ry waters found a voice and bade her
depart, in smothered cries of, Depart hence! and [86] What doest thou
here? Look around thee! and Destruction is upon thee! And then sense
left her, in the immensity of her peril, as one changed to stone.

Yet not even then did the distress of this innocent soul escape the
steady eye of a gentle providence. For the bird of Jupiter spread his
wings and took flight to her, and asked her, "Didst thou think, simple
one, even thou! that thou couldst steal one drop of that relentless
stream, the holy river of Styx, terrible even to the gods? But give me
thine urn." And the bird took the urn, and filled it at the source,
and returned to her quickly from among the teeth of the serpents,
bringing with him of the waters, all unwilling--nay! warning him to
depart away and not molest them.

And she, receiving the urn with great joy, ran back quickly that she
might deliver it to Venus, and yet again satisfied not the angry
goddess. "My child!" she said, "in this one thing further must thou
serve me. Take now this tiny casket, and get thee down even unto hell,
and deliver it to Proserpine. Tell her that Venus would have of her
beauty so much at least as may suffice for but one day's use, that
beauty she possessed erewhile being foreworn and spoiled, through her
tendance upon the sick-bed of her son; and be not slow in returning."

And Psyche perceived there the last ebbing of her fortune--that she was
now thrust openly [87] upon death, who must go down, of her own motion,
to Hades and the Shades. And straightway she climbed to the top of an
exceeding high tower, thinking within herself, "I will cast myself down
thence: so shall I descend most quickly into the kingdom of the dead."
And the tower again, broke forth into speech: "Wretched Maid! Wretched
Maid! Wilt thou destroy thyself? If the breath quit thy body, then
wilt thou indeed go down into Hades, but by no means return hither.
Listen to me. Among the pathless wilds not far from this place lies a
certain mountain, and therein one of hell's vent-holes. Through the
breach a rough way lies open, following which thou wilt come, by
straight course, to the castle of Orcus. And thou must not go
empty-handed. Take in each hand a morsel of barley-bread, soaked in
hydromel; and in thy mouth two pieces of money. And when thou shalt be
now well onward in the way of death, then wilt thou overtake a lame ass
laden with wood, and a lame dr