In the Greek myth “Cupid and Psyche,” from Edith Hamilton’s Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes, there are many aspects of the myth that are similar to the fairy tales such as “Little Snow White”, “Little-Brier Rose”, and “Cinderella” found in Kinder und Hausmärchen by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. These similar aspects are jealousy revolving around the magnitude of beauty, curiosity causing the main characters to fall asleep and to be saved by love, and the help of animals to complete impossible tasks. In “Little Snow White” and in “Cupid and Psyche,” the main characters are supposed to be thrown into terrible situations because powerful women are jealous of their surpassing beauty. When the evil queen in “Little Snow White” finds out
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Her curiosity forces her to open the box; when she does, she falls asleep only to be woken up when Cupid, her love, comes to save her. In “Little Brier-Rose,” when Little Brier-Rose comes upon a lady spinning on a spinning wheel, her curiosity leads her to prick her finger. Because she was cursed to fall into an eternal sleep if she ever pricked her finger on a spinning wheel, her curiosity causes her to fall asleep. A prince whom she grows to love wakes her up one hundred years later. In both “Little Brier-Rose” and “Cupid and Psyche,” the main characters both fall asleep only to be woken up by their true love. In the story of Cinderella and the myth “Cupid and Psyche,” the main characters are only allowed to receive their desires if they can complete impossible trials, though they receive help from animals. For Cinderella, her desire is to go to the king’s festival. She is only allowed to go if she can separate the lentils her stepmother threw into the ashes from the ashes before her stepmother and sisters leave. To separate them in time, she has to call upon birds to help her sort through them on time, and she is able to complete …show more content…
A couple of these differences revolve around time and around servitude. Though the aspect of Psyche and Little-Brier Rose waking up when their love comes is similar in both the myth and the fairy tale, the time their true love take to finally awaken them is different. In “Little Brier-Rose,” Brier-Rose does not wake up till one hundred years has past. For Psyche, Cupid “found her at once” (Hamilton 133). The difference of time between the myth and the fairy tale is a very large difference. In “Cinderella,” Cinderella’s evil stepmother and stepsisters consider Cinderella a maid who will finish all their household chores. Because her stepmother and stepsisters will not allow Cinderella to leave them, Cinderella has to do whatever her stepmother and stepsisters want. In “Cupid and Psyche,” Psyche is not considered a maid even though she is put through hard tasks that she must complete to get her husband back. Psyche has the choice to leave when Aphrodite’s tasks get too hard; Cinderella does not have that choice. This difference between the myth and the fairy tale has a high significance because the difference shows that Psyche loves Cupid so much that she is willing to go through with these impossible tasks to get him
Her curiosity forces her to open the box; when she does, she falls asleep only to be woken up when Cupid, her love, comes to save her. In “Little Brier-Rose,” when Little Brier-Rose comes upon a lady spinning on a spinning wheel, her curiosity leads her to prick her finger. Because she was cursed to fall into an eternal sleep if she ever pricked her finger on a spinning wheel, her curiosity causes her to fall asleep. A prince whom she grows to love wakes her up one hundred years later. In both “Little Brier-Rose” and “Cupid and Psyche,” the main characters both fall asleep only to be woken up by their true love. In the story of Cinderella and the myth “Cupid and Psyche,” the main characters are only allowed to receive their desires if they can complete impossible trials, though they receive help from animals. For Cinderella, her desire is to go to the king’s festival. She is only allowed to go if she can separate the lentils her stepmother threw into the ashes from the ashes before her stepmother and sisters leave. To separate them in time, she has to call upon birds to help her sort through them on time, and she is able to complete …show more content…
A couple of these differences revolve around time and around servitude. Though the aspect of Psyche and Little-Brier Rose waking up when their love comes is similar in both the myth and the fairy tale, the time their true love take to finally awaken them is different. In “Little Brier-Rose,” Brier-Rose does not wake up till one hundred years has past. For Psyche, Cupid “found her at once” (Hamilton 133). The difference of time between the myth and the fairy tale is a very large difference. In “Cinderella,” Cinderella’s evil stepmother and stepsisters consider Cinderella a maid who will finish all their household chores. Because her stepmother and stepsisters will not allow Cinderella to leave them, Cinderella has to do whatever her stepmother and stepsisters want. In “Cupid and Psyche,” Psyche is not considered a maid even though she is put through hard tasks that she must complete to get her husband back. Psyche has the choice to leave when Aphrodite’s tasks get too hard; Cinderella does not have that choice. This difference between the myth and the fairy tale has a high significance because the difference shows that Psyche loves Cupid so much that she is willing to go through with these impossible tasks to get him