Animal Brides and Bridegrooms 242 268 1 Cupid and Psyche Apuleius king and queen had 3 daughters 2 elder were charming 3rd was most beautiful people from other countries came to see her paid her respect that only Venus should have Venus found her altars deserted men devoted themselves to the girl venus calls her son cupid and provokes him to get revenge for her cupid agrees there are 2 water fountains in venus s garden one sweet one bitter cupid filled 2 amber vases and took them to psyche where he found her asleep he shed a few drops from the bitter fountain over her lips then touched her side with his arrow she awoke opened her eyes to cupid who is invisible he was startled and wounded himself with his own arrow he poured the sweet water on her psyche was cursed not able to marry and her 2 sisters were long married her parents were afraid they had angered the gods and consulted the oracle of Apollo he said she is destined for no mortal lover her future husband is at the top of the mountain he is a monster whom neither gods nor men can resist her parents took her to the mountain and left her while psyche stood on the mountain crying the gentle Zephyr raised her from the earth and put her in a flowery dale she laid down to sleep when she woke up she went to a grove of trees and went in discovered a mountain with a palace on top that was made by gods she went to the building and was admiring all the gold objects inside when a voice said it was all hers and that the voices were her servants her husband only came at night and left before dawn she had not yet seen him she asked to behold him but he says he wants her to love him as an equal not adore him as a god psyche felt like her palace was a prison she told her husband her distress one night and he agreed to let her sisters come visit her she called zephyr and told him to bring them down to her sisters valley and told them to come to her palace sisters asked her what kind of person her husband was she told them he was a young man who spent the daytime hunting in the mountains but they made her confess that she had never seen him they told her they had heard that her husband is a giant serpent who will nourish her for a while then devour her they told her to get a knife and a lamp and hide them from her husband wait until he is asleep take the lamp to see if he really is a serpent and if he is cut his head off she went to see him he was actually a charming god when she tried to look closer a drop of hot oil from the lamp dripped on his shoulder he woke up and flew out the window psyche fell from window to ground to try to follow him Cupid held her and said he could not be with her if she was suspicious so he left her she found herself in a field near her sisters home she told them about what happened they pretended to grieve and believed he would now choose one of them they went to the top of the mountain and asked Zephyr to take them to the lord they fell down the mountain and into pieces psyche meanwhile had been searching for her husband she saw a mountain with a temple on it and decided to go there she entered and saw heaps of corn and barley and instruments of harvesting psyche sorted all of it to their proper places ceres the owner of the temple told her to go to Venus and beg her forgiveness Venus greeted her angrily and said the only way she will forgive her is by testing her housewifery Psyche is led to a storehouse to sort grains by the end of the night Psyche sat there dumbly without doing any work because she was in despair cupid sent ants to sort the grains for her Venus showed up at the end of the evening did not believe Psyche did the work and gave her black bread for supper Next day venus sent psyche to a flock of sheep without a shepherd and get a sample of each s fur the river god said not to cross in daylight because the sheep would hurt her with their horns and teeth but that it was safe to cross at night psyche returns with wool venus again turns her down sends her with a box to Prosperine to ask her for some of her beauty because in tending for her sick son she lost some of hers she goes to the top of a tower to kill herself when a voice tells her to go through a cave to get to the realms of Pluto and how to avoid all the dangers on the way voice tells her not to look in the box out of curiosity she took the advice and was let into the castle of Prosperine and she received the box of beauty on her way back she decided to take a tiny amount of beauty opened the box and was grabbed by an infernal and she fell down in the road a sleepy corpse cupid flew to where psyche lay gathered her sleep and put it in the box and she awoke by the touch of his arrow cupid went to see Jupiter and asked him to help Jupiter asked for her acceptance of the lovers and she did Jupiter had Mercury bring her up to the heavens and he made her immortal she stayed with Cupid and they had a daughter named Pleasure 2 East of the Sun and West of the Moon Norway poor peasant with so many kids he could not feed or clothe them youngest was prettiest one day the weather was rough and dark raining and windy they were all around the fire when someone tapped on the window 3 times father went to the door to see a giant white bear bear said he would make the man very rich if he gave him his youngest daughter daughter would not agree to go man told the bear to come back next week for an answer daughter finally agreed to go bear came to get her she got on his back they came to a steep cliff bear knocked they came into a castle bear gave her a bell to ring when she needed anything rung the bell and ended up in a room with a large bed to sleep in she went to sleep and a man came in to sleep with her it was the bear who took off his pelt but she never saw him she was sad because she wanted to see her family bear said she could but could not talk to her mother alone or they would get …