The difficulties of loving
We are in ancient Greece, that of myth to be clear. Here is Psyche (in Greek “soul”), the last of three sisters. She is beautiful, beautiful, marvelous, so perfect that she teases the envy of the goddess Aphrodite. The latter cannot accept that there is a being in the world more beautiful than her and therefore, she commands her son Eros than her to strike Psyche with an enchanted arrow that forces her, from then on, to fall in love with the man more ugly in the world. It so happens that Eros, clumsily, ends up mistaking the task given to him, until he hits himself with one of her arrows, falling madly in love with Psyche. From then on, the two will face a long journey. They will initially be lovers, entangled in crazy nights of sex, which however last until Psyche, a slave to her curiosity, discovers the true identity of her lover, or Eros.
At this point the anger of Aphrodite, who in the meantime feels betrayed by her son who has not obeyed her order, will force Psyche to face various trials, including that of going down to hell, in the kingdom of the dead. They will be tremendous tests, cruel in certain phases, but they will have their usefulness: the gods, in fact, amazed by the perseverance of the two lovers, Eros and Psyche, will forgive the initial guilt and allow them to live their love freely, for eternity. Yes, because Psyche’s perseverance will be rewarded by the gods with the greatest gift for a human, immortality. In short, the classic “and they lived happily ever after”… But don’t get too excited.
Cupid and Psyche
Since then, this story has remained engraved for eternity under the name of “Cupid and Psyche”, a love story wisely sculpted by Canova in one of his most famous works (the image you see in the post).
An eternal story that, in its allegory, never ceases to question us, men and women of the twenty-first century, on what is the relationship between love and soul, and on what are, often, the difficulties that a love and a soul can meet.
The eternal embrace of Cupid and Psyche, albeit personified by mythological characters, is actually the plastic representation of what feelings are in the real world. A world in which there are souls (Psyche), who wander along the path of their life looking for the other half of their apple. And sometimes, the luckiest cases, they even manage to meet until they find their final meaning, Love (Eros). But this is not enough. In fact, if there is one thing that the myth of Cupid and Psyche tells us, it is that the luck of having met a soul mate is not enough to be able to enjoy lasting happiness.
Love, the real one, the one that changes your life, and perhaps even tells it by becoming the famous “eternal love”, is not just the child of luck. It is perhaps only one of the parents of this phantom love with which we all fill our mouths. This love that, at least in words, everyone says they are looking for in life.
Not only luck
In fact, just the luck of having met the right person is not enough (and this would already be a lot). Love is also fatigue. A lot of effort, and there is nothing more wrong than those simplifications that tell us that if it is true love then it shouldn’t be complicated. Bullshit. Even the clearest love, the one in which body and soul find their perfect dimension, that too has its difficulties. These are the difficulties that arise from accepting oneself in toto and accepting the question marks that every story has before it. These are the difficulties that arise in the dark moments, those in which the clouds take over the sun. Then there are the difficulties that arise from boredom, typical of longer relationships. And there are what I call the “logistical” difficulties of love, but no less important for this. Think about what courage it takes to throw yourself into a new story when there is some distance involved, be it geographic, age or culture. Or when, more simply, so to speak, you need the courage to end an old worn-out story, with no future, to throw yourself into what, body and soul, recognize as a true love that is passing in front of us like a train to take. . Eros and Psyche have always believed in it, they have overcome all kinds of adversities and in the end they have been rewarded.
But as their history (and I would also say our reality) teaches us, enjoying love is not at no cost. Far from it. And you know what the worst part is. The dark side of this whole story is that, unlike the myth of Cupid and Psyche, true love stories don’t always have their happy ending. They can end badly too. But this does not mean that they do not deserve to be lived. This is a crucial step. Because, pay attention to it, Eros and Psyche did not know that one day they would receive the prize of eternity. It was enough for them only to look for each other because they intimately knew that the other was the final meaning of their soul, the salt that gave flavor to their life. And this was enough for him. And love, even for just one day, one night together, one hour, always rewards courage. It has been doing this since the times of Cupid and Psyche …
