New Comedy in Apuleius' Tale of Cupid & Psyche
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Appendix New Comedy in Apuleius' Tale of Cupid & Psyche In the foregoing discussion, I have divided subplots into the two categories of fictive and factual performances, In this appendix I intend to show the affinities of Apuleius' tale of Cupid & P!Jche with New Comedy plots. My selection of Apuleius' comic novel, the Melamoprhoses may seem arbitrary, but in fact it is only meant as an example of a theatrical reading in genres related to or showing a strong influence from New Comedy. The connection of the Apuleian novel with the genre of New Comedy in tum allows us to consider the old woman's tale of Cupid & Psyd» asfabula, «comedy,» intended as her literary response to the young bride's tale of her abduction by the robbers on her wedding night, which Charite explicitly defines as scaena, «tragedy» (scaenam meae calamitatis 4.26: 94.20-21). * * * In the Cupid & Psyche tale (Apuleius Mel. 6.22: 145.1) the young god Cupid goes to Jupiter to seek his help because he fears the intensity of his mother Venus' wrath. Jupiter reproaches Cupid for inflicting passion in him and thus forcing him to assume various disguises (snake, flame, swan, and bull), in order to seduce his victims and satisfy his lust. Jupiter, however, promises to help Cupid in his present difficulty, but demands repayment for this services, namely that the next beautiful girlon earth should be his. Cupid, then, who in the tale's first part takes on the appearance of an invisible husband and unites with Psyche in his palace, disobeying his mother's order to punish her severely, can be seen in the same light as Jupiter who assumes several appearances, undignified as he admits, and then violates moral laws, in particular the Lex Julia de adulleriis coercendis. Thus Cupid's appearance as an invisible husband in Cupid & P!Jche can be seen to mirror Jupiter's taking on different guises to seduce his victims and therefore suggests Cupid's assumption ofthe role ofa lover in New Comedy. 146 Plots and Subplots In the tale Cupid disobeys his mother Venus' order to punish her rival in beauty, Psyche, and unites with the latter in the mountain retreat without allowing her to see him. Cupid's withholding his appearance from Psyche can be interpreted as a theatrical mask designed to conceal his secret union in the mountain palace and thus avoid his mother's wrath for going against her wishes. Cupid treats his union with Psyche simply as wedlock, despite the fact that Roman wedding formalities have not been observed.Ft In theatrical terms, Cupid acts as an improviser within a script his mother Venus imposes on him in order to punish her rival. Psyche's sisters, who construct a fictive scheme to break up Psyche's marriage to the god and enact it in staged terms, counter-theatricalize Cupid's ruse, exposing the illusion of his improvised drama and therefore revealing its affiliation to New Comedy plots. This exposure puts an end to Psyche's felicity and further provokes Venus' wrath towards her son for disobeying her orders and uniting with her rival. The angry Venus attempts to take control of the situation by punishing Psyche herself but she fails miserably, because Cupid takes on the role ofimproviser and undermines his mother's plans. In the simultaneous enactment of the two subplots, Psyche carries out all of Venus' harsh tasks, obeying to the instructions of Cupid's agents, in a way which contrasts with her earlier disobedience to Cupid's warnings not to penetrate his forbidden identity. Thus Venus fails to «rewrite» Cupid's plot. The only lover who sympathizes with Psyche's sorrow and comes to her aid is Venus' son Cupid. Jupiter'S intervention at the end resolves the tension between mother and son. The supreme god immortalizes Psyche and thus enables the marriage of the couple to take place at the end of the tale.176 Clearly,Jupiter's intervention bears similarities to the appearance of a deus ex macbina in a Euripidean-style play.!" The supreme god makes Psyche immortal and overcomes Venus ' objections regarding the inequality of the couple. In the archetypal pattern of New Comedy plots, Psyche's apotheosis may be seen in relationship with the convention of anagnorisis. The adulescentes of New Comedy plots can formally marry the girls they love, when their citizenship credentials are firmly established. In her attempt to terminate the union between the immortal Cupid and the mortal Psyche Venus appears as a champion of law and order in contrast to the male gods: Jupiter admits to breaking (moral) laws, while Cupid disobeys his mother's orders and then treats his union with Psyche at the palace as 175 Kenney 1990, 203. 176 See Konstan 1993, 139-144, for a lucid and clear-cut distinction between wives and courtesans in Menander and New Comedy in general. 177 S.J. Harrison draws to my attention a similarity with Eur. Andr. 1246 and the command to marry. New Comedy in Apuleius' Tale of Cupid & P!Jche 147 wedlock. Venus' other objection to the wedding regarding the issue of beauty is overcome when Psyche succeeds in bringing her the box of Proserpina's divine ointment from the underworld, and fulfills the last of Venus' tasks demanded of her. The tale concludes with the account of the wedding in the divine theatre on Mount Olympus mirroring the archetypal pattern of New Comedy plots which often end with marriage, acknowledgement of children, and sons reconciled to irate fathers. Scholars often direct attention to the presence of comic elements in Cupid & PsycheP8 The tale's association with New Comedy plots, however, remains to be explored. In what follows I intend to demonstrate this affiliation by examining the various schemes which characters construct like scriptwriters and improvisors and then attempt to impose as authoritative within the tale. Jupiter resolves the tension that is created from this interplay of subplots. He legalizes Cupid's drama and thus clears the way for the divine marriage in a way comparable to comic plays that end in a wedding. The performance of Cupid's subplot emerges triumphant because it falls within acceptable codes of behavior as a young and unmarried adult. 178 Walsh 1970, 198-199, divides the tale's action into five Acts, thus offering a structural scheme for the tale that is akin to drama: Act 1 IraVeneris 4.28-35;Act 2Amor Cupidinis 5.1-24; Act 3 Psyd» errant 5.25-6.8; Act 4 Psyd» apud Venem» 6.8-21; Act 5 Felix Coniugium 6.21-24. Walsh's tragic scheme was criticized by Stabryla 1973, 266, on the grounds that there is no literary catastrophe here and that the action progresses throughout «with pretty much the same emotional tension» Kenney 1990, 24, adopts Walsh's division into five acts with some alterations in the titles. Schiesaro 1988, 143-148 examines the tale's relatively autonomous opening in relation to tragic models. The presence of comic elements in the tale is well documented . Winkler 1985, 200-202, traces the presence of Plautine motifs in the prologue to the Metamorphoses. See now Harrison 1996,510. Schlam 1992,40-47 devotes a chapter to the comic elements observed throughout the novel. More recently, Konstan 1994, 137-138 makes an extremely interesting observation with regard to the tale's comic substratum, but does not develop it in greater detail (similarcomments in Konstan 1994,135, note 81): «[upiter obliges, and reconciles Venus to the marriage of the pair, as in the early stages of the affair between Chariton's Chaereas and Callirhoe, whose families are hostile to the union, or of that between Clitopho and Leucippe in Achilles Tatius's novel, though the conversion of the parent as blocking figure in the denouement of the drama, like Venus's overriding concern with the inferior status of Psyche, is more in the spiritofNewCometfy» [emphasis is mine). 148 Plots and Subplots METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH First, some words about methodology are in order. In the prose narrative of the novel the use of such terms as drama and counter-drama may be considered far-fetched. My use of the term performance is closer to sociolinguists who employ the term «narrative performance» to describe a type of particularly involved and dramatized narrative. As Toolan observes.F? «To perform a story is to furnish one's addressees with a more vivid and involving experience of that story, while exploiting special performance features as resources for highlighting the story's mainpoint» There are a number of reasons that warrant the tale's interpretation from a theatrical perspective: (1) the presence of vocabulary that is associated with theatre; (2) the comic theme of the young Cupid, falling in love and meeting the opposition of his angry mother, which brings to mind the stereotypical development of New Comedy plots where the adulescentes fall in love and meet the opposition of their harsh fathers; (3) the fabrication and enactment of deceptive schemes, which in their original setting of New Comedy are carried out as plqys within the plqy; and (4) the organization of the tale's discourse in terms of«dramatic programs» (DIP), coined after Greimas' «narrative programs» (NIP), which in the development of the action are undermined and/or turned into their opposites.ISO All these reasons encourage the reading of Cupid& Psyche as a regular New Comedy plot recast into prose. My use of such terms as drama, theatre and counter-drama is meant to be understood metaphorically. In this metaphorical sense it can be reasonably argued that various characters take on roles that are not actually their own and construct schemes, attempting to impose them onto the tale's narrative and thereby alter its development.