Psyche

, a nymph whom Cupid married and carried into a place of bli , where he long enjoyed her company. Venus put her to death because she had robbed the world of her son; but Jupiter, at the request of Cupid, granted immortality to Psyche. The word signifies the soul , and this personification of Psyche first mentioned by Apuleius is posterior to the August an age, though still it is connected with ancient mythology. Psyche is generally represented with the wings of a butterfly, to intimate the lightne of the soul, of which the butterfly is the symbol, and on that account, among the ancients, when a man had just expired, a butterfly appeared fluttering above, as if rising from the mouth of the deceased.