Love Myths
Cupid and Psyche
Apollo and Daphne
• Apollo – picked on Cupid – Cupid pricks
him with arrow and he falls in love with
Daphne
• Daphne – hates Apollo – tries to run away
from him
• Daphne calls on her father for help and
instantly she is changed into tree
• Laurel tree – becomes sacred to Apollo
Orpheus and Eurydice
• Orpheus – musician and son of Apollo
• Eurydice – wife of Orpheus, bit by snake when
she was running away from someone – she died
• Orpheus goes to Underworld to try to get his
wife back – plays his music
• Condition is that he can’t look back at her until
out of the underworld – he messes up and she
dies again
• He plays mournful music, people get sick of it
and stone him to death
Philemon and Baucis
• Elderly couple who show hospitality to the gods
Mercury and Jupiter when no one else does
• They have very little to eat and drink but realize
they are in presence of gods when wine
continues to flow from pitcher
• Gods don’t allow goose to be killed
• House is turned into temple, they become
guardians when gods decide to flood rest of
area
• Their wish is to die at same time – they do and
become trees together
Pyramus and Thisbe
• Talked to each other through hole in wall,
families don’t want them to be together
• Meet at tomb of Ninus – Thisbe gets there first,
scared by lion, runs away, drops veil
• Pyramus thinks Thisbe has died so kills himself
• Thisbe finds Pyramus and kills herself
• Berries on mulberry tree turn red because of
their blood
• Romeo and Juliet
Pygmalion and Galatea
• Pygmalion – sculptor that hates women
• He sculpts a beautiful female sculpture
and then falls in love with it
• He prays to Venus and she makes his
statue come to life
• Galatea – statue who comes to life
Narcissus and Echo
• Narcissus – cursed from childhood to love only
himself – he fell in love with his own reflection
• Echo – punished by Juno because she talked
too much – would only have last word
• Echo loved Narcissus and tried to get his
attention but since she could not speak first she
ends up fading away into nothing – the “Echo” in
a cave
• Narcissus stared at his reflection so much that
when he died he was transformed into flower
Ceyx and Halcyone
• Ceyx goes out to sea and dies in storm
• Halcyone did not want her husband to go –
doesn’t know what happened to him
• Morpheus – god of dreams comes to her in
dream in form of her husband to let her know he
has died
• She goes out to the water and finds her
husband’s body
• Gods take pity on her and she and her husband
are transformed into birds
• Halcyon birds stay by the sea to this day
Cephalus and Procris
• Cephalus is a hunter
• Aurora favors him but he has a new wife – she
curses him
• Wife gives him special gifts: a keen-scented dog
and javelin that never misses his mark
• Procris thinks Cephalus is having affair and
spies on him
• He thinks an animal is in woods and throws his
javelin hitting and killing his wife