INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
When Zeus granted immortality to Psyche, he had only one condition. He told Cupid:
“You may spend an eternity with your soul mate, as Psyche’s soul has earned its place in the realm of divinity.” Psyche, who was standing next to Cupid, smiled deeply.
“You showed me that there was more than human in you. You fought to win not just love, but true love; the root of a true soul mate. You found it with him, the master of love and I congratulate you on this.”
“But.” He paused. Cupid swallowed hard, knowing there was always a catch. He glanced at his mother, Venus, who was sitting next to Zeus at the thrown of Olympus. He knew she had something to do with it, as her jealousy of beauty always got the best of her.
“There is that of your predecessors.” Psyches face fell from a smile to a frown. Cupid stood silent and Venus sat with a hard smile.
“Cupid, you symbolize the angel of love and Psyche, you symbolize self-search and sacrifice in the name of real love. Your story is one that the gods want to be remembered. Through personal growth, learning, losing and saving, you two defined what no one has before, a new term we will call: soul mates: “Soul”, deeper than the heart and strong as the soul and “mates”, two individuals whose fate brought them together.
“What that of our predecessors?” Psyche blurted out. Zeus stared from Psyche to Cupid, then Cupid to his bolt. Venus sat up straighter.
“I will grant immortality to your first child whom will bear the last name Amor, but those after will be mortal; a mere human.” Zeus explained with a sly smile, as if he were proud of this sudden idea.
“I am aghast.” Psyche whispered, and Cupid sighed.
“Oh my beautiful one, your fate was destined as a human, your reward came to be immortality. What more remembrance than that? As my powers are great, I will not grant more than that for you. The humans will search for their soul mate, as you searched and found yours.” Venus winced with envy.
“How will this be?” Cupid asked with a tone. Zeus glared.
“My childish one, you know your love is only but a clumsy coincidence. Venus, although as irrational as you, told me of your fate. So here is what will be done.” Psyche, fully aware that their fate was destined by foolish gain, started tearing up. She knew this was all too good to be true, but then again, she knew that regardless of whom of the gods she loved; humans, even if immortal, would never be equal to gods.
“As gods, under exception, may not converse with humans, and so your ancestors will not know of their immortal past, but only know the importance of love over all else. The Amor line will pass down from generation to generation, as humans who filled out a god’s deed.” Zeus glanced over at Venus. She smiled a wide smile, loving the fate brought upon her foolish child and his lover.
“They will be ancestors of gods, as so deserving more than the human name.” She motioned to Cupids wings and Psyches beautiful face. “We will call them… Angelos, because angels are the most beautiful of all winged creatures and they are descendants of the most famous angel himself: Cupid.”
Cupids cheeks suddenly reddened, making him look more like a child than his usual preexisting demeanor.
“You had help, right my lovely?” Zeus asked Psyche. She nodded slowly.
“Therefore, I will grant help. At the age of 16, they will receive a pendent in the shape of an arrow, in which I will hand make myself to ensure my bargain. Then, and only then, will they learn about their ancestors and fate. They will learn of the story of Cupid and Psyche, and hence forward, follow their own fate. The pendent will be blue as sorrow and the closer they find their soul mate, the redder it becomes. The darkest of reds means the strongest feeling of the heart; the soul.”
“Why 16?” Cupid asked and Zeus laughed.
“Dear Cupid, because at 16, you’d hope that one would start to grow out of their childish phase. We can’t continue to have irrational loves and clumsy coincidences, can we?” Cupid bowed his head in shame. He hadn’t always had the best reputation, hence the reason why everyone continued to call him a child, but he thought he had redeemed himself with this. He felt the two arrows, that he consistently carried on his back, jab him as a reminder of his past failures.
“What ensures that they will find their soul mate?” Psyche bellowed without thinking. Zeus pounded his bolt into the marble ground.
“What ensures us of anything? One would think an arrow can ensure love, but we have seen that is not always the case. What ensures that the special one will be hit with the golden arrow or the one made of lead? Will they love, or detest, with all desire?” He glanced at Cupid, then his eyes fell back on Psyche.
“Do not test me! Have you not seen how a human loves? They go from human to human until they find one “suitable” enough for them. What mere pain that must be. What I am rewarding them with is a gift. You showed me something I have never seen before, but I want to continue to see if it exists, or if what we call “soul mates” was in fact, just a childish fluke. This is the greatest gift I could give to any human!” Zeus beamed.
“What happens if they don’t find their soulmate?”
“The pendent will not guide falsely. But… what would you do if you lost your soul mate?” Zeus asked Cupid. Cupid looked up at the god of all gods.
“My soul would darken to death.” He replied quietly. Psyche gave him a saddened look and nodded in agreement. She knew at that, the fate of those who lost.
“For those who redeem their soul through the pendent will live a life of freedom. They will have found their fate and after can live a life that they so choose… whatever humans see fit: get a job, have children, travel the world… things that only humans can find truly appealing.” Zeus explained with disgust.
“So it is a game?” Psyche asked.
“A game of the heart, yes.”
“Why so cruel?” Cupid spat out. Venus snarled.
“You have played the ultimate game of the heart with the arrows. Who better to play than you?” Venus barked. The room fell silent.
“How do we know the other loves them back the same?” Psyche finally asked. Zeus laughed his deep laugh, and looked at Cupid to answer. Cupid, who finally understood the rules of the god, answered for him.
“Just as likely as you know one will love the other struck by my arrow. If one truly is in love, they will meet in a lifetime.” He whispered. “A soulmate may not be the one you are meant to be with. They may only be meant to meet, and just enough to make you see the person you are supposed to be. They say that one is dead in the soul until their soulmate comes into their life and awakens them. We were lucky my dear love, as we are lucky he is granting you immortality.” Cupid continued. Cupid couldn’t help but feel there was some underlining vendetta planned between the gods towards the humans as Zeus talked, but he couldn’t get himself to look further into it as he, himself, had already decided rather or not Psyche should take the deal.
“Right you are my boy.” Zeus added. He looked at Cupid, who sighed with final understanding of the Angelo curse, as he would so put it.
“My love.” He paused and grabbed Psyches hand. “It is a test. Yes, it is a game of the heart, but it is also a test of the ultimate thing that any world stems from: Love. The one thing that humans and gods have in common. It is a test to see if our love was worth the ultimate sacrifice, a lifelong search for the soul that awakens the body, the mind, but most of all, the soul of the heart. Just as my arrows spark the heart inside, the pendent will spark the soul for the mortal. In turn, they will feel and experience what we as gods feel and experience, an equality that really is rather unnecessary I must say. Zeus is testing whether or not mere humans can handle the strongest desire. Can they be an equal to us in some manner, as love is the only relation? By putting their hearts in front of all else, our descendants will live a life of freedom, but if they can’t, they may live a soulless life, till death does them part.” Psyches eyes grew wide.
Venus responded to this reaction: “Everything comes with a price, pretty one; a sacrifice. Cupid sacrificed the possibility of losing you, and I will take fault in that. Now it is your turn. Psyche, you broke Cupids one promise, you awoke the hells, and you received more help than you ever deserved. Now you are asking for immortality.”
“I am asking to be with whom my soul loves.” She whispered and squeezed her gods hand.
“This is not to be cruel.” Zeus finally said. “I only want to see if humans can in fact have the same fate as gods. You proved yourself worthy Psyche, but can others like you follow? Who better to test than the blood line of you? But if you so feel it to be cruel, Venus is right, everything comes with a price; a sacrifice.” All fell silent.
Finally, Zeus spoke up, his voice calm but firm like a gods only could be.
“So what is it going to be?” Zeus looked right at Psyche. Cupid looked down, knowing his place.
“You went through hell and back to be with your soul mate, and I highly applaud you for your success. I will even give you immortality so your search was not for nothing. But how far will you go? Refuse the immortality and I will excuse the game of the heart. Or, choose what you fought so hard for and let us see if humans are really willing to do anything for their soul. Stand up for the humans. Hercules did it; you did it. God versus human; one for one. So what do you say?” He asked again, with a sly smile.
“Is your love worth the fate of anothers human heart?” Venus added with a wicked grin.
This was the ultimate test for Pysche, worse than the four tasks before. If she died, Cupids soul would most certainly die and if she lived, their souls would live on together. As a mortal, she would lose her soul regardless, having knowing she would soon lose the one she loved most. Immortal, she was leaving a fate for others that may not be as successful as she where her soul would get to live forever.
“It is a deal.” She finally answered. Zeus roared at the top of his lungs, his bolt shattering against the hard marble creating a boom across the whole room. Cupid couldn’t have been happier, as the latter would have been too much to bare.
“You are my soul mate, and I would have searched an eternity for you if I had to.” She cried out at her childish husband.
“And so it shall be done. Your search may be over my dear children, but the real search has just begun.” Cupid couldn’t help but wince. What harm could they have actually done? Wouldn’t everyone sacrifice some hardship to find their soulmate, and feel what he felt now? He had watched humans for centuries, even having accidentally thrown arrows at them. Even though it caused a solution of lust, he could only think of how the pendants would work better. Their fate were in the palm of their hands. Obviously there were things that gods could handle that humans couldn’t, but isn’t love all the same? This love, they acquired was only deeper than the heart, so what could be so different as finding your love to finding your soul mate?
Zeus granted Psyche immortality and they soon had a daughter named Precious. Though she were immortal, generations passed and the fate of the Amors began. And so the story continues…
