AMORE e PSICHE - Fresco (4th cent.) - Rome, Cemetery of Domitilla.
COMPANIES OF DIVINE LOVE: v. DIVINO AMORE, COMPAGNIE DEL. AMORE and PSYCHE. - The myth of P. (the soul) found poetic expression in books IV-VI of Apuleius' Metamorphoses. Married to A., P., because of her curiosity, sees her beloved vanish, but, after long painful trials, finds him again and is reunited with him in eternal marriage.
Through Neoplatonic interpretations the tale acquired high moral value, adumbrating the concept that the love of divine things is a pledge of immortality. Elaborated in this way, it offered itself to ancient Christian art as a poetic illustration of eternal happiness and could figure alongside the Good Shepherd, before orantes or beside Jonah at rest. Furnished with butterfly wings, the emblem of the soul, P. gathers roses in the pure celestial radiance together with A., or delights with him in the eternal dance, on frescoes of the catacombs of Domitilla or in the mosaics of S. Costanza. The Alexandrian group of A. and P. embracing appears on a glass base with a Christian formula, and very rarely in sculpture, where a relief also unites it to the dextrarum iunctio, as a wish for reunion in the next life. In the paradisiacal vintage, P. offers A. a basket of grapes, an expression of celestial delights.
Bibliography4 worksR. Reitzenstein, Das Märchen von Amor und Psyche, Heidelberg 1917; A. Cinquini, Apuleius, fabula de Psyche et Cupidine, Roma 1918; F. Cumont
BIBL.: R. Reitzenstein, Das Märchen von Amor und Psyche, Heidelberg 1917; A. Cinquini, Apuleius, fabula de Psyche et Cupidine, Roma 1918; F. Cumont, Recherches sur le symbolisme funéraire des Romains, Parigi 1942; E. Paratore, Apulei Metamorphoseon libri IV-VI (testo critico e introduzione), Firenze 1948.
De, Bruyne Luciano. “Amore, compagnie del divino.” In Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. I, col. 1106. Città del Vaticano: Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1948. https://azioneromana.com/article/amore-compagnie-del-divino.
MLA
De, Bruyne Luciano. “Amore, compagnie del divino.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. I, Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1948, col. 1106. Azione Romana, https://azioneromana.com/article/amore-compagnie-del-divino.
BibTeX
@incollection{ec1_amore_compagnie_del_divino,
author = {De, Bruyne Luciano},
title = {Amore, compagnie del divino},
booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica},
volume = {I},
pages = {1106},
note = {Cited by column},
publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico},
address = {Città del Vaticano},
year = {1948},
url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/amore-compagnie-del-divino}
}
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