Psyche

Psyche is a former mortal princess who married Eros, the god of love. After proving her worth to Aphrodite, she became the Olympian goddess of the Human Soul.

Early Life
Psyche was born as the youngest of three daughters to the rulers of a Greek city. Since her childhood, she was an object of admiration and envy because of her extraordinary beauty. Crowds would gather in the street below to admire her as if they were celebrating the beauty of a goddess. Fearing the gods would punish them, she tried to discouraged these actions to not avail.

As she matured and became increasingly beautiful, Psyche grew miserable - no one wanted to be friends with her as they were too threatened by her beauty and no one dared to court her as the only love she could inspire in them was more of a hopeless infatuation. Her sisters were so jealous of her that, while they gave the appearance of being nice to her, they said the mean things about her behind her back and encouraged others to be mean to her as well.

Marriage with Eros
Jealous that they were worshiping a mortal girl instead of her, Aphrodite ordered her son Eros, the god of love, to make Psyche fall in love with a hideous creature. However, he fell in love with Psyche instead. The Oracle of Delphi told Psyche's father that a beast feared by even the gods required to him to put Psyche on the tallest spire of rock on the kingdom. As no mortal could disobey the Oracle, Psyche jumped to her death, only to be saved by Zephyr, god of the West Wind. He took her to a sprawling white villa with rose gardens and filled with invisible servants.

One of the servants said that her husband, the invisible lord of the house, would arrive after dark. When the time came, Psyche couldn't see him as it was so dark. He said he couldn't show her his identity because then their marriage would fall apart and she'd suffer terribly, but the two befriended each other and she fell in love. During their time together, she got pregnant, a fact nobody noticed until a few months later.

One day, Psyche wanted to go home to visit her family, but her husband told her that she could never come back if she left. He revealed that she was actually under death sentence by the gods, especially Aphrodite, so she'd be exposed if she left. Psyche convinced him to bring her sisters to him instead, so Zephyr took them there. Jealous of her husband's lavish riches, her sisters convinced Psyche to murder the "terrifying beast" that was her husband. Later that evening, Psyche took a razor and went to her chambers with open eyes, only to find that her husband was actually Eros. He woke up when a drop of hot oil from the lamp she had burned his shoulder. Trying to beg for mercy, Psyche grabbed the left ankle of Eros, who flew away and dropped her under a cypress tree. Furious and heartbroken that she had betrayed his trust, Eros disappeared from their palace and ran to his mother.

Aphrodite's Trials
Upon hearing a comment from Pan nearby, Psyche decided to go find Eros herself so that she could reconcile with him. But first, a vengeful Psyche caused the death of her sisters by tricking them into falling off of cliffs, saying that Zephyr would save them.

After walking for days, Psyche decided to rest and ask for help in the nearby temples, which she decided to clean after finding them dirty and forgotten. When she cleaned a temple of Demeter, the goddess appeared to her and thanked her, but revealed Psyche had to find Eros on her own. Psyche later cleaned an altar of Hera, who thanked her but said that she couldn't protect her from Aphrodite. Hearing her, Psyche decides to confront the goddess of beauty herself.

As Eros was still recovering, he told her mother what had really happened, much to Aphrodite's fury. Upon being brought in Aphrodite's palace by Hera, Aphrodite made Psyche complete several tasks if she wanted to be her son's wife or she would die. First, she had to sort out mountains grains into the correct bags before dinner time. Demeter sent ants to do it as a thank you for cleaning her temple. Next, Psyche had to fetch some wool of sheep for clothes to mend. Some reeds near a river got it for her as Hera's reward for cleaning her altar. Then, Psyche had to travel up a tall mountain to fill a pitcher of water from a sacred spring, one of the headwaters for the River Styx. Having overheard this, Eros convinced Zeus to send an eagle to get the water instead.

Furious that Psyche had passed them all, Aphrodite decided the final task: Psyche was to go to the Underworld and ask Persephone if she could borrow some beauty cream. Appearing as a towering rock, a hidden Eros told Psyche that there is a volcanic crater leading to the Underworld. She paid Charon two Golden drachmas and gave Cerberus honey-flavored rice cakes from Sparta in order to get inside. At Hades' Palace, Persephone put light in the rosewood box Psyche had and told her not to open it.

On the way out of the Underworld, a very dirty-looking and tired Psyche decided to take some of the beauty cream for herself because unlike Aphrodite, she really needed it. Instead of beauty cream, Persephone actually put Stygian sleep inside, the essence of the Underworld, intended for Aphrodite for causing problems before. The Stygian sleep filled Psyche's lungs which caused her to pass out.

Godhood
Eventually, having regained his strength, Eros flew to Psyche, but found her in a delicate state. He took her to Mount Olympus during one of Apollo's plays, which was when Aphrodite arrived. He pleaded with Zeus to save his wife's life, and to make her a goddess amongst the Olympians. This enraged Aphrodite, who immediately shut down the idea. However, the other Olympians disagreed with her, and so Psyche was made a goddess. Soon afterwards, Psyche gave birth to Hedone, goddess of pleasure.