[_The Lay of Havelok the Dane._ Early English Text Society.]
Once upon a time there lived a king who had three daughters. The two elder girls were very fair, and many were their suitors, but the youngest was so beautiful that it was whispered in the city that the goddess Aphrodite was not her equal in loveliness, and as she walked through the streets men touched their foreheads, and bowed low to the ground, as if Aphrodite herself had passed by.
Now it was not long since the shepherd Paris had given the goddess the golden apple, in token that neither on the earth nor even on Olympus was a woman to be found as fair as she. And when she heard of the honours paid to Psyche, she rose up in her wrath and sent a winged messenger for Cupid, her son.
'Come with me,' she said, when Cupid appeared before her, 'I have somewhat to show you'; and without further speech the two flew through the air together, till they reached the palace where Psyche was sleeping.
'That is the maiden to whom men pay the homage due to me alone,' she whispered, while her grey eyes darted gleams like fire. 'I have brought you hither that you may avenge me by pricking her with an arrow that will fill her heart with love for one of the basest of mortals. And now I must depart in haste, for Oceanos awaits me.'
Aphrodite vanished, but Cupid remained where he was, gazing on the sleeping maiden and confessing in his heart that those who paid her the honours due to his mother were not much to blame.
'Never will I do you such wrong,' he murmured, 'as to mate you with some base wretch, who has no thought beyond the wine-cup. From me and my darts you are safe. But am I safe from yours?' Then, fearing to stay any longer, lest his mother should wax wroth with him, he also took his way to the palace of Oceanos.
[Illustration: APHRODITE BRINGS CUPID TO PSYCHE]
If Aphrodite had not been a goddess, and had known a little more about the hearts of men, she might not have envied Psyche so bitterly; for, though all men bowed down before her and worshipped her beauty, each felt that she was too far above him to woo for his bride. So that, while her sisters had homes and children of their own, Psyche remained unasked and unsought in her father's palace.