The Sisters' Punishment: Just?

I most certainly feel that the punishment Psyche's sisters received for their evil plan is just. The sisters, even though they themselves had happy lives and had no need to be jealous, destroyed her life when she was finally happy. First, they were happily married: "duae maiores sorores regibus desponsae iam beatas nuptias habent," (Chapter 2, pg. 15, lines 4-5). Not only were they married while Psyche was alone, they were happiliy married! The sisters got to be married and happy, but Psyche, who was left alone for a very long time, when she finally finds love, doesn't deserve it? No. Clearly, any jealousy they felt for Psyche was ill-founded, and it is in no way justified.
Next, what they did was deliberate. They planned it from the beginning and guided Psyche into the trap. Perhaps if they had truly been scared for Psyche's life and told her to kill the monster, they wouldn't have deserved such a fate. But they had planned it, and they were not scared for Pysche's life. It was pure jealousy. In translation, from Chapter 4, the sisters say "We'll teach her that we're not her slaves but her elder sisters. So for the present let's return to our husbands and our poor mediocre houses; and then after thoroughly digesting the situation let's return equipped to lessen her pride." There's no arguing it, the sisters intended to bring Psyche down, they flat out say it! There's no room for discretion, their intent is undeniable.
On top of this, after Psyche had been left by Cupid, they were ridiculously quick to forget about her problems and try to marry Cupid for themselves. In translation, from Chapter 9, "No sooner had Psyche finished speaking than the other, pricked-on by ravening rash lust and rankling jealousy, rushed out..and then taking ship she proceeded with all speed to the crag as of old." Psyche had barely finished speaking and she ran off! The same with the other one, "Psyche gave her the same misunderstanding; and the womanm lured by the hope of supplanting her sisterm dashed off to the crag and fell into the same death." Neither sister had the slightest drop of sympathy, let alone any emotion other than jealousy and greed. Therefore, both deserved the horrible death they got.
The sisters had no reason to be jealous, planned the evil plan with deliberate intent, and afterwards, didn't even show or feel any pity for poor Psyche. For these reasons, coupled with their undeniable evil, their punishment is just. If anything, they should have been tortured, and the only way their punishment isn't just is because it wasn't as harsh as it should have been.

Cupid and Psyche - fear

Consistently throughout Apuleius' Cupid and Psyche we have seen many clauses of fear. Whether it be fearing the gods or fearing something bad will happen, Apuleius has used quite a bit of fear clauses.

The first instance of fear is in Chapter two, line eight. Psyche's father, "iram superum metuEns", goes to Apollo's oracle to find out what's going on with his daughter and to figure out how to get her a husband. He was afraid that the gods' anger may be causing her loneliness, which would be a good guess in that time, so he went to figure it out. Another instance of someone being afraid is in Chapter three, lines 23 to 24. After Psyche is at the palace and has finished her food and bath, she is "virginitati suae metuens" when she goes to bed and hears another voice approaching. She is afraid she is going to lose her virginity, because some masculine thing is coming. Yet again, in Chapter seven, line 16, more fear is demonstrated. Once her sisters have terrified poor Psyche into thinking the love of her life got her pregnant to eat her baby then plans on eating her, "Psyche misella rapitur verborum tam tristium formidine". She is so scared of what they've said to her, she actually believes them. Again, in line 19, she flat out says this: "...ego valde timeo ne verum sit quod dicitis". She's tremendously scared that her husband is a serpent monster, because of her evil sisters. Once again in Chapter seven, line thirty-three, there is fear. This time, Psyche's sisters leave "metuEns ne quid mali ipsae acciperent". They leave fearing something bad may happen. Then the last instance of fear so far, in Chapter eight line 8, when Psyche has seen her husband is actually love himself, she is afraid: "...Psyche tanto aspectu perterrita residit". She was so scared of his 'divine face' she actually fell backwards.

With these instances of fear in Apuleius, a definition of the opposite of fear can be deduced. There is fear of the anger of the gods, fear for one's virginity, fear for horrible things people tell you, and fear for future unknown bad things. In fearing the gods' anger, the opposite of fear would be accepting the gods' will. You either are afraid of it, hence you don't want it; or the opposite, you deal with it and take it. In fearing for your virginity, I suppose the opposite would be welcoming the loss of it. Again, you're only afraid because it is going to be taken. If you welcome it, you're not afraid of it. When it comes to fearing the validity of things that are too awful to believe, the opposite, yet again, would be accepting the truth in order to not be afraid. You're either scared of it and deny it; or you welcome it and accept it. Then lastly, fearing whether something bad may happen in the future, the opposite would be welcoming the unknown. Being scared for it you reject it; the opposite of this would be welcoming it.

Therefore, the opposite of fear is acceptance. You either deny something because you're afraid or accept it hence doing the opposite of fearing it.

Cupid and Psyche chp. 1-3

Once upon a time there was a king and a queen who lived in some city. They had three beautiful daughters, the youngest possessing exceptional beauty. One day, the mother of all beauty grew jealous, and sought to ruin the beautiful girl's life. In a surprising turn of events, the girl ends up being happy and is entertained and taken care of by 'animated' things (the voices). On top of this, she is happy with her sweet husband.

Every detail just listed is very characteristic of classic fairy tales. First, there is some "rex et regina" in "quidam civitate" (line 1/ Chapter one). As most fairy tales do, Apuleius' story starts off very vague, as to make it so this could be happening anywhere, in any kingdom. Next, the king and queen have "tres filias pulcherrimas" (line 1/ Chapter one). In addition, one in particular, the youngest daughter, has remarkable beauty. In fact, she is so beautiful that human characteristics can't even describe her (lines 3 to 5). Further exemplifying itself as the classical fairy tale, Venus takes the position as the 'evil step mother' (lines 19 to 28/ Chapter one) and wishes to cause the girl harm. In Sleeping Beauty and even Shrek, the story is about the king and the queen's daughter. Also, the princess in all of these stories has too much beauty, and so was envied by some 'evil step mother' or equivalent role. Especially relating to Sleeping Beauty, some magical being is jealous and puts a curse on her. In this adaptation of Apuleius' story, the same basic thing happens, Venus takes it upon herself to ensure Psyche will not be happy with a decent husband (lines 27 to 28/ Chapter one). Moving to a more positive element of a classic fairy tale, the invisible voices help Psyche and make sure she's taken care of (lines 15 to 21/ Chapter three). This is seen in such fairy tales as Beauty and the Beast and also, less romantically, The Brave Little Toaster. The inanimate objects in Belle's scenario, or in Psyche's case the invisible voices, feed them and give them aid in every possible way. Lastly, as common in pretty much every fairy tale, the beautiful princess is happily in love with a sweet husband. Psyche is visited by her unknown husband every night, and considering she thought she was going to be alone or die, she is happy with her life (lines 24 to 26 and line 28/ Chapter three). Whether it be Cinderella, or The Little Mermaid, or probably any Disney movie, the princess has her prince.

When translating and reading this story, the parallels to other fairy tales are constant. Cupid and Psyche definitely set the fairy tale standard and can be considered the first fairy tale. Almost every detail of the story is a classical fairy tale characteristic.