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Encyclopedia of Fantasy (1997)
Cupid and Psyche

Tagged: Theme.

Cupid (or Eros) takes the beautiful Psyche as wife, but visits her only by night and insists she must never see his face. When her jealous sisters claim he must be a Monster (see also Beauty and the Beast, of which Cupid and Psyche is a distant Underlier), Psyche breaks the Prohibition by lighting a lamp to examine her sleeping husband, who – woken by a drip of hot oil – vanishes, together with his palace. Zeus permits a reunion after Psyche has suffered an extended Night Journey. C S Lewis's retelling in Till We Have Faces (1956) is narrated by Psyche's sister, here loving but dangerously possessive, and focuses on the sister's anguish and redemption. [DRL]



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