Eros, God of Love

My second entry for heroes section of the Disney Club's latest contest: [link]

Hero: Eros, also known as Cupid
Sidekick: Cherubino, the mischievous troublemaker, responsible for Zeus's wandering eye.

One day, the goddess Aphrodite learned of a princess who was so beautiful that mortals had begun to forget Aphrodite in favor of this presumptuous female. Aphrodite was furiously jealous, and went to her son Eros, to demand his help. She demanded that he go and shoot this brat of a woman with one of his love arrows, so that she would fall in love with the most foul thing he could find.

When Eros came to the woman while she slept, he discovered her to be so sweet and purely lovely, that he fell in love with her on the spot, and could not do as his mother wanted. In despair, he fled back to Mount Olimpus. Where he wandered in a lovesick haze.

Now, the woman, known as Psyche, was terribly alarmed at the attention she was receiving from her fellow mortals. She knew it must anger the gods to have such worship wrongly placed. Also, it left her very lonely, for no man would dare woo a woman he thought a goddess, and she feared she would die an old maid, with no one to love. So, one day, she went to the Oracle at Delphi, to see if there was some way to appease the gods for the effrontery of her people. The Oracle declared that she was to be married to a creature even the most powerful of gods feared. This news alarmed her family, for what sort of monster could strike fear into such glorious beings. They wept for Psyche, begging her to abandon such folly, but Psyche was resolved in her choice, and would not be swayed.

So, Psyche went up to a high place, where Zephyr, the west wind, found her and carried her off to the home of her new husband. She learns there that she is not allowed to see her husband, during the day he is invisible to her, and during the night there is no light to see him by. This was a condition that Aphrodite insisted upon in her anger over the situation. Despite this, Psyche falls in love with her husband as they spend time together.

Over time, she grows homesick for her family, and her two sisters are brought to visit her. They are shocked that she has not seen her husband's face, and worry that she may have married a horrible beast. When they leave her, they give her a candle, telling her she must discover what she has married. She frets over the problem for several nights, before curiosity gets the better of her.

Wonder of wonders! She has not married a beast, but in fact beautiful winged man! In her wonder, she lets the candle tip over, and a splash of wax falls onto his chest, waking him. In terrible sorrow, He tells her of Aphrodite's anger, and how he must leave her now. Psyche is heartbroken, and going to Aphrodite's temple, she begs the jilted goddess for forgiveness, begs her to return her husband. After a while, Aphrodite finally relents, but only on the condition that Psyche complete a series of difficult tasks. The last of these tasks is for Psyche to go and ask for a box of the goddess Persephone's beauty. Persephone is the queen of the underworld, and her beauty is unfading, and apparently Aphrodite would like to borrow some.

To the underworld goes Psyche, and the box she does get. As Psyche is returning to the temple, she thinks to herself that all these tasks she's had to complete have left her a little worse for wear. She wants to look her best for her husband, and surely Aphrodite won't miss just the smallest bit from the box? So, Psyche opens the box, but the godly beauty is to much for a mere mortal, and she falls down as one dead. Now, Eros has been watching invisible since he had to leave her, and when she collapses, he rushes to her side. He wakes with a kiss, and finally reunited, they live happily ever after.