with a mortal maiden, while my name, built up
in heaven, is profaned by the mean things of earth! Shall a perishable
woman bear my image about with her? In vain did the shepherd of Ida
prefer me! Yet shall she have little joy, whosoever she be, of her
usurped and unlawful loveliness!" Thereupon she called to her that
winged, bold boy, of evil ways, who wanders armed by night through
men's houses, spoiling their marriages; and stirring yet more by her
speech his inborn wantonness, she led him to the city, and showed him
Psyche as she walked.

"I pray thee," she said, "give thy mother a full revenge. Let this
maid become the slave of an unworthy love." Then, embracing him
closely, she departed to the shore and took her throne upon the crest
of the wave. And lo! at her unuttered will, her ocean-servants are in
waiting: the daughters of Nereus are there singing their song, and
Portunus, and Salacia, and the tiny charioteer of the dolphin, with a
host of Tritons leaping through the billows. And one blows softly
through his sounding sea-shell, another spreads a silken web against
the sun, a third presents the mirror to the eyes of his mistress, while
the others swim side by side below, drawing her chariot. Such was the
escort of Venus as she went upon the sea.

[64] Psyche meantime, aware of her loveliness, had no fruit thereof.
All people regarded and admired, but none sought her in marriage. It
was but as on the finished work of the craftsman that they gazed upon
that divine likeness. Her sisters, less fair than she, were happily
wedded. She, even as a widow, sitting at home, wept over her
desolation, hating in her heart the beauty in which all men were
pleased.

And the king, supposing the gods were angry, inquired of the oracle of
Apollo, and Apollo answered him thus: "Let the damsel be placed on the
top of a certain mountain, adorned as for the bed of marriage and of
death. Look not for a son-in-law of mortal birth; but for that evil
serpent-thing, by reason of whom even the gods tremble and the shadows
of Styx are afraid."

So the king returned home and made known the oracle to his wife. For
many days she lamented, but at last the fulfilment of the divine
precept is urgent upon her, and the company make ready to conduct the
maiden to her deadly bridal. And now the nuptial torch gathers dark
smoke and ashes: the pleasant sound of the pipe is changed into a cry:
the marriage hymn concludes in a sorrowf