Bethany Issatt Pysche on Love
The gods were known to be selfish . Their choices and actions shrouded by the importance of their own desires and their immortal blood thickened by a vanity that they mistook for divinity . To deny the gods was a crime , but to obey them was a thin , fragile line between glory and deep suffering . It was known through all of time that to become entwined with the life of a god was a painful sentence of death . And to love a god was a curse bound to tear the heart from any unfortunate , pining victim . And yet , the spoils of their love tasted too sweet to deny . It was a thread walked by too many lonely fools . And although the finale was always bitter , mortals still prayed day and night for just a drop of honey from the lips of Olympus . Including myself , long ago .
Once I had been so beautiful and so loved that the people of my village swore that I was Aphrodite , the goddess of beauty , sent to bless the generations of the world . They prayed to me , Psyche the goddess on earth , and neglected the temple of the true goddess . I thrived under the adoration I received , and it is true I did not deny their claims , as false as I knew them to be . It was dishonest , but the search for love has never been restricted to mortal beings .
Aphrodite was angered by my deception , but above all she was enraged that whilst I was immersed in thoughts of love and gifts of gold and wine , the steps of her temple were left alone and neglected . It didn ’ t matter in the eyes of the goddess that she could reach out and find anything her heart desired at her golden fingertips in Olympus . Her deadly vice was jealousy and in that moment I was the object of her envy . She sent her son to me , Cupid . A beautiful God who held the power to wield love to his will . His arrow would shoot through my heart and make me a slave to a creature so disgusting that my people ’ s love would turn to hatred . But as his eyes met mine , and the string of his bow was pointed to the sky , he knew that no other man but him would do . I met him in the dark , and without seeing his face we were married .
In the light of the day I waited for him to come to me , and under the cloak of the night he met me in our bed . As I begged to see his face , he told me of the danger it would place me in . I told him that I could not love him by touch alone , and so he made me fall for the sound of his voice , and the words of love he whispered into my ear until the rise of the sun when he would leave me again . I loved him so dearly , even in the dark . But the love I felt could not quench the mistrust in my heart .
As I lay beside him in darkness , I considered what my blind faith could cost me and of the women and mortals who had been wronged in the past . The Cretian Princess Ariadne was
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