by the Styx they HAD to honor it because the Styx was more than just a river, she was a the daughter of Oceanus and Tethys and wife to Pallus. In other words she was a full blown goddess and she was the very first to go to Zeus’ aid in the Titanomachy. As a thank you, Zeus promised every vow would be sworn upon her. If gods lived off worship, which is my take on the myths, that’s a huge deal. Sometimes those vows didn’t go well. Like when Helios swore to give his son Phaeton anything he desired. The boy wanted to drive the sun-chariot which Helios knew would end in his death. Ditto for one of Zeus’ mistresses (Dionysus’ mother, Semele) who was offered the same deal, anything she wanted. She asked for Zeus to show his true self and powers to her and since mortals can’t look upon the divine in all its glory, she was incinerated where she stood. The Styx also granted magical properties to those who braved a swim in the river. Hence Achilles’ invulnerability. His mother dipped him into the Styx by holding him by the heel. He was only vulnerable in the spot that she held him.The Cocytus is known as the wailing river, but otherwise isn’t as interesting. What’s important is that both of these rivers were sources of angst and power, so asking a mere mortal to bottle water from their source was a big deal. The cliff near the spring was dangerous to climb, the air repelled mortals, and dragons slithered through the rocks making the climb THAT much more frightening. She tried to climb the rocks but failed and started crying. Zeus felt sorry for her and sent eagles to battle the dragons and help her retrieve the water. Venus was furious because Psyche had divine help at every turn. So she set Psyche’s final trial in a place where most gods could not help her. The Underworld. More on that Friday.

Cinderella wept, because she too would have liked to go to the dance with them. She begged her stepmother to allow her to go.

“You, Cinderella?” she said. “You, all covered with dust and dirt, and you want to go to the festival?. You have neither clothes nor shoes, and yet you want to dance!”

However, because Cinderella kept asking, the stepmother finally said, “I have scattered a bowl of lentils into the ashes for you. If you can pick them out again in two hours, then you may go with us.”

The girl went through the back door into the garden, and called out, “You tame pigeons, you turtledoves, and all you birds beneath the sky, come and help me to gather:

The good ones go into the pot,
The bad ones go into your crop.”
Two white pigeons came in through the kitchen window, and then the turtledoves, and finally all the birds beneath the sky came whirring and swarming in, and lit around the ashes. The pigeons nodded their heads and began to pick, pick, pick, pick. And the others also began to pick, pick, pick, pick. They gathered all the good grains into the bowl. Hardly one hour had passed before they were finished, and they all flew out again.
The girl took the bowl to her stepmother, and was happy, thinking that now she would be allowed to go to the festival with them.

But the stepmother said, “No, Cinderella, you have no clothes, and you don’t know how to dance. Everyone would only laugh at you.”

Cinderella began to cry, and then the stepmother said, “You may go if you are able to pick two bowls of lentils out of the ashes for me in one hour,” thinking to herself, “She will never be able to do that.”

The girl went through the back door into the garden, and called out, “You tame pigeons, you turtledoves, and all you birds beneath the sky, come and help me to gather:

The good ones go into the pot,
The bad ones go into your crop.”
Two white pigeons came in through the kitchen window, and then the turtledoves, and finally all the birds beneath the sky came whirring and swarming in, and lit around the ashes. The pigeons nodded their heads and began to pick, pick, pick, pick. And the others also began to pick, pick, pick, pick. They gathered all the good grains into the bowls. Before a half hour had passed they were finished, and they all flew out again.
The girl took the bowls to her stepmother, and was happy, thinking that now she would be allowed to go to the festival with them.

*Source: Cinderella by the Brother’s Grimm.*

~@~

Before I begin, I just need to say how much I love this set of myths. Psyche gets trials that are every bit as difficult as the heroes who have come before her. She faces challenges on par with Hercules, Jason, Perseus and Odysseus. She gets helped by gods, but so did all the other heroes. Cupid and Psyche have inspired almost as many retellings as Persephone. Since her myth is so involved, I’m breaking her trials up into three blogs and doing one Monday, Wednesday, and Friday instead of my usual Mythology Monday, Way back Wednesday (I’ll be posting book covers with retellings for each blog instead) and For Real Friday. I couldn’t resist a For Real Friday last week, but I think I can manage this week.

Without further ado…

Psyche begged Venus for help to find her husband, but Venus (I’m going with Roman names this round) was not all that kind to Psyche. Venus put Psyche through a series of trials to prove her worth. The trials kicked off with a gang initiation style beating at the hands of Venus’ gal pals, Worry and Sadness. When the beating was done, Venus mocked the pregnant, injured woman by calling her marriage a sham. Venus would have probably stuck around to insult Psyche some more, but she was running late for a party/wedding feast, so in true Evil Step Mother fashion, Venus threw down a bunch of seeds (specifically mixed wheat, barley, poppyseed, chickpeas, lentils, and beans) and demanded that Psyche sort them into separate heaps by dawn, when she expects to return.

Cinderella Psyche felt depressed by the  impossible task, but set to work diligently. In another disney princess moment, an ant took pity on Giselle Psyche and assembled an army of insects to sort the different seeds. When Venus came back from the party and saw the task was accomplished, she threw Psyche a crust of bread and took a well earned nap.

What? Partying is hard.

Refreshed from her nap, Venus told Psyche to cross a river a gather golden wool from a pack of angry sheep on the opposite bank. These sheep of course belonged to Helios, who isn’t too keen on sharing. I don’t blame him. The sheer (haha) number of myths that involved sheering his sheep is kind of ridiculous. Exhausted by the constant flow of heroes trying to snatch his wool, he set them up with a defense system. When I said angry sheep, I didn’t just mean they bleeted angrily and rammed the heroes with their fluffy sheep heads. No, these were like, man eating, super powered, angry sheep.

Psyche was so daunted by the murderous sheep that she was seriously considering drowning herself to get out of the task until she saw a bunch of briars near the sheep and got an idea. Instead of taking the wool off the violent sheep, she gathered the wool from the prickly bushes.

Unimpressed by Psyche’s ingenuity (possibly because Psyche got the idea from a talking reed but that really depends on the myth) Venus gave Psyche a crystal vase (or jar depending on the myth) for her next task. Collect the black water that spewed from the place the Styx and the Cocytus merge. But more about that Wednesday.