Eros and Psyche

So uh....another attempt at lineart, came out OK, not fabulous, but I'm relatively happy with it.

So this is a drawing I did based on this sculpture [link]

By the way, it is not exact, because i ran out of room on my sketch book for Psyche's one leg, so it is bent rather than extended.

It is a beautiful story in my opinion I will give a brief summary in case some want to know it. It is an old Greek/Roman myth.


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Psyche was said to be the most beautiful moral woman alive and some were beginning to say that her beauty rivaled even Aphrodite. Aphrodite became jealous and sent her son Eros to shoot Psyche with his arrows and make her fall in love with the most hideous creature.

Instead when Eros saw her he fell in love with with her. At the same time, Psyche's parents were distraught over their daughters lack of a husband for she was just too beautiful for any mortal man. So they consulted with an oracle who said Psyche's destined husband was no mortal and to receive him she was to wait atop a mountain where she would be taken to her new husband.

Once on the mountain Psyche kissed her parents and sisters goodbye and when they left she was whisked away by Zephyr, the west wind. She was taken to a beautiful palace where she was waited on by invisible servants.

That night under the cover of darkness Eros came to Psyche and the marriage was consummated. And every night he came to her, but she was never allowed to see his face, for he warned her she could never do so.

But above all Psyche pined for her sisters and Eros gave in allowed them to visit her in their palace. But he warned her, the sisters would only bring trouble.

As the sisters approached the mountain to mourn for their sister, Zephyr carried them to her palace. Once there the sisters discovered Psyche had never seen the face of her husband and jealous of all her good fortune persuaded Psyche, her husband was probably a monster.

She was given an oil lamp and a dagger to hide until nightfall. When Eros was asleep beside her she ignited the oil lamp and gazed at him. She was instantly struck with his beauty and fell more deeply in love with him, but as she bent over a drop of hot oil fell from the lamp and on to Eros, awakening him.

He was angered by Psyche's lack of trust and flew off to his mother, Aphrodite. Angered by Psyche, Aphrodite set out to bestow three seemingly impossible tasks upon the girl.

With some help, Psyche was able to complete the tasks and prove her love for Eros.

Zeus who watched from Olympus finally decided that he had had enough of Aphrodite's torture and allowed Psyche to drink the ambrosial nectar of the gods form the cup of immortality so she could join Eros for all eternity.
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Some fun facts and sometimes things some people don't know.

First off the name Psyche and Eros is often associated with Soul and love/heart respectively. Not only it is a tale of the love and devotion between these two being but it represents the eternal unity of the soul and the heart. This is one reason why the story was so powerful.

Secondly, this is basically one of the original Beauty and the Beast stories. No it isn't the original version by all means. If you look at the mythology of many cultures, Chinese and Indian, just to name a few, this theme can be found across the world. So there is no original story, but this Eros and Psyche is one of the oldest versions.

Hope you all enjoyed my comments, I spent a lot of work on this drawing and maybe one day there will be a colored version. Or if anyone shows interest in coloring it they can if they ask my permission fist.

Eros and Psyche (c) me. Please do no copy or use without my permission.