#psychedeity

I was wondering if you had any good historical texts or articles about Psyche?

Hello, love! Thank you so much!! <3

All I have to offer is her page on Theoi.com and her followers list

Hymenée de l’Amour et Psyché

1876

Antonio Giovanni Lanzirotti (1839–1921)

White marble

Oh anon, this ask lowkey freaks me out because I went to bed last night thinking about this and here you are, asking me to go over exactly what I was musing on. 

I will quickly summarize the main points on this blog but I want you to know that there is a thesis about the soul/butterfly link available online that will probably cover some of your needs. 

It’s important to first understand there are evolutions of the concept of soul between Homer and Pliny for example, who are separated by nearly 8 centuries. So when talking about how the Ancients viewed the soul, you are going to be met with some differences depending on the source. 

“Generally” speaking the soul is what inhabits the body (think: the butterfly inside of the cocoon) and which is released upon death (think: the cocoon is destroyed and the butterfly is free to fly). Psyche (as a concept) is, in this definition a sort of life force, sister to the concept of aion. Without a soul one cannot live. And when soul departs the body for good aka death, it leaves for the Underworld. 

It’s interesting to not that being unconscious does equal to a temporary loss of the soul but sleep isn’t (the implications of this bring us to very complex questions regarding coma, for example). This leads us to the realization that psyche alone is not the life force in itself and it is paired with other concepts such as aion or nous. 

The thing is, those other concepts are for the living. Once dead, all that is left is the soul/psyche. This is a bit of a simplification (the question of the ability for the souls of the dead to feel emotions is a problem with my past statement).

This list features worshipers, followers, and devotees of Psyche. If you would like to be added to the list please feel free to comment on this post or send me an ask. If you don’t see one of your Hellenic deities featured on the masterpost send me an ask and I’ll be sure to make one for them!

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@amethyst-aquarian

Unfortunately a lot of images featuring Pan has him being a tad bit predatory. BUT I did find some good ones! My favorite are the ones of him consoling Psyche!

Psyche

Around 1870

Alabaster marble

Altenstein