Meanwhile, Psyche reaped no fruit from her extraordinary beauty, of which she was well aware. She was admired by all, everyone praised her, but there was no one, neither king nor son of a king, nor any man, who came forward to ask for her hand. They admired her divine beauty, but they admired it like that of a splendidly sculpted statue.
Her elder sisters, whose modest beauty had not become the subject of so much gossip, had been sought by princes of royal blood and had happily married; but Psyche, remaining at home, virgin and alone, did nothing but weep in her desolate solitude. Suffering in body, wounded in spirit, she hated that beauty of hers which everyone admired so much.
Therefore, the unhappy father of that unfortunate maiden, suspecting some divine hatred and fearing the wrath of the gods, went to consult the ancient oracle of the god of Miletus, and with prayers and sacrifices asked this powerful god for a marriage and a husband for the maiden whom no one wanted. But Apollo, though Greek and Ionian, out of deference to the author of this Milesian tale, gave his response in Latin, thus:
"Upon a high mountain, leave, oh king, the maiden adorned for nuptials in funereal attire. Expect not a son-in-law born of mortal lineage, but a cruel, fierce, viperous monster, who, flying with wings through the sky, torments all and with iron and fire destroys everything; whom Jove himself fears, of whom the gods are terrified, and even the infernal rivers and the darkness of Styx."
The king, once joyful, as soon as he received the oracle's response, returned home sorrowful and sad, and recounted to his wife the ominous order received from the god. For several days, everyone did nothing but grieve, weep, and lament, but one unhappily had to obey the gloomy prophecy. Funeral rites were prepared for the miserable maiden, and already the light of the torches dwindled under the ashes of black soot, the sound of the nuptial flute turned into the mournful Lydian mode, and the joyful hymn of Hymen into a lugubrious wail, while the promised bride wiped away her tears with her veil.
The whole city joined in the grief of the family struck by a terrible destiny, while trials already begun in the courts were suspended, as a sign of civic mourning. The god's orders had to be obeyed, and poor Psyche had to submit to her cruel fate. So, amidst general anguish, the preparations for those funereal nuptials were completed, and the obsequies of a living person proceeded, with the participation of all the people. Psyche, in tears, was accompanied not to a wedding procession, but to a funeral escort.
The parents, afflicted and struck by such a great misfortune, hesitated to commit that horrendous misdeed, but the maiden herself exhorted them with these words: 'Why do you wish to afflict your old age with these endless tears? Why do you consume your lives, which are more mine than yours, with these desperate cries? Why do you spoil your venerable faces for me with these useless tears? Why do you tear your white hair? Why do you beat your breasts, your sacred bosoms? Is this, then, the invaluable prize for my rare beauty? It is too late now to understand, now that you have been struck by a mortal blow inflicted by a dire envy. When peoples and nations paid me divine honors, when all in chorus called me the new Venus, then you should have worried, then you should have wept and dressed in mourning for me, as if I were already dead. Now I feel, now I see that only for that name of Venus am I lost! Lead me to that cliff that my destiny has assigned to me, and leave me there. I am now eager to reach those happy nuptials, I am eager to see him, this noble husband of mine! Why do I delay, why do I withdraw from him who comes to meet me, born for the ruin of the whole world?'
Having said this, the virgin fell silent and with a now confident step mingled with the others in the crowd accompanying her in the funereal procession. They reached the destined cliff, atop a high mountain, on whose summit the maiden was laid. All then left her, abandoning her, and leaving there also the nuptial torches, extinguished by their tears, the very ones with which they had previously lit the way; and they headed, heads bowed, towards their homes. The maiden's parents, tormented by such a cruel fate, withdrew into the shadows of the closed palace, condemning themselves to an endless night. But Psyche, while still frightened and trembling, wept profusely atop the cliff, when suddenly she felt a sweet breath of Zephyr gently rise and stir the hem of her garment from every side, which, swollen like a sail, lifted her with its light breath, and making her slide little by little along the slope of the steep cliff, gently laid her in the lap of a flowery meadow in the valley below.