Cupid Read Free Page A

spoken the words, but it was worse coming from Apollo because he was incapable of telling a lie.
    But Oizys was not, for it was she who had just put a lie into Apollo's mouth.
    "Who do
you
think is the most beautiful woman in all of creation?" Venus asked.
    "You are," Oizys responded hastily. "What mortal could come close to matching your great beauty?"
    What mortal, indeed? Venus said silently. "What is the name of this—this thing on Earth who thinks she is more beautiful than I?"
    "I believe Apollo referred to her as Psyche."
    "Psyche!" Venus repeated in disgust. "Leave me, Oizys."
    "But, goddess, I have not finished your massage. Nothing would be more soothing at such a moment than a deep massage."
    "Yes, yes, I know, but I need to be alone. Now, leave me."
    Smiling to herself, Oizys picked up her vials of oils and left.
    Venus went inside where the hot tub had already been filled with steaming water by her servants. She disrobed, stepped in, and sat down. She had to do something about
this Psyche. Could she be the reason people had stopped coming to worship Venus at her temples? Perhaps people had forgotten just how beautiful she was. She would go immediately to her temple in the Kingdom-by-the-Great-Blue-Sea. When people saw her, they would remember what true beauty looked like, and they would abandon their foolish adulation of that young woman whose beauty was merely mortal and would fade sooner than later.
    When Venus finished her bath, her servants, the Three Graces—Aglaia, Charis, and Pasithea—came quickly with towels made from the warm breezes of South Wind. They dried her, then dressed her in a white gown of silk and cashmere. The goddess's long, dark straight hair was oiled until each strand shone with the luster of desire. By then, her golden chariot drawn by swans was waiting for her on the great lawn outside her palace. The Graces helped Venus into the chariot, then she flew down to reclaim her rightful place in the hearts of the people.
    When she arrived at her temple on a hillside by the Great Blue Sea, Venus was shocked at what she saw. The temple's roof was sagging; the altar on which supplicants used to place offerings had fallen over and was covered with dust and spiderwebs. The marble floor could barely be seen beneath thick layers of dead leaves. Where were the temple's caretakers? Were they, too, among the crowds waiting for the appearance of Psyche?
    Angry, Venus returned to her swan-drawn chariot and
flew to the very road Psyche had walked along mere hours before. People still lingered there, hoping the young woman would come out again. No one noticed Venus's chariot when it landed in front of the huge doors to the palace. No one noticed when the goddess began walking along the road. Venus looked into the faces of the people, hoping to see a spark of recognition in their eyes. But although their eyes were open, they could not see Venus for looking at the image of Psyche imprinted on their minds.
    Unable to abide the humiliation an instant longer, Venus returned quickly to Olympus, more furious than she had ever been. If she didn't do something, she was going to find herself wandering through the world and being ignored. That's what happened to gods and goddesses when people stopped believing in them. She had seen them—Astarte, Isis, Osiris, Marduk, Gilgamesh—so many of the old deities walking among the people who did not recognize them. It was as if they had never existed, but deities could not die. If no one recognized your existence, however, was that not death?
    "Where in Jupiter's name is Cupid?" she screamed.
    If ever she needed her son, it was now. He knew better than anyone how to torture humans with lust and love. Indeed, she herself knew just how powerful the love potion was that Cupid put on his arrows. She still grieved for a love unlike any she had ever known or would ever know again.

Venus and Adonis
    It happened when Cupid was still a child. Venus was visiting