Reading Notes: Reading A: Cupid and Psyche

For my Week 4 reading I chose Apuleius’s Cupid and Psyche stories. I chose this reading because I already enjoy stories about the gods in Greek mythology and it is also a romantic story (a topic most women are drawn too). At first, I was confused by the first two stories The Captive Women and Her Dream because they were not talking about the main story, then I realized it was setting up for the telling of the story. I really like this aspect, it reminded me of movie “Princess Bride” where the grandfather is telling the grandson the story to help him feel better on a sick day. Another aspect of the story that seemed very familiar was the evil older sisters who were jealous of their younger sister. This is like the evil step-sisters that Cinderella has to face in her romantic fairytale. After reading through the first groups of stories, I am leaning towards making the story more modernized. I like the direction of the reading even though Psyche is going through a hard time, thinking she has lost her beautiful husband forever, I get the feeling she is not going to settle so easily. She has already gotten revenge on her evil sisters, so next she needs to find her happy ending.

Evil step-sisters and mother from Disney's Cinderella. Source: Flickr by Amy