The Third Task

The next morning, the servant came and again took Psyche up to the small room, and like the morning before, there was a bowl of fruit, which she devoured. The servant then took her to the back of the palace, where Venus waited, a crystal goblet in one hand.

"I hope you slept well," Venus greeted Psyche. "You are going to need every ounce of strength and all your wits for what I have planned today."

"I slept very well, Goddess."

Venus did not like that answer, but she said, "Good! I am glad! Now, see that mountain?" She pointed at a nearby peak. "On it there is a river of rushing white water, the river Styx. Take this crystal goblet and fill it with cold water from the river." She stopped and laughed. "However, the water must be taken from the middle of the river, at the place where the river comes out of the underground."

Psyche nodded and took the goblet from Venus. The goddess sneered, then turned and walked away, laughter extending behind her like the train of a gown.

Psyche stood for a moment, despair threatening to make her its own yet again. However, before it could do so this time, Psyche remembered: only when she felt that she would have to accomplish a task alone did despair and self-pity overtake her. But she was not alone. And so she turned and started walking toward the mountain.

However, when Psyche reached the top of the mountain, she stared in disbelief. The river Styx began deep in the underworld and burst forth in a roaring torrent from a gaping hole in the mountain, which was guarded on both sides by dragons who never slept or blinked their eyes. And as the river tumbled and swirled and roiled down the rocky mountainside, it sang out: "Death! Death! Death! Be off! Be off!"

Unknown to Psyche and Venus, Jupiter had been watching. He was disappointed that Venus had allowed her anger to obliterate her common sense. It was as if she had married her soul to that of her son, and no mother should love her son in that way. While it was Cupid's task to free himself from his mother and marry his soul to Psyche's, someone had to keep Psyche alive until Cupid came to his senses.

"Aquila!" Jupiter called out.

The giant eagle, Jupiter's royal bird, heard his master's voice and flew down from his aerie, high on the highest mountains. Jupiter pointed to where Psyche stood on the bank of the river Styx, a crystal goblet in her hand. Aquila understood, for he, too, had been watching the drama between Venus and Psyche. If he was going to favor one over the other, it would be Psyche, because Cupid had helped him when Jupiter wanted Ganymede brought to Olympus to be his cupbearer.

The great bird flew swiftly and snatched the crystal goblet from Psyche's hand. However, being Jupiter's bird did not mean accomplishing the task was going to be easy. The dragons saw the eagle coming toward them, and he saw them. Aquila flew high. The dragons, baring their fangs, stretched their long necks into the sky and struck at the eagle with their three-forked tongues. The royal eagle folded his wings tightly against his body and, like an arrow from the bow of Apollo, shot down to the place in the mountain where the river poured forth.

But just as he reached it, the river stopped and said, "Who comes to steal my water? Leave now before I rise up and drown you."

"The goddess Venus has sent me," the eagle said. "She is concocting a love potion that requires only the purest of water, and what water is purer than that of the river Styx?"

The river, flattered that Venus needed it, filled the goblet. By this time, the dragons had located Aquila, and just as they struck at him again, the great bird raised himself into the air and flew back to where Psyche stood on the shore, watching in awe.

Aquila gave the goblet to Psyche.

"Thank you!" she said.

"You're welcome," the eagle responded. "I am Aquila, Jupiter's bird."

"Jupiter!" Psyche exclaimed.

"Jupiter," Aquila repeated. "Do you understand?"

Psyche nodded, and the magnificent bird flew back to his aerie.

This time, when Psyche returned to the palace and handed Venus the goblet filled with water from the mouth of the river Styx, she looked the goddess in the eye and smiled.

"I keep underestimating your powers, Witch!" Venus screamed, beside herself with rage. "Such powers as you have should belong only to a deity. No mortal should have access to the powers you have stolen from somewhere. You are a danger to mortals and deities. Tomorrow you die!"

Psyche was returned to the cold, dark room in the basement. As she lay down to sleep on the cold dirt floor, she thought she heard weeping from the room above hers.

Chapter end