Then Psyche, naturally weak in body and soul, but strengthened by her cruel fate, summoned all her strength and, taking out the lamp and drawing the razor, regained the courage of a man. But as soon as her secret husband appeared in the lamplight, she saw the gentlest and sweetest of all beasts: Love, the beautiful god, beautiful even in sleep, at whose sight even the lamp rejoiced, and the blade of the sacrilegious weapon flashed with a bright light.
Psyche, terrified and beside herself, covered with deathly paleness, trembling, fell to the ground on her knees and wanted to hide the blade by plunging it into her heart. And she certainly would have done so, had the blade itself, terrified by that atrocious crime, not slipped from her bold hand. And now, exhausted as she was, she regained courage as she gazed upon the beauty of that divine face. She saw the blond head and the flowing hair moist with ambrosia, the milk-white neck and the rosy cheeks, the soft locks of hair scattered some over the chest, others over the shoulders: before this dazzling beauty, even the very flame of the lamp seemed to falter.
On the shoulders of the winged god shone dewy feathers, dazzling with a sparkling brilliance, and, though the wings remained still, the feathers at the tips quivered playfully and ceaselessly. The rest of the body was smooth and lustrous, such that Venus herself could not regret having given birth to it. At the foot of the bed lay the weapons of the infallible god: the bow, the quiver, the arrows.
Psyche, with insatiable curiosity, pauses to gaze at them, touching and admiring her husband's weapons. Then she takes an arrow from the quiver and, touching the sharp point with her thumb, with a somewhat abrupt movement of her still-trembling hand, she pricks her finger rather deeply, causing a few drops of red blood, like dew, to flow out onto the surface of her skin. Thus, unsuspecting Psyche, through her own fault, was overcome by the love of Love.
Then, feeling her desire for the god of pleasure grow irresistibly within her, she leaned over him with parted lips and began to kiss him over and over again, passionately, fearing only that he might wake.
But while she was raving, wounded by the excitement of that unspeakable pleasure, the lamp, whether out of wicked treachery or hateful jealousy, or because it too longed to touch and almost kiss such a beautiful body, spurted a drop of boiling oil from the tip of its flame, which landed on the god's right shoulder.
O bold and reckless lamp, vile instrument of love! You dared to burn the god of all fire, you who were surely invented by a lover who wanted to enjoy the sweetness he desired for longer, even at night...
So the god, feeling himself burned, leaped from his bed and saw the outrage and betrayal of every promise of fidelity. Without a word, he flew away, escaping the kisses and hands of his most unfortunate wife.
But Psyche, as he rose in flight, clung with both hands to the god's right foot, like a miserable appendage of that sublime exaltation, and continued to follow him through the cloudy regions of the sky, until exhausted she fell to the ground.
The divine lover did not abandon her thus cast to the ground, but flew to a nearby cypress tree, and from the heights of that peak, deeply moved, he spoke to her in this way: "I myself, my naive Psyche, I myself, disobeying the commands of my mother Venus who wanted you in love with a miserable and abject man, and condemned to marry him, flew to you and became your husband. I acted too lightly, I know; I, the most famous archer, wounded myself with my own weapons and made you my wife, only so that you would then believe me a beast and want to cut off my head with a weapon, that head which bears the eyes that love you! Yet at every moment I warned you of such a danger, and more than once I lovingly admonished you. But those illustrious counselors of yours will receive the punishment they deserve for their wicked teachings. You, on the other hand, will be punished only by my flight."
And after speaking thus, he rose quickly on his wings.