The story of Cupid and Psyche is, hands down, my favorite myth. So many other myths end unhappily with people being turned into flora because of personality flaws or being sentenced to drag a rock up a mountain for eternity for daring to defy the gods. Depressing stuff. In contrast, the tale of the joining of love and the soul ends happily with all parties fulfilled, satisfied, and looking forward to a very extended happily ever after. Good stuff. Shimmering Splendor retells this tale, fleshing it out and exploring the romance of the story.

In this story Eros (Cupid) is Aphrodite's very close, though entirely platonic, friend. He has been shunned by Olympic society for a long ago sin, and only Aphrodite proved loyal to him. He owes her for her kind treatment. So when news arrives about a disturbance to one of Aphrodite's temples, he goes in her stead to figure out the problem and resolve it.

What has happened is that Anerios, king of Iolkas, tried have his astonishingly beautiful daughter, Psyche, made a priestess at Aphrodite's temple. Psyche's suitors have become a problem for Iolkas, and Anerios couldn't see a way to resolve her marriage without possible repercussions to his kingdom. But Hyppodamia, the temple's high priestess, wouldn't accept Psyche because Psyche hates both the ideas of love and beauty. Anerios ordered Hyppodamia to be beaten and Aphrodite's temple shunned. However, when Eros arrives in Ioklas, he is impressed by Psyche. He too knows what it is like to be loved only for his physical attributes, and he is impressed by Psyche's poise and by her sharp and witty tongue.

Eros doesn't want to punish Psyche, and Hyppodamia doesn't want Anerios to lose his kingdom. So Eros must think up clever and situation-appropriate punishments. For Psyche this means she is to be cast out of the village and given to a monster in marriage. But Eros doesn't really mean for her to marry a monster. Instead he spirits her away to his hunting lodge and casts a spell of darkness on himself so that Psyche can't make out his form even in broad daylight. Then he proceeds to woo her. But can Psyche learn to love a monster, and what will happen if she ever learns the truth about her husband?

Psyche is a well developed character. She is courageous, tenacious, and self-aware. She has little vanity, and for a woman who was mistaken for the Goddess of Beauty, this is remarkable. She is also never once intimidated by Eros's presence or stature. She gives as good as she gets.

Gellis's version of this tale stays quite true to the original, and about a third of the way through it, I was struck by how similar this story is to the Beauty and the Beast fairytale. Most of the key elements are present - the erring father, the beautiful, sacrificed daughter, the prince-disguised-as-monster hero, the isolated palace with mute servants, the heroine's meddling family. This version even has a library, and Psyche takes full advantage of it to learn more about the truth of her world and Olympus.

Eros could have been better developed as a character. His background remains mysterious, and his perspective is never entirely explained. Once he decides he wants Psyche, that she completes him, he never looks back. But while he finds that her company resurrects his jaded, weary soul, he also suffers numerous pangs of insecurity. He is never sure of her or her love. He mistakes her motivation and second guesses her actions. His behavior was often rather adolescent which seems odd for the God of Love who has made his way merrily through hoards of lovers and admirers.

His relationship with Aphrodite is strange as well. In all the versions I've read, Aphrodite is his mother, and in that context her jealous treatment of Psyche makes sense. But as his platonic friend - and Gellis emphasizes and re-emphasizes that their relationship isn't sexual - this possessive behavior makes less sense. Why would these two immortals, both sexually promiscuous, not have ever been attracted to each other in that way?

Finally, while most of the expanding Gellis did was interesting and did add dimension to the original myth, the narrative occasionally lagged during Psyche's various quests. Also, the precise nature of the Olympians was not explained until fairly late in the book, and until that became clear, the book was confusing in spots.

Shimmering Splendor is the second book in a series Gellis did on the Olympian immortals. I was very interested to see what she would make of Cupid and Psyche and their adventures and was not disappointed. I will be seeking out the other books in this series. It's always fun to read an old story redone in a new way, especially when the author is as skillful as Gellis in both storytelling and prose.