My Love.
		The youngest daughter of a noble king, I was admired throughout the land for my flawless grace and charm. Everyone said my appearance rivaled that of a goddess, and gradually the simple people in my father's city spent more time worshipping me than Aphrodite, the real goddess of Beauty. I was modest by nature and resisted the inappropriate attention, but the damage had already been done. Aphrodite noticed her popularity dwindle at the expense of a mere mortal and immediately planned my punishment. Aphrodite commanded her son, Cupid, to wound me with one of his arrows. Cupid, the god of Desire, was to avenge his mother by making me fall in love with the meanest, ugliest man he could find. Cupid left at once and flew to my father's palace, sneaking in through my open window as I slept. Some say he accidentally pricked himself with one of his arrows as he kneeled beside my bed, which helped explain how a god could have affection for a mortal. In truth, Cupid was stricken by my beauty, and it was literally love at first sight. This sudden wave of passion both confused and pained Cupid. He left my room and flew to see Apollo, the god of Truth and Light, where they quietly talked for a long time. The suitors who requested my hand in marriage began disappearing over the following weeks; my father feared that the gods were angry with him, and he also went to see Apollo for advice. "Perhaps it has been decreed that your daughter is to marry a god," Apollo said, keeping Cupid's confession a secret. "Leave her alone on top of a mountain and you will find out if a god indeed wants her for a wife." My father returned home and reported what Apollo had told him. Grief consumed the palace and city as they realized my certain doom. Commands of the gods must always be obeyed, and the streets glowed with torches as everyone prepared to escort me to my place of exile. A single flute led chanted funeral hymns as I was solemnly paraded up the steep mountain. The tearful crowd said goodbye when we had reached the top of the summit, and I watched their torches grow smaller and smaller after they left me to my fate. I was suddenly overcome by loneliness and cried myself to sleep on the barren peak. While I slept, the gentle West Wind collected me up in her arms and carried me to a plateau filled with flowers. When I woke in the thick grass, I was amazed to find myself in front of a majestic palace with gold columns and an ivory roof. Faint voices whispered that everything I saw was now mine, so I swam in a nearby spring then ate a delicious meal mysteriously placed on the bank while I had bathed. After I went to bed that night, I felt the presence of someone else in the room. I called out in the dark, and a voice answered. "I love you more than you could ever know, and would be honored if you will be my wife." Cupid walked to my bed and sat next to me. "But I must ask that you never try to look at my face. I will only visit you in the darkness of night, but these nights will be glorious and filled with joy." I asked him why I could not look at him, even though his soothing voice filled me with more emotion than all of my former suitors put together. Cupid sighed and said, "Honor my request, for if you look upon me, we will be separated forever." Cupid felt that if I found out he was the son of Aphrodite, I would love him more for being a god than as an equal. I truly did enjoy the nights with him but was terribly bored and lonely during the day. I asked Cupid if my sisters could visit me, but Cupid warned that it would certainly bring an end to our happiness. I persisted, however, and he grew sad seeing me suffer. Cupid asked the West Wind to deliver my sisters to me early one morning, and they arrived later that day. My two sisters were glad to find me alive and well, but they soon became envious of my spectacular palace and the beautiful countryside. When they demanded to see my husband I told them that Cupid would not allow himself to be seen in the daylight, and that even I had no knowledge of his appearance . "He must be ugly then," they said. I told them that he was kind and loved me more than life itself, so it was unimportant what he looked like. Their husbands were cold and uncaring, which made my sisters even more jealous. During their next visit, they said they believed my husband wasn't so wonderful at all. "We visited an oracle who told us your husband is a deformed and horrible monster," they said, "and that is why he won't let you see him."
		Visit my other links: My Love (Part 2)