Susan Hawthorne #150 psyche

the idea of psyche is old
going back to pre-Greek days
embodied as a young woman
she is in the dark about desire

she'll do anything sort grains
to an impossible deadline
saved by worker ants
who pity her and help out

tasked to gather golden wool
from a flock of aggressive rams
a reed in the river advises her
to find the wool on prickly briars

Venus who is setting these tasks
sends her to the source of rivers
Styx and Cocytus where the air stinks
eagles bring back the black water

last of all she must visit the underworld
no easy task to return with the beauty
of the queen of the underworld in a box
she must resist helping people in despair

who beg her but her hands are full
with barley cakes to calm Cerberus
and coins for a return trip with
the ferryman Charon

Psyche with help from ants plants
birds gods and her own wily
intelligence returns from the land of the dead
no longer naïve the result is pleasure