(Ψυχή, breath, the soul) is represented in later antiquity as the personification of the human soul, and about whom Apuleius (Met. iv. 28, &c.) has the following beautiful allegory.—Psyche, the youngest of the three daughters of a king, having aroused by her beauty the jealousy and envy of Venus, that goddess ordered Amor or Cupid to inspire her with a love for the most contemptible of mortals. Amor had no sooner beheld this matchless beauty than he became suddenly enamoured of her. He bore her to some charming spot, where he unseen and unknown visited her every night, and left her when the day began to dawn. Her sisters persuaded her that she embraced some hideous monster under the darkness of the night. To satisfy her curiosity, she arose with a lighted lamp, and beheld to her inexpressible delight the most handsome and lovely of the gods. In her bewilderment of joy and fear, she gazed on him as he slept, when a drop of hot oil fell from her lamp upon his breast. Amor awoke, censured Psyche for her mistrust, and immediately vanished. Her peace was now gone; she attempted in vain to throw herself into a river; she wandered about inquiring for her beloved; when she arrived at the palace of Venus. The goddess retained her as a slave, and imposed upon her the hardest tasks. Amor, who still secretly loved her, brought her invisible comfort and assistance, till Venus, overcome by the gentle obedience and silent attention of the fair slave, granted her immortality, and she became united with Amor for ever.

In this lovely story one can recognise in the misfortunes of Psyche the purification of the soul by suffering and trial before entering upon true and lasting happiness. Psyche is represented by artists as a maiden with the wings of a butterfly. Lafontaine has wrought her story into a pastoral, and Mrs Tighe into a poem. (See vol. ii. of Bohn's "Classical Library.")