Temptation-Bulfinch’s Mythology Assignment 5

The story of Cupid and Psyche is yet another reflection of man, our nature. Unable to contain her curiosity she unveiled Cupid as being the “monster” and was stripped of her marriage. Her sisters tempted her with their words. “Psyche resisted these persuasions as well as she could but they did not fail to have their effect on her mind, and when her sisters were gone, their words and her own curiosity were too strong for her to resist.”(p. 104) They instilled suspicion and took away her faith in Cupid. Then again she opened the box which she was told to keep sealed under any circumstances. Temptation in both cases led to her own suffering. Mankind has always been susceptible to temptation and curiosity which always leads to our own defeat. Even in religious cases we are defeated by our own hand. In the book of Genesis, Adam and Eve give in to temptation and their own temptation. They eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, Mankind falls. “No! You will not die, the serpent said to the women. In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. Then the women saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and ate it.”(Genesis 3:4) The serpent might represent our own temptation, the fruit our desire, and their act of eating it leads to our fall, the fall of man. It is easier to give in to sin than it is to throw it away. But to throw it away is still what we must do. If we give into our own desire and temptation it may do great harm to ourselves and other as Psyche caused her own suffering and that of Cupid.