Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Essay Week 2: Review of Cupid and Psyche


Review of Cupid and Psyche


The classical and biblical unit started out great!  I enjoyed reading Cupid and Psyche as my choice for the first week of readings.  I am glad that the stories were excerpts from the novel, The Golden Ass.  I have read the novel before but I enjoy how the novel itself incorporates the love story of Cupid and Psyche.
There were several stories that I enjoyed more than others.  I loved the introduction stories, “The Captive Woman” and “Her Dream.”  These two stories engaged me as a reader by helping me have empathy for the kidnapped girl.  I also really enjoyed “The Oracle of Apollo”.  This story was a very unexpected twist in the Cupid and Psyche story.  Most of the time the beautiful characters are wanted by all people but in this story, Psyche is portrayed as the most beautiful being but no one wants to wed her.
The stories about the task that Venus asks Psyche to perform were my least favorite of the reading.  “Psyche’s Task” and “The Third Task” were not as eventful as the other readings.  I lost interest and was ready for something more exciting to happen.  I was overwhelmed with the descriptions the gods were giving Psyche to accomplish the task and there was also no exciting reaction from Venus when Psyche accomplished the tasks.
 I thought that the reading picked up perfectly with “The Captive Woman.”  If there was more background information of The Golden Ass then they may be of some help to those who have never read the novel.  However, even though I have read the novel I felt that the stories flowed nicely from beginning to end. I think this story is easy to follow for the most part.  The only aspect of Cupid and Psyche that I tend to get lost in is the different gods and goddesses that are mentioned throughout the stories. It would be helpful if notes were provided on which god is speaking and also what they are worshiped for.  I do not think that more information needs to be provided on things to consider when choosing this unit.  It was recommended to not read Cupid and Psyche if you were on a time crunch, which I agree with.
I have always loved reading Greek mythology readings.  However, I have not read many since I have been in college.  I look forward to the options of more Greek readings in order to refresh my knowledge of the powerful and beautifully written myths. 


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