Amor and Psyche (1854 - 1857) by Reinhold BegasAlte Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
It’s all so typical. You’ve probably even been there yourself.
You’re a young princess who’s too beautiful to find true love. You’re in an on-off relationship with a mysterious man. He refuses to tell you who he really is.
When you can’t resist flicking the light on in the middle of the night to check him out and accidentally set fire to him ...
...he ghosts you for years. Meanwhile his Mum makes your life hell.
No? Just ask Psyche then.
That’s the story of her affair with god-of-love Cupid. Originally, he was sent to make Psyche fall in love with someone ugly. But Cupid was so stunned at the sight of her beauty...
...that he stabbed himself with one of his own arrows (pro move), falling madly in love with her and spiriting her away to his secret love palace.
Here he would appear only at night, in the dark, to make love to her incognito. And get her pregnant.
Don’t worry, though. Despite being the relationship from hell for quite some time, it all ended happily ever after...
...with a big wedding and Psyche being granted immortality, just like in the movies only with more gods.
#HistoryOfUs series
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz
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