Erich Neumann - Amor and Psyche: The Psychic Development of the Feminine

The International Library of Psychology

AMOR AND PSYCHE

Founded by C. K. Ogden

The International Library of Psychology

ANALYTICAL PSYCHOLOGY
In 12 Volumes

AMOR AND PSYCHE

The Psychic Development of the Feminine

A Commentary on the Tale by Apuleius

ERICH NEUMANN

First published in 1956 by

Routledge

Reprinted in 1999, 2002 by

Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge

711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Transferred to Digital Printing 2007

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group

First issued in paperback 2013

1956 by Bollingen Foundation/Princeton University Press Reprinted by permission of Princeton University Press

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

The publishers have made every effort to contact authors/copyright holders of the works reprinted in the International Library of Psychology.

This has not been possible in every case, however, and we would welcome correspondence from those individuals/companies we have been unable to trace.

These reprints are taken from original copies of each book. In many cases the condition of these originals is not perfect. The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of these reprints, but wishes to point out that certain characteristics of the original copies will, of necessity, be apparent in reprints thereof.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Amor and Psyche

ISBN 978-0-415-20942-7 (hbk)

ISBN 978-0-415-86429-9 (pbk)

CONTENTS

The text used for the tale of Amor and Psyche is from H. E. Butlers translation of The Metamorphoses or Golden Ass of Apuleius of Madaura, published at the Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1910, in two volumes, and used with the permission of the Press. Archaic forms of address have been changed to modern forms except in passages where a mortal addresses a god or goddess, or a creature or inanimate thing addresses a mortal. In a few other cases, the language has been modified to remove rather extreme archaisms or to conform with the German translation (by Albrecht Schaeffer) originally used by Dr. Neumann, where this was necessary to bring out Dr. Neumanns meaning. In general, the name of the god is given as Amor throughout the tale rather than Cupid.

Acknowledgment is gratefully made, also, to the Hogarth Press for a quotation from J. B. Irishmans translation of Rainer Maria Rilkes Poems; to Farrar, Straus, and Cudahy for a passage from Robert Graves translation of The Golden Ass (U.S. copyright 1951 by Robert Graves); and to Miss Emily Chisholm for a passage from her unpublished translation of Rilkes Alcestis.

Based on the Translation of H. E. Butler

Amor and Psyche

I N a certain city there once lived a king and queen. They had three daughters very fair to view. But whereas it was thought that the charms of the two eldest, great as they were, could yet be worthily celebrated by mortal praise, the youngest daughter was so strangely and wonderfully fair that human speech was all too poor to describe her beauty, or even to tell of its praise. Many of the citizens and multitudes of strangers were drawn to the town in eager crowds by the fame of so marvelous a sight and were struck dumb at the sight of such unapproachable loveliness, so that, raising their right hands to their lips, with thumb erect and the first finger laid to its base, they worshiped her with prayers of adoration as though she were the goddess Venus herself. And now the fame had gone abroad, through all the neighboring towns and all the country round about, that the goddess, who sprang from the blue deep of the sea and was born from the spray of the foaming waves, had deigned to manifest her godhead to all the world and was dwelling among earthly folk; or, if that was not so, it was certain, they said, that heaven had rained fresh procreative dew, and earth, not sea, had brought forth as a flower a second Venus in all the glory of her maidenhood.

This new belief increased each day, until it knew no bounds. The fame thereof had already spread abroad to the nearest islands and had traversed many a province and a great portion of the earth. And now many a mortal journeyed from far and sailed over the great deeps of ocean, flocking to see the wonder and glory of the age. Now no man sailed to Paphos or Cnidos, or even to Cythera, that they might behold the goddess Venus; her rites were put aside, her temples fell to ruin, her sacred couches were disregarded, her ceremonies neglected, her images uncrowned, her altars desolate and foul with fireless ashes. It was to a girl men prayed, and it was in the worship of mortal beauty that they sought to appease the power of the great goddess. When the maid went forth at morning, men propitiated the name of Venus with feast and sacrifice, though Venus was not there; and as the maid moved through the streets, multitudes prayed to her and offered flowers woven in garlands or scattered loose at will.

But the true Venus was exceedingly angry that divine honors should be transferred thus extravagantly to the worship of a mortal maid. She could bear her fury no longer, her head shook, a deep groan burst from her lips, and thus she spoke with herself: Behold, I the first parent of created things, the primal source of all the elements; behold, I Venus, the kindly mother of all the world, must share my majesty and honor with a mortal maid, and my name that dwells in the heavens is dragged through the earthly muck. Shall I endure the doubt cast by this vicarious adoration, this worship of my godhead that is shared with her? Shall a girl that is doomed to die parade in my likeness? It was in vain the shepherd, on whose impartial justice Jove set the seal of his approval, preferred me over such mighty goddesses for my surpassing beauty. But this girl, whoever she be, that has usurped my honors shall have no joy thereof. I will make her repent of her beauty, even her unlawful loveliness.