the cave and told Aquilo, Auster (South Wind), and Eurus (East Wind), what Sun wanted of them. The Winds were saddened by the news of
Psyche's fate. She had danced and played in the palace garden with them. Each of them had blown through her hair, stroked her arms, and been rewarded with a smile of such sweetness that when any of the Winds thought of blowing through the kingdom as a storm, they went to another kingdom instead. They could not do anything that would turn her smile to sorrow. Understanding how Sun felt, they went quickly to work.
From his new home at the western edge of the world, Favonius saw his siblings blowing the clouds. When they told him what had happened and what they were doing, he began blowing the clouds in his western sphere toward the Kingdom-by-the-Great-Blue-Sea.
Soon the sky over the kingdom was filled with dark clouds so thick and heavy that Sister Moon, thinking she had overslept, started to get out of bed. But then she noticed that Evening Star was still snoring quietly, and she was always up before Sister Moon.
"Why is it so dark?" Sister Moon asked aloud.
"That's Brother Sun's doing," answered North Star, who never slept. "The Four Winds have covered him with every cloud in the heavens, and he's hiding behind them, bawling like he's never going to shine again. I believe he's having a nervous breakdown."
"Serves him right!" Sister Moon mumbled and got back under the covers. She and Brother Sun had a long courtship once, and it looked like they were going to get married. But then Brother Sun saw Psyche for the first time. After that, he
didn't have eyes for anybody else. But if the truth be known, Sister Moon had never understood how she and Brother Sun would have stayed married since she liked to be out and about when he was sleeping, and he was raring to go when she was getting ready for bed. It would not have been much of a marriage.
In the Kingdom-by-the-Great-Blue-Sea word spread that Psyche was going to be married to a monster! It would have been devastating enough to learn that Psyche was going to marry, but that her husband was a monster? This was more than the people could bear. Each of them had a picture in his and her mind of what the monster looked like. For some he was a dragon whose every exhalation was smoke and fire. For others he was a giant with a single eye in his forehead. Still others imagined a wizened old man with a large nose, and warts the size of dinosaur eggs all over his face.
Whatever the monster looked like, all agreed that Psyche was being consigned to a life of misery and suffering, and the people wailed and sobbed. Their grief was so great that flowers wilted, and though it was spring, trees dropped their green leaves. Birds refused to sing; fish stopped swimming; and lions and lambs wept on each other's shoulders.
Alone in her chambers, Psyche could hear the outpouring of grief and was moved by it. We only grieve the loss of those we love. Had she been mistaken? Had the people genuinely loved her, or were they grieving because they would never gaze on her beauty again? Perhaps it was a little of both.
She had always felt unworthy of such ardent attention, because she had done nothing to merit it. Her beauty was a gift bestowed on her in the womb. Perhaps that did not matter. As her father had said: The experience of her beauty brought a transcendent pleasure to their spirits and softened their hearts as nothing else ever had or would. Beauty had been put into her keeping as if it were a child she was to care for. Tears came to her eyes as she understood: she had failed in not accepting the gift of beauty.
And she wept.
Meanwhile Cupid was flying to the home of Favonius, that most gentle of winds, West Wind. It took him all morning and into the early afternoon to fly to the forest of tall trees on the rim of the western horizon where Favonius now lived. Cupid arrived just as Favonius was getting ready to take a nap on the tops of the
Psyche's fate. She had danced and played in the palace garden with them. Each of them had blown through her hair, stroked her arms, and been rewarded with a smile of such sweetness that when any of the Winds thought of blowing through the kingdom as a storm, they went to another kingdom instead. They could not do anything that would turn her smile to sorrow. Understanding how Sun felt, they went quickly to work.
From his new home at the western edge of the world, Favonius saw his siblings blowing the clouds. When they told him what had happened and what they were doing, he began blowing the clouds in his western sphere toward the Kingdom-by-the-Great-Blue-Sea.
Soon the sky over the kingdom was filled with dark clouds so thick and heavy that Sister Moon, thinking she had overslept, started to get out of bed. But then she noticed that Evening Star was still snoring quietly, and she was always up before Sister Moon.
"Why is it so dark?" Sister Moon asked aloud.
"That's Brother Sun's doing," answered North Star, who never slept. "The Four Winds have covered him with every cloud in the heavens, and he's hiding behind them, bawling like he's never going to shine again. I believe he's having a nervous breakdown."
"Serves him right!" Sister Moon mumbled and got back under the covers. She and Brother Sun had a long courtship once, and it looked like they were going to get married. But then Brother Sun saw Psyche for the first time. After that, he
didn't have eyes for anybody else. But if the truth be known, Sister Moon had never understood how she and Brother Sun would have stayed married since she liked to be out and about when he was sleeping, and he was raring to go when she was getting ready for bed. It would not have been much of a marriage.
In the Kingdom-by-the-Great-Blue-Sea word spread that Psyche was going to be married to a monster! It would have been devastating enough to learn that Psyche was going to marry, but that her husband was a monster? This was more than the people could bear. Each of them had a picture in his and her mind of what the monster looked like. For some he was a dragon whose every exhalation was smoke and fire. For others he was a giant with a single eye in his forehead. Still others imagined a wizened old man with a large nose, and warts the size of dinosaur eggs all over his face.
Whatever the monster looked like, all agreed that Psyche was being consigned to a life of misery and suffering, and the people wailed and sobbed. Their grief was so great that flowers wilted, and though it was spring, trees dropped their green leaves. Birds refused to sing; fish stopped swimming; and lions and lambs wept on each other's shoulders.
Alone in her chambers, Psyche could hear the outpouring of grief and was moved by it. We only grieve the loss of those we love. Had she been mistaken? Had the people genuinely loved her, or were they grieving because they would never gaze on her beauty again? Perhaps it was a little of both.
She had always felt unworthy of such ardent attention, because she had done nothing to merit it. Her beauty was a gift bestowed on her in the womb. Perhaps that did not matter. As her father had said: The experience of her beauty brought a transcendent pleasure to their spirits and softened their hearts as nothing else ever had or would. Beauty had been put into her keeping as if it were a child she was to care for. Tears came to her eyes as she understood: she had failed in not accepting the gift of beauty.
And she wept.
Meanwhile Cupid was flying to the home of Favonius, that most gentle of winds, West Wind. It took him all morning and into the early afternoon to fly to the forest of tall trees on the rim of the western horizon where Favonius now lived. Cupid arrived just as Favonius was getting ready to take a nap on the tops of the
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