Chapter 18: The Reunion

Indeed, Cupid had refused to shoot her arrows. People stopped falling in love with one another. There was no praise for Venus, her temples stood empty, her altars unadorned. No marriages were taking place and no new births. The world became grim and dreary in a day. Without love, all songs and laughter died. All work halted.

Farmers did not plow their fields or pick their fruits. Hunters put down their bows and chased no game. Fishermen quit sailing their boats and simply drifted listlessly on the ocean. Even the fish had sunk sullenly to the very bottom of the sea. Everyone's heart was empty and deprived of joy.

Venus woke up from her nap and looked from the Olympus. She was amazed to see that everything had changed. The goddess of love and beauty, found herself wasting in the great parching despair that came off the earth like a desert wind. All joy and favor and beauty had departed the world. All was rustic and undesirable to the eye.

There was no wedding ceremonies and no sacrifices to honor her. No camaraderie between friends, none of the love which children inspire, all was a scene of boundless squalor, of unsavory boredom in every sordid relation.

Shock and terror entered her heart. She had underestimated her daughter's threat and the power of her magical darts. If the earth kept going without love, all life would perish. And each immortal god would shrink and wither along with it.

Venus herself had noticed the change in her beauteous person. She quickly got off her couch and stood before her massive mirror. There was a single silver hair on her godhead. A single silver hair among the gold was like a poison needle plunging deep into her heart.

Even worse, this was also the grief of the other gods, who depended on love to gain their might and status.

They came to Venus one after another, asking for her intervention.

"Please, my lady, ask your daughter to shoot her arrows, or we shall be suffered gravely," they begged.

Even Jupiter, the King of Gods, had to step in with the same worries. He summoned her to him. As the goddess entered the throne room, the other deities greeted her with solemn faces. Venus was only used to praises and sweet gestures, but now she was the cause of their distress.

"Venus, my dear, you must put your hatred aside and set the world right again," Jupiter said to her. "Give what your daughter demands and stop all this nonsense. Your selfish anger shall be the death of the Olympians. I will not tolerate this family feud anymore. Do you heed me?"

Venus, at last, relented. The goddess also found that anger hurt her beauty, so she inclined her head and smiled again.

Afterward, she returned to her palace, hoping to resolve the conflict with her daughter.

There she went straight to Cupid's chamber where the sadden goddess was sobbing in her bed.

Cupid had secretly tried to help Psyche through her obstacles, but as a god, she was not allowed to trespass the Underworld.

Now she was utterly worried regarding the fate of her beloved girl. Venus stood by the door and watched her grieving child for a long moment. Then her mother's heart softened, and she cleared her throat.

"I see that you must have your way," Venus said to her daughter. "Stop your lamentation now and tell me what is your wish."

Cupid wiped her eyes.

"My wife," she said in a scratchy voice. "I want my wife back."

"Very well then, you shall have her," Venus spoke with a defeated sigh. Cupid looked at her mother with teary eyes. She was surprised by what she heard.

"Are you true to your words?" she asked Venus. "Then swear me an oath, mother, swear it over the river Styx, that you shall never harm Psyche by any means."

Venus sighed in annoyance but she complied.

"Yes, I swear it over the great Styx," she said. "Now sharpen your darts and get back to work, or you shall drive us all mad with melancholy."

Cupid's heart bloomed with joy. She could no longer bear Psyche's long separation from her, so she spread her majestic wings and glided out of the high-set window and dove straight down to earth.

Urged by delight and anticipation, she flew much more swiftly to reach her Psyche.

But to her despair, the goddess found her lover lying on the ground near the entrance of Tartarus.

She swooped down and gathered the lifeless maiden into her arms. Tears sprang from her eyes as she stroked Psyche's pale cheeks.

"Oh, my dear Psyche, the soul of my life," Cupid exclaimed between broken sobs. "See how your curiosity has been your undoing? Why did you leave me in sorrows before I could come to rescue you?"

She buried her golden face into Psyche's bosom and let out a mournful cry. The world crumpled even more with her weeping.

Then devoured by overpowering needs to bring her wife back, Cupid picked her up and rose lightly with her wings then flying back to Olympus.

She went to heaven's peak on a swift flight and sought an audience with Jupiter.

With a suppliant posture, she laid her pregnant wife before the great god. Jupiter took Cupid's little tear-stained face between his forefinger and thumb.

"Honored daughter of Venus, you have never shown me the respect granted me by the gods' decree," Jupiter said, looking at the goddess with his deep blue eyes. "You keep piercing this heart of mine, which balances the elements and the changing motion of stars, with countless wounds. Ever since you were a baby, you have blackened it with repeated impulses of earthly lust, damaging my prestige and reputation by involving me in despicable adulteries. You have transformed my smiling face into grisly shapes of snakes, fires, beasts, birds, and cattle. Yet in spite of all this, I recall that you had brought about many great gods as my children. So I shall comply with all that you ask-as long as you know how to keep love among mortals and gods, and if at this moment there is on earth any nymph or maiden of outstanding beauty, you might unite me with her."

Cupid had to agree to anything the king asked. All she could think of was bringing Psyche's life back from her deathlike sleep.

Jupiter gave Cupid a cup of ambrosia. The goddess brought divine food and fed Psyche with it.

Slowly light came to the maiden's face like a moonrise. Her body floated into the air with a golden glow. Then two radiant wings sprouted from her shoulders, and like a butterfly bursts from its dull cocoon, so the human Psyche blossomed into immortality.

The newly made goddess opened her brilliant eyes again and found the lovely face that she had longed to see.

"Cupid!" she cried and flew into her embrace. "You have come to me at last. I thought I would never see you again."

Cupid kissed her sweet face all over while apologizing for what her mother had put her through.

"My breath, my soul, your love has conquered all. I am proud to call you my wife and my true joy," Cupid said. "From this day onward, we shall never be apart again."

Then they shared another long sweet kiss.

Jupiter then sent Mercury to summon all the gods at once to an assembly, and to declare that any absentee from the convocation of heavenly citizens would be liable to a fine of ten thousand sesterces.

Through fear of this sanction, the theater of heaven soon filled up with all the immortal beings.

Towering over them, Jupiter seated on his lofty throne and made his official speech.

"You gods whose names are sung by the Muses," he said, looking at each of them. "You all surely know that young Cupid is in great grief, and this shall affect everyone if she does not have her dearest one. I have decided that the hot-heated goddess needs to be reined in. She has been the subject of enough notoriety and all manner of improprieties. We must deprive her of this misfortune. Therefore, her juvenile behavior must be shackled with the chains of marriage. So far, she has chosen a girl and claimed her virginity, so she must hold her and be with her. Now let goddess Cupid take Psyche in her embrace and enjoy her beloved one ever after."

"Ever after!" The other gods chorused. Jupiter then turned to address the quiet Venus.

"My daughter," he said, "do not harbor any more resentment. Have no fear for your high lineage or this reunion to a mortal maiden, for I shall declare it a lawful marriage. I ordered that Psyche be remained in heaven. Cupid has fed her ambrosia. Now the maiden is a goddess and your daughter's equal. Therefore, their reunion shall also be eternal."

"As you wish, Father Jupiter," Venus said with a bow.

At once, a lavish wedding-feast was laid for the gods. The wedded pair reclined on a golden couch of honor.

Jupiter likewise was paired with Juno, and all the other deities sat in order of status. Then a cup of nectar, the god's wine, was served to Jupiter by his personal cup-bearer, and the other by Bacchus.

Vulcan cooked the dinner with his hot fire. The Horae brightened the scene with roses and other flowers of all seasons. The Nymphae and the Gratae diffused heavenly perfume while the Muses sang and danced in harmony. Apollo played his lyre as Pan played his reed pipes.

Venus, who was bound by her sacred oath tried to treat her daughter-in-law with respect. Then after being intoxicated with joyous drink and laughter, she took to the floor to the strains of sweet music and danced prettily. She organized the performance so that the Muses sang in chorus while the satyrs played the flutes.

Psyche was once again wedded to Cupid, the goddess of love. They sat encircled in each other's arms. Their beautiful smiles mirrored one another, and the two young goddesses leaned in for a loving kiss.

The celebration continued deep into the night, but the pair retired to their chamber and rejoiced in sweet love-making. Cupid kissed the swollen belly of her lover and reacquainted herself with her honeyed sweet depths. Their cries of pleasure blended with the songs and music throughout the festive heavens.

Shortly after, Psyche went into quick and painless labor, and she gave birth to a beautiful baby girl.

They named their daughter, Voluptas, which means 'pleasure'.

~The End~