"
Away he flew; and while Psyche went cheerily homeward, he hastened up
to Olympus, where all the gods sat feasting, and begged them to
intercede for him with his angry mother.
They heard his story and their hearts were touched. Zeus himself coaxed
Venus with kind words till at last she relented, and remembered that
anger hurt her beauty, and smiled once more. All the younger gods were
for welcoming Psyche at once, and Hermes was sent to bring her hither.
The maiden came, a shy newcomer among those bright creatures. She took
the cup that Hebe held out to her, drank the divine ambrosia, and
became immortal.
Light came to her face like moonrise, two radiant wings sprang from her
shoulders; and even as a butterfly bursts from its dull cocoon, so the
human Psyche blossomed into immortality.
Love took her by the hand, and they were never parted any more.
STORIES OF THE TROJAN WAR.
I. THE APPLE OF DISCORD.
There was once a war so great that the sound of it has come ringing
down the centuries from singer to singer, and will never die.
The rivalries of men and gods brought about many calamities, but none
so heavy as this; and it would never have come to pass, they say, if it
had not been for jealousy among the immortals,--all because of a golden
apple! But Destiny has nurtured ominous plants from little seeds; and
this is how one evil grew great enough to overshadow heaven and earth.
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