Monday, February 9, 2015

Trusting Cupid?

What is your reaction to the Cupid And Psyche myth's proclamation about "trust" within relationships? Please comment with quotations and/or references from the myth. This blog response should be completed by 2:30p.m. on Thursday, February 12th, 2015.

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

Trust to me is a two sided street that both party's must be willing to participate in. You cant just order someone to do something and not give a reason for it. Cupid just told her never to look at his face not really giving a reason why so of course psych going to want to look its in human nature to do so.

Anonymous said...

I think that this story centers on the power of true love. Psyche first doubts her love, feeling that she must see Cupid in the flesh. She later redeems herself many times over when she proves her commitment, overcoming all obstacles in her way. Figuratively, love(Cupid) and the soul("psyche" is the greek word for the soul) belong together in an inseparable bond. When Cupid sees Psyche, the soul in its beauty, he immediately wants to join with her. Somehow, this beauty is admired by men but does not lead to the love that eventuates in marriage. But Cupid is able to fully appreciate Psyche's beauty. In the end of the myth Venus, Psyche, and Cupid all reach a positive resolution, that when love is pure, all pains, sorrows, and challenges will align to ensure that love is realized. Even nature, as the ants and eagle demonstrate and support true love.

Anonymous said...

Trust is the most important aspect to a relationship. The actual myth states, "Love cannot live where there is no trust," he said, and flew away. "The God of Love!" she thought. "He was my husband, and I, wretch that I am could not keep my faith in him (96)." This phrase represents the importance of trust. But however, the way the myth expresses "trust" is a little bit extreme. It wasn't technically considered fair for Psyche to never be able to see her husband.

Anonymous said...

I think the myth is saying that trust is the most important part of love. Love without trust is not really love at all. I agree with this and think that overall it is a pretty good story, but I also think that it is crazy that Psyche wasn't allowed to look at her husband. I think that is a bit strange to never look at the person that you are married to. Psyche probably felt the same way and found it hard to trust someone she couldn't see. Which is why I think that could be another reason for Psyche to look at her husband other than her curiosity.

Anonymous said...

I do think that trust is a vital part of a healthy relationship, but I think that it's also about equality. Trust is needed for a relationship to function, but both people need to be equal. Although Psyche should've trusted Cupid, it wasn't very fair of him to give her rules to follow with no explanation. When Psyche's sisters come to visit, they tell her, "When her husband was fast asleep she must leave the bed, light the lamp, and get the knife." If Psyche's sisters hadn't come, she probably wouldn't have betrayed the trust, which shows that you shouldn't let others influence your relationship.

Anonymous said...

I heard a speaker talk about love recently. She said that in Greek, there are three words for love. Eros is the physical and temporary love. This doesn't need trust to exist. This is more hormones and desire. The next kind of love is philios. This is brotherly love and being kind to those around you. Again, I don't think this necessarily requires trust to exist as much as selflessness. The strongest love is agape. This is unconditional love that gives 100% without expecting anything in return; Agape takes effort. This kind of love cannot exist without trust. I think that Cupid and Psyche had a love similar to this until Psyche looked at Cupid. Then their love still existed, but not on the level it originally was. And then, Psyche had to prove her worthiness and regain Cupid's trust. Only then could their love be deeper than it was before. They both had to face challenges and overcome them. What they then had was the beautiful love that comes from purity and trust.

Anonymous said...

I believe that Eros (Cupid) and Psyche represent more than meets the eyes. Eros is the depiction of love, and Psyche means soul in Greek. Their union is of the heart and soul, essentially.

In the myth, Eros develops feelings for Psyche but Psyche knows nothing of him - thus describing how we, as human beings, have the tendency to develop feelings for someone and even love them when deep down we recognize them as little more than strangers. Further more, their nightly encounter are a representation of how we "get to know" someone. I say get to know with quotations because we only see the side of a person that they wish to reveal for us. Eros, representing the heart, is perfect at demonstrating this. The heart is so enamored with the object of our affection that we expose the side of us that we want to be seen which hiding that which we do not want to reveal in the dark.

Psyche's lighting a candle to reveal Eros's form is, to me, symbolism that deep down we want to know everything about someone's love for us before we can devote ourselves to them, even if what we observe are flaws. But when she sees him, he is technically not human. He is not a monster, but at this point I'm sure that Psyche (that the soul) can never imagine something it craves as anything repulsive. Instead she sees the wing. Today, because of the association between wings and angels, we forget that wings are that which carries birds to flight - thus signifying that Eros (our representation of love) only exists in absolute freedom.

The spilling of hot wax is more than an accident. It is metaphorically the sting/burn of betrayal. Of someone crossing a line that you set for your own comfort. Psyche trying to get assistance from the gods is like someone asking their friends for advice and coming to a draw. And her approaching Aphrodite, reminds me of someone approaching someone's significant other's friend for advice and winning their approval back before they can even think of talking to that whom they truly wish to converse with. It tells a great deal of Greek's culture and their attitudes about relationship.

Greek philosophers and story tellers were truly wise in their works, because they carefully assigned aspects of this myths to aspects of real life. These aspects are all obvious, but we often times overlook them as simple stories created for entertainment when really, it is a teaching of how love and relationships work and how to sustain this romance even in the worst situation.

Anonymous said...

I think this myth shows what love is in its purest and most true form. We learned in Western Civ. that Greeks focused on the idealistic forms of humans, and I think that extends to their characteristics. Greeks idealized everything, so they showed love in an idealistic form. At the heart of true love is trust. You cannot have true love without trust both ways. Once Psyche had satisfied her curiosity, she trusted Cupid, and, to be rather cliche, lived happily ever after. However, in today's society love is misused too often. People say "I love cake," and then turn around and say "I love my parents," as if these are equal things. And as such, love has been corrupted and watered down until it is simply a word. We have nearly lost the meaning of true love, but it can be found when unerring and complete trust is shown by both parties, and both parties are worthy of such trust.

Anonymous said...

I believe that the statement that Cupid and Psyche's myth says about trust in relationships is legitimate and applicable in everyday life. In the story, Cupid will not show his form to Psyche. When Psyche does look out of curiosity, it shows that she did not trust him completely, and their relationship hit a road block because trust is necessary within a relationship. However, the fact that they were able to overcome this in the future and show that they had made a mistake proves that love can overcome the hardships, and that mistakes can be fixed. I believe that this message that trust is vital in a relationship, and that challenges can be overcome, is applicable in all relationships.

Anonymous said...

I think that the story of cupid centers around the power of true love. At first Psyche doubts her love for Cupid, but eventually she comes around, but not trusting him and looking at Cupids face. Cupid then punishes her for that and starts to not see her and leaves her alone. Once she starts to act right Cupid comes back to her and their love is eternal.

Anonymous said...

I think the myth about Cupid and Psyche brings up a controversial topic that love can not exist where there is no trust. I agree with this statement. I think that trust is a very important component in love. You can not love someone who you do not trust. However, I think this myth exaggerates it a bit. I don't think that you should marry someone who will not let you see them, because in that sense, Cupid does not trust Psyche.

Anonymous said...

Trust is basically what holds love together. If two people in a relationship can't trust each other, then they might as well forget the relationship in the first place.

Anonymous said...

Trust I think is depicted very well in this myth. The myth shows us that a marriage cannot flourish without everything being, "In the light" but also that both parties must being willing to give and take. However, I believe anyone should be able to earn another persons trust back, it may not be through tasks, but other more realistic tasks.

Anonymous said...

The myth is said to be more about trust and not really about love. Tho it is also about love, trust commandeers the center of the story. Love is something natural and pure. Cupid says, "Love cannot live where there is no trust." Having read this story, Psyche was so in love with cupid, but she started to doubt her love because she wasn't allowed to see her own husband. When Psyche came in to Cupid's room late at night and dropped hot candle wax on cupid, it woke Cupid up; Psyche in general didn't have any trust at all and that to Cupid was a betrayal to their love. I think that is was never Psyche's intent to betray their love and trust. Cupid left and Psyche soon came back around and was willing to do anything even go through the toughest challenges just to be with Cupid again--- Over all Relationships isn't all about smooth sailing, but consists of obstacle courses 27/7. And and that each person is willing to go through the toughest things to keep the other one happy, with having trust in the relationship to keep love pure.

Anonymous said...

Trust is an agreement between two or more people, Cupid just says he wants her to do this with out question, to me this is very one sided, it is supposed to be two sided both people agreeing on what their relationship should look like. It is not fair for Cupid to hold her to those factors without giving her a reason.

Anonymous said...

I think trust has a big effect on a relationship. It is also two sided, because one person can feel trust and the other can't because then the relationship isn't going to be as strong. When there is trust it needs to be on both sides. Psyche broke Cupids trust by looking at him when she was told not to look at his face. Sometimes curiosity can overcome that, although Psyche broke Cupids trust she still loved him a lot and wanted to prove to him that she messed up and would do anything to fix that. Which shows a lot about her because, even though she broke the trust she would do anything to fix that, and in a relationship that could mean a lot to the other person.

Anonymous said...

I feel like trust in a relationship is extremely important, but I also believe that honesty is extremely important as well. In the myth of Cupid and Psyche, the trust nor honesty was there, it was honestly not even a relationship at all. This myth shows that a relationship will end up falling apart without trust. Without trust, neither one of the people in the relationship even know each other. You need to be able to trust somebody before you share who you are as a person to them. This myth did a good job illustrating how much people can love each other and how much some people will do to prove their love, but Cupid and Psyche were not good at demonstrating trust.

Anonymous said...

I think that trust is very important in a relationship. In the text Cupid and Psyche, psyche betrays cupid because curiosity and fear take over. Even though she betrayed cupid's trust, Psyche did what should could to get back the one she loved most. I also think that if someone betrays their loved one and does everything in their power to get them back that shows them that one person can be trusted again.

Anonymous said...

The myth Cupid and Psyche teaches readers that love cannot live were there is no trust, but also that trust can be regained. Trough out the myth the two lovers face hard challenges but against all odds they were able to get trough. Even tough the myth was from so long a go it still has values of love that we have today.

Anonymous said...

The myth Cupid and Psyche teaches readers that love cannot live were there is no trust, but also that trust can be regained. Trough out the myth the two lovers face hard challenges but against all odds they were able to get trough. Even tough the myth was from so long a go it still has values of love that we have today.

Anonymous said...

This myth is trying to say that relationships need trust and openness from both people in order for the relationship to be functional and healthy. Because she broke cupids trust by looking at him in the night time, that caused an issue. Yet it also caused an issue when cupid was not open with everything when it came to Psyche. Therefore problems on both sides and no full trust.

Anonymous said...

The story shares well about what trust means in a relationship. You have to earn back trust when it is broken. Cupid and Psyche show this theme that trust has to be earned. When trust is broken it has to be earned back which is realistic with life. When someone breaks your trust it has to be earned back and you never look back at the person the same way as before. I think it fully depicts the mistakes of couples and how keeping promises shows that person love. And trust helps someone to love another better.

Anonymous said...

This myth really demonstrated the most important factor in a relationship, trust. When Psyche let her curiosity get the best of her and looked at him when he was sleeping it proved that she lacked trust in the relationship. However; this didn't mean she didn't love Cupid. She was willing to work and do whatever she needed to do to save their relationship and this proved she was genuinely invested in it. Another side though questions Cupid. Was he really justified to ask psyche to trust him when she didn't even know him? Its an interesting myth but it really does demonstrate the power of trust in a relationship.