The story of Cupid and Psyche, often called Eros and Psyche today, survives in its fullest ancient form in Apuleius’s Latin novel Metamorphoses, also known as The Golden Ass. It was written in the second century CE. The tale uses Greek divine names and settings in many modern versions, but it is not an early Greek myth preserved by Homer or Hesiod.
A forbidden sight
Psyche’s beauty draws worship that angers Venus. The goddess orders Cupid to make her love a miserable man, but Cupid falls in love with Psyche himself. She lives in a hidden palace with a husband who visits at night and forbids her to see him. Urged by her sisters, she lights a lamp and discovers the sleeping god. A drop of hot oil wakes him, and he leaves.
The tasks of Venus
Psyche searches for Cupid and submits to Venus, who assigns impossible tasks. Helpers assist her in sorting grain, gathering dangerous wool, fetching water, and descending to obtain a box from Proserpina. Psyche opens the box despite a warning and falls into a deathlike sleep. Cupid revives her.
Jupiter grants Psyche immortality, and the couple marry among the gods. Their child is Pleasure. The ending makes marriage and divine recognition central, not just romantic reunion.
The lamp, sisters, and underworld journey have inspired later fairy tales and art, but later additions should not be read back into Apuleius. Compare the marriage fate of Yue Lao and the trials faced by Atalanta.