Graeco-Roman

GRAECO-ROMAN

The story of Cupid and Psyche is a literary production; however, it is given in this collection of stories from the mythologies because it became something of a sacred story--a focus for religious thought. And, besides, the literary production was based on an old Greek folktale that had in it religious elements. It must be remembered that the mother of Cupid is not the Venus of early Roman mythology nor the Venus Genetrix of Lucretius's poem; she has been merged with Aphrodite, the goddess who belonged to the southern and eastern islands of the Greek archipelago. In the form we know it the story belongs to a late period: it was written by Apuleius of Medaura who was born A.D. 124, and it forms an episode in the novel which we call "The Golden Ass." There is an Elizabethan translation by Adlington besides the better-known translation which Walter Pater gives in his "Marius the Epicurean."