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You've probably heard the term “psyche”
before, but what does it mean?
The Oxford English Dictionary has two main
definitions.
One refers to the psyche butterfly, but the
more familiar meaning is the philosophical
or psychological one, in which psyche refers
to “the mind, soul, or spirit, as distinguished
from the body” or “the whole conscious
or unconscious mind”.
The first use of the term in connection with
psychology was in 1910 by Carl Jung, although
the term had been in use since the 1640s in
philosophical discussions about the body and
the soul.
The word psyche is taken directly from the
Greek word ψυχή, which means “breath”
or “life”.
Psyche was also the Greek goddess of the soul.
The only complete version of the Psyche myth
is found in a 2nd century AD Latin work, Metamorphoses
by Apuleius, which is better known as The
Golden Ass.
The myth goes like this:
Once upon a time, there was a beautiful young
woman named Psyche.
She was so beautiful that people started worshipping
her instead of Aphrodite, the goddess of love
and beauty.
This made Aphrodite very angry.
She commanded her son, Eros, to make Psyche
fall in love with a hideous monster as a punishment.
However, when Eros saw how beautiful she was,
he ended up falling in love with her himself.
Psyche’s father was afraid that the gods
would punish the family because the people
were worshipping Psyche, so he sought advice
from Apollo’s oracle.
He was advised to leave her on a lonely mountaintop
where an evil spirit feared by the gods lived.
He followed this advice and Psyche was abandoned
to her fate.
However, Eros was watching out for her and
sent the West Wind, Zephyrus, to rescue her.
She was brought to Eros’s secret palace
to live.
At night Eros would come to visit her, taking
care that she never saw his face.
Things were all good for a while, but eventually
Psyche became lonely.
She asked to have her sisters visit her and
Eros hesitantly agreed.
Psyche’s sisters marvelled at the beautiful
palace and became jealous of their sister’s
new life.
They convinced her that she was married to
a snake who would eat her while she slept
if she didn’t kill it.
She believed them and made preparations to
kill the snake that night.
As usual, Eros visited her that night.
After he fell asleep, Psyche lit an oil lamp
so she could see to kill the snake.
However, instead of a snake, she saw Eros
and immediately fell in love with him.
Unfortunately, she accidentally dripped hot
oil from the lamp on him, waking him up.
Eros was furious that she had disobeyed him
by looking at his face, so he kicked her out
of the palace.
Aphrodite found Psyche and gave her four impossible
tasks to complete: sorting grains, collecting
golden fleece from flesh-eating sheep, retrieving
water from the River Styx, and obtaining a
box of Persephone’s beauty treatment from
Hades.
Once she had retrieved the box, she opened
it out of curiosity.
She immediately fell into a deathlike sleep
until Eros found her and revived her.
When Psyche gave the box to Aphrodite, Zeus
gave Eros and Psyche permission to get married.
Which painting was your favourite?
Let me know in the comments below!
The word psyche has a long and varied history,
from Greek mythology to philosophy to psychology.
However, it has always carried a sense of
something beyond the physical.
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Until then, stay curious!
