Teaching Guide

Cupid and Psyche (Chapter Four) -- Teaching Guide

Questions

Facts and Details: Literal Meaning

1. Who did Psyche ask for advice about getting to the Underworld?
2. Where did the oracle tell Psyche to sit when she got to the Underworld?
3. Why did Psyche take honey-soaked bread with her?
4. What happened when Psyche peeked inside the box Proserpina gave her?
5. Who came and rescued her when she fell asleep?

What’s Going On?: Reading Comprehension

1. What did the oracle mean when she said it is easy to get to the Underworld?
2. Why did Psyche have to carry a coin in her mouth?
3. Psyche ignored one piece of advice the oracle gave her. What was it?
4. How did Cupid make Psyche an immortal?

In your own words...

Though Cupid and Psyche were married long before, it wouldn’t be surprising if they had a second, public ceremony, now that their marriage has been approved by Jupiter and the other immortals. Imagine that you have been chosen as Best Man or Maid of Honor at this wedding, and it’s up to you to make some remarks about the happy couple. Write a short, kind speech that talks about what they’ve been through and your good wishes for their happy future. Share your speech with your classmates.

Backgrounders

Making connections

Here's an idea to tie the story of Cupid and Psyche into a much more modern "classic" many of your
students will remember from their younger years.

Get a copy of Margaret Wise Brown's "The Runaway Bunny" from your local children's library. Ask how many students remember it, then read it aloud.

Ask why you would read that story while talking about "Cupid and Psyche." The answer, of course, is that both stories are about unconditional love and devotion -- both the rabbit mother and Psyche will do anything for the one they love.

Ask students to name other fictional characters (from books, movies or TV shows) who have sacrificed for the people they loved. See if they can differentiate between being mournful for the loss of a love and actively sacrificing and working on someone's behalf. (This latter will likely be more a reflection of their developmental stage.)

  Cross-curricular Tie-in

In addition to being a modern psychological term, The word “psyche” (from which, of course, we get the modern word “psychology”) has an interesting double meaning in the original Greek, where it means both “soul” and “butterfly.”

Discuss this with your students and then ask them to write a poem that takes this double
meaning into consideration, and illustrate it.

Answer Key:

Facts and Details:

1. An oracle.
2. On the floor.
3. To feed the dog (Cerebrus) who guards the Underworld.
4. A cloud came out and she fell asleep.
5. Cupid.

Reading Comprehension:

1. Everybody dies, so everybody goes there sometime.
2. Her hands were holding the honey-soaked bread.
3. To not open the box that Proserpina gave her.
4. He gave her ambrosia to drink.

Cupid and Psyche (Chapter Three) -- Teaching Guide

Questions

Facts and Details: Literal Meaning

1. Who did Psyche first ask for help?
2. Who did she ask second?
3. What did Venus tell Psyche she had to do first?
4. What did she tell Psyche to do second?
5. What did she tell Psyche to do third?

What’s Going On?: Reading Comprehension

1. Why did Ceres not want to help Psyche?
2. What did Juno agree to do for Psyche?
3. Why did Venus ask Psyche to sort the grain?
4. Why did Venus think Psyche had help from other gods or goddesses?
5. Why is Venus so angry with Psyche?

In your own words...

Imagine that you are one of the immortals and you're trying to decide if you should help Psyche and risk getting Venus mad at you. (Remember that Venus is very powerful -- more powerful than you!)

Write an imaginary diary or journal entry about what you are thinking of doing or what you hope will happen.

Backgrounders

Author's note

As unpleasant as Venus seems in this chapter, I've actually toned her down a lot from the version seen in Apuleius. Bulfinch also eased up in his re-telling of the story. In the original, not only does Venus physically beat Psyche and call her horrible names, but Psyche is pregnant with Cupid's child. Even in this eased-up version, Venus is a far cry from the sweet, pretty "love goddess" of our own popular culture.

It is an important insight into the extent to which ancient people, even literate and intelligent ones, saw the world as a mysterious, frightening place in which they were at the mercy of powers that
could be cruel, vengeful and arbitrary.

  Backgrounder

You can find whole grains, including barley, millet and wheat at most health food stores or co-ops. Finding un-processed oats may be more of a challenge. Most are found in the form of oatmeal, either rolled or chopped.

In a world in which so many of us are far removed from the essentials that make up our food, it would not only help them understand Psyche's task but would be a good chance for them to see the products of a harvest.

This is hardly the only context in which these things are mentioned, and "cultural literacy" can also include seeing and touching things that will come up in future literature and history classes!

Answer Key:

Facts and Details:

1. Ceres
2. Juno
3. Sort all the grain in the store house.
4. Bring back wool from the golden fleeced sheep.
5. Bring back water from the River Styx.

Reading Comprehension:

1. She doesn't want to make Venus angry.
2. She asked Venus to at least talk to her.
3. She was angry that Psyche had cleaned up Ceres's temple to try to get a favor from her.
4. The tasks she was given were too hard or dangerous for her to do without help.
5. She didn't want her to marry Cupid. (And she was already jealous of her.)

Cupid and Psyche (Chapter Two) -- Teaching Guide

Questions

Facts and Details: Literal Meaning

1. What did Psyche's husband tell her not to ask him?
2. Who did Psyche invite to come visit her?
3. What did Psyche hide in her bedroom?
4. Why did Cupid wake up?
5. What did he do when he woke up?

What’s Going On?: Reading Comprehension

1. Why did Psyche's sisters say her husband was probably a monster?
2. Why did Psyche try to see her husband's face?
3. Who does Cupid think Psyche trusts the most?
4. Who did Cupid make angry by marrying Psyche?
5. Why do Cupid's sisters want to go back to the mansion?

In your own words...

"Beauty is as beauty does" is an old-fashioned phrase that uses old-fashioned language. In this story, we are told that Psyche's sisters are very beautiful, but artist Dylan Meconis didn't draw them that way.

Write an essay about the difference between being beautiful and doing beautiful things, and the choices that Dylan made in her art for this part of the story.

Backgrounders

Vocabulary extensions

The word "amazed" comes up in this story. Kids will be familiar with the word, but it's a word that is used so often that we forget it really means to be almost paralyzed with wonder. It's the right word
in this case because Psyche is so stunned by Cupid's beauty that she simply stops and stares, not realizing that she's about to drip hot oil on her sleeping husband. (And “stunning” is another word that means to be ... well, amazed!)

A similar word that has lost its punch is "awesome" which may be a step above "amazing" in the degree to which it renders a person unable to think, speak or act. The Grand Canyon is stunning. A newborn baby is amazing. The Northern Lights are awesome. A new laundry detergent is not likely to really be any of these things.

Conversation starter

Why is Cupid so angry with Psyche? Well, she tried to see what he looked like after he made it clear he didn't want her to. He's also angry because she let her sisters undermine the trust in their relationship. If your students are ready for such a non-concrete discussion, why not talk about this kind of anger?

People think being "stoic" means not caring about things, but it really means not getting distracted by side issues. In this case, a Stoic (like the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, who took the throne just a few decades after Apuleius wrote this story) might ask Cupid, "Are you angry because she saw your face, or because she broke her promise to you?"

Ask students to differentiate between times they get angry (or get in trouble) because of what they did, versus because someone is angry that a rule or promise was broken?

Example: Someone says they're going to call you on the phone, but doesn't. Are you upset because you needed the phone call or because you were expecting it and are disappointed that they didn’t
seem to care about your feelings?

Is Cupid justified in being angry?

Answer Key:

Facts and Details:

1. To see his face.
2. Her sisters
3. A lamp and a knife.
4. Hot oil dripped on his skin.
5. He got mad at Psyche and flew out the window.

Reading Comprehension:

1. They were jealous of her life.
2. She was curious/She worried that her sisters were right
3. Her sisters
4. His mother (Venus).
5. They hope Cupid will marry one of them.

Cupid and Psyche (Chapter One) -- Teaching Guide

Questions

Facts and Details:

1. How many sisters were in the family?
2. Why did people stare at Psyche?
3. What goddess became jealous of her?
4. Who used his magic so nobody would want to marry Psyche?
5. Who lived in the mansion with Psyche?

Reading Comprehension:

1. Why does Venus ask her son, Cupid, to ruin Psyche’s love life?
2. What are the two reasons that Cupid falls in love with Psyche?
3. Why do Psyche’s parents go to the oracle?
4. Why does Psyche feel that it’s all right for her to have to marry “an inhuman creature”?
5. What clues would lead you to think that Psyche is brave?

In your own words...

Psyche’s husband says he wants her to get to know him, and to love him, before she sees what he looks like. What do you think she will find, when she finally gets to see him? List the clues in the story that make you feel this way.

Backgrounders

This story is unusual in that it comes from one source: Lucius Apuleius, who lived in North Africa in the second century CE. Bulfinch repeats the story, but I wasn’t able to find other ancient sources and this may be a “written story” rather than a folk tale. If so, Apuleius was a brilliant author -- the story has been a favorite of artists and sculptors, not to mention psychologists.

You won’t find much difficulty in getting kids to say what other story this reminds them of -- the elements of the mysterious husband and magic castle of course is repeated in “Beauty and the Beast.” And the theme of “love me for who I am, not for what I am” is similar -- but, wow, is this much earlier version taking it from a different angle! (By the way, "Beauty and the Beast" will be featured on our site in a five-part version, starting September 20!)

Multidisciplinary Connections
(Science/ELA/Geography)

Psyche rides on the back of the West Wind, Zephyr. What is a zephyr? Look up any four of these other names for types of winds, write down their definitions and derivations, then use them each in sentences that demonstrate their meanings:

boreal - harmattan - mistral - pampero - samiel - chinook - favonian - foehn - Santa Ana - sirocco - williwaw - zonda

Answer Key:

Facts and Details:

1. Three
2. She was so beautiful
3. Venus
4. Cupid
5. Her mysterious husband!

Reading Comprehension:

1. She’s jealous, particularly when people compare Psyche to her.
2. Partly because she’s so beautiful, but also because he hit himself with his own arrow!
3. They want to know why their most beautiful daughter hasn’t found a husband and they’re afraid some god is angry with them.
4. She says it was unfair for her to be praised for being beautiful, so she shouldn’t complain when something unfair happens that doesn’t seem pleasant to her.
5. (For instance:) She accepts the oracle’s prediction without panicking or whining, she jumps on Zephyr’s back despite his being invisible, she goes into the castle on her own, etc.

Coastal California

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Actaeon and Diana -- Teaching Guide

Questions

Facts and Details:

1. What is Actaeon’s favorite sport?
2. What has Actaeon trained his hounds to do?
3. Who is Diana?
4. What did Actaeon do when he heard someone bathing in the pond?
5. What did Diana do to him?

Reading Comprehension:

1. Why was Diana so angry with Actaeon?
2. What was the first thing Diana thought about doing to him?
3. How did the choice she made turn out to have the same ending for Actaeon?
4. What happened immediately after the story ended?

In your own words...

The story of Diana and Actaeon has been told for thousands of years, but people still disagree over it. Was Diana too cruel to him? Was he just a normal, curious person, or did he violate her privacy and deserve what happened to him? What do you think? Write an essay defending one character, or the  other.

Backgrounders

We thought long and hard about this story. Not only is there the issue of voyeurism, but the fate of Actaeon is particularly harsh.

But the story illustrates so many important issues that we felt it belonged in the collection.

Issues of personal privacy are at the heart of “good touch, bad touch” lessons. And
modesty is not a bad topic for discussion.

In addition, there is the issue of “letting the punishment fit the crime.” While Diana’s harshness has been debated for centuries, the irony of the young hunter’s death has a timeless appeal!

Vocabulary extenders

Hunting with hounds is almost universally banned these days, except when the hounds track the animal and chase it up a tree or bring it to bay for hunters. But the type of hunting Actaeon practiced was quite common until a century ago, and it has provided our language with several expressions.

The term “hounding” means to pursue relentlessly, and can just mean the pursuit. But it generally includes a sense of doing harm, as hounds would as they ripped at the animal they were pursuing, until they finally “brought it down.”

“Go to ground” also comes from hunting. That’s when the fox, badger or other quarry ducks into its burrow. When a criminal or other fugitive “goes to ground” it means he’s hiding out rather than fleeing.

“To keep someone at bay” means to keep them from attacking you. When a stag or other large quarry would turn on the hounds and attempt to defend itself, it was “at bay.” Of course, this would only last until the hunters arrived, but the term means temporarily ending the attack without achieving victory.

To bay also means to make the noise a hound makes which is between a bark and a howl, and it comes from the same word that means to yawn, or gape. If something is “held in abeyance,” it means action on that item is postponed. That term doesn’t come from hunting, but it’s from the same root: Imagine hounds standing baying, and staring, at their quarry.

Answer Key:

Facts and Details:

1. deer hunting
2. chase deer and kill them
3. The goddess of the hunt
4. He snuck up to spy on them.
5. She turned him into a deer.

Reading Comprehension:

1. He was spying on her while she bathed
2. She was going to shoot him with her bow and arrow.
3. Turning him into a deer doomed him to death.
4. His hounds killed him.