DangeroussBeauty
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Is it true that you were worshipped for your beauty in your home town?
Yes, for all the good it did me. Everyone thinks being born with beauty is a great blessing, but for me it was more of a curse. People were always staring at me when I walked through the town. They treated me like a Goddess - I never asked for that! Besides, what’s the point of all that attention if noone actually wants to marry you? My sisters both made good matches, but everyone treated me like some untouchable idol - nice to look at, but of no real value as a person. I was so lonely..
Tell us about your first wedding, we hear it was a bit of a shambles?
Wedding? It was more like a funeral. My father was worried about me so he asked the oracle of Apollo what to do, and the oracle suggested leaving me on top of a hill and hoping some God or monster took a fancy to me! Well, noone had any better ideas, so off I went, sure that I was going to be eaten alive by some beast. There was a procession, just like at a real wedding. I wore a flame coloured veil, but I didn’t enjoy a minute of it. In fact, everyone was miserable. They played a Lydian lament and the people were groaning and howling as if I had died. I certainly felt like I was about to!
What happened that night?
Well, in the night my new husband came to me. I was terrified, expecting some horrible monster, but he was so kind and loving. He told me he would rather I love him as an equal, than adore him as a god. The only problem was I really wanted to know what he looked like! I mean, can you imagine sleeping beside someone every night and never seeing their face? When my sisters came to visit they told me I should hide a lamp under my pillow, and a dagger, just in case he really was a monster. I should never have listened to them, they’ve always been jealous of me.
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But then you were rescued?
Yes, but no dashing hero on a winged horse! Instead I was carried off by the wind! It was the strangest experience, like floating on a cloud. I was carried to a valley filled with flowers. All the crying had tired me out, and so I fell asleep. When I woke I thought I’d look around a bit. I wandered into a grove, and there I found a palace. I thought it was a rather odd place for a palace, but it was so beautiful, it had to be the home of a God. I went inside, and a voice told me this was my new home, everything in it was mine. There were servants to wait on me, although I never saw them, and food and music and clothes, everything I could want or need.
How Psyche went to Hades and back to win her Love