of course recognize that this is the story of
Cupid and Psyche, as told by Apuleius, and translated with such
felicity by Pater in his _Marius_, Pt. i., ch. 5. Though the names of
the gods and goddesses--Venus, Mercury, Jupiter, Juno, Proserpine,
etc.--are scattered through the tale, it is now acknowledged on all
hands that it has nothing to do with mythology but is a fairy tale
pure and simple, as indeed is acknowledged by Apuleius who calls it a
"fabella anilis." From this point of view it is of extreme interest to
the student of the folk-tale as practically the same tale, with the
Unseen Bridegroom, the Sight Taboo, the Jealous Mother-in-law, the
Tasks, and the Visit to the Nether-World, occur in contemporary
folk-tales scattered throughout Europe, from Norway (Dasent, "East o'
the Sun and West o' the Moon") to Italy (Gonzenbach No. 15, Pitre No.
18 given in Crane No. 1, _King of Love_); for the variants elsewhere
see Koehler on Gonzenbach. The earliest form of the modern versions is
found in Basile (1637), _Pentamerone_ v., 4, _The Golden Root_.

Now there are several circumstances showing the identity of the
ancient and modern forms of this story. All of them contain the
punishment for curiosity motive, which is doubled both in Apuleius
(with the coffer at the end) and in Basile and Crane. In several of
the folk-tales the Ant-Help occurs in the performance of the tasks,
and in Apuleius the successive visits to Juno and Ceres evidently
represent the visits to the Queen-mother's sisters, often known as
ogresses, found in Dasent, Basile, and in Grimm 88. It is possible, of
course, that in some cases dim memories of Apuleius have percolated
down to the folk, as is shown by the name of the hero in Pitre's
version _Il Re d'Amore_. Kawczynski (Abh. d. Krakauer Akad. 1909, xlv.
1) declares for the derivation of the whole series of folk-tales from
Apuleius but against this is the doubt whether this author was at all
known during the Middle Ages.

But, to prove that the folk-tales were not derived directly or solely
from the classical romance they, in almost every case, had a series of
adventures not found there, including the incidents, Obstacles to
Pursuit, False Bride, and Sale of Bed. Now these incidents really
belong to another formula, that of the Master-Maid, in which an ogre's
or giant's daughter, helps the hero to perform tasks, flees away with
him, is pursued by the ogre, loses her beloved through an Oblivion
Kis