Essay: Women of Apuleius's Cupid and Psyche

(Venus Assigns a Task, by Giordano)

Within this reading women were the major characters, with only one main character being a male. Venus and Psyche were the two main women whom the story was about. Instead of making these women strong and powerful, they made them weak and jealous. Expect Venus she was supposed to be strong and powerful, but along with her power she was jealous. They went along with the notion that women are jealous of other women's beauty. That is not a good light to place on women, but more and more stories do it all the time. When writing this story I wish the writer would have represented women in a better light then he did. I wish Venus would have been the powerful beautiful woman she was without the jealously, and she could have helped Psyche when she was vulnerable and unable to be wed. If Venus would have been helpful instead of harmful she could have benefitted from it, if she would have helped Psyche find someone to wed then she could have had all the attention back on her like she wished. Psyche would have been to busy with her new hubby to be flaunting her stuff for everyone to see. Which is anything thing I found wrong with the story why would people come to look at Psyche just because she was beautiful, like she was some prize or something. This makes people think that women are items and all they are good for are their looks, if the writer would have made Psyche an beautiful powerful women instead of this innocent girl he might not have fallen into the typical womanizer label I am putting on him. Stories like this are what make people think women are only good for their looks, and being a wife. I do not agree with either one.


Reading Unit: Apuleius's Cupid and Psyche