1839—
L-2 [Letter 239, 25 November 1839, To unknown]
quoted
“we came to the wave, and the seashell it moulds; to Beauty, and Love, her parent her child”
L-2 [Letter 239, 25 November 1839, To unknown]
Eros (Cupid)
Folklore & Mythology Figure
Documented in Fuller’s letters, books, manuscripts, memoirs
This page brings together documented engagements currently identified within the Fuller Reading Worlds catalog.
Related
- Entities
- Aphrodite (Venus) · Psyche
- Authors
- Lucius Apuleius · Henry More
Representative documentary evidence
1840—
L-2 [Letter 250, 21 January 1840, To Sarah Helen Whitman]
quoted
“I took up the Grecian mythology as a good means of opening a vista to the plain I sought and the topics were pursued thus. Jupiter — Creative Energy, Will. Apollo — Genius.”
L-2 [Letter 250, 21 January 1840, To Sarah Helen Whitman]
1840—
Letter to Ralph Waldo Emerson
p183analyzed · read
“Arrived safe 5th inst. the beautiful poem and the letter. About the former I think it shall be published, but have as yet thought chiefly of my own pleasure in reading it.”
Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. II. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1984.
Inferred Hudspeth identified this as Henry More's 'Cupid's Conflict.' Fuller describes reading it for 'my own pleasure' and deciding to publish it in the Dial (it appeared in Dial 2 (October 1841):137-48).
1845—
Letter to James Nathan
p94–95analyzed · read
“I sometimes inly say Psyche was but a mortal woman, yet as the bride of Love, she became a daughter of the Gods too.”
Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. IV. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1987.
Inferred Fuller alludes to Psyche self-referentially, comparing her own initiation through Nathan to Psyche's transformation from mortal woman to immortal "daughter of the gods" after marrying Cupid and receiving Jupiter's ambrosia.
1845—
New-York Daily Tribune
“St. Valentine's Day” · February 22, 1845, February 1845 · p. 1read
“Cupid presents the feathered end of the dart, as if he meant to tickle before he wounded the captive”
Fuller, Margaret. Life Without and Life Within; or, Reviews, Narratives, Essays, and Poems. Edited by Arthur B. Fuller. Boston: Brown, Taggard and Chase, 1860.
Inferred This alludes to the traditional depictions of Cupid/Eros found in classical literature such as Ovid's Metamorphoses and Ars Amatoria, and Virgil's Aeneid (Book I).
Fuller invokes Cupid not merely as holiday decoration but as a classical figure with specific attributes: the dart, feathered end, and captive struck by love.
1852—
Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli
p143analyzed · read
“Under the head of Venus, in the fifth conversation, the story of Cupid and Psyche was told with fitting beauty, by Margaret; and many fine conjectural interpretations suggested from all parts of the room.”
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, William Henry Channing, and James Freeman Clarke, eds. Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli. 2 vols. Boston: Phillips, Sampson and Company, 1852.
Inferred Identification rationale not yet recorded.
Undated
Pieces with no legible date. They are part of the record but cannot be placed on the lifeline.
n.d.—
On Michelangelo and Raphael
p19–26analyzedManuscript page
“This fable of Cupid and Psyche is almost as fine as the Endymion. These little Cupids carrying the trophies are infinitely graceful and playful. … Of brides Psyche is most bridal, Love.”
Fuller, Margaret. "On Michelangelo and Raphael." Houghton Library, Harvard University.
Inferred Fuller discusses Raphael's fresco cycle of 'this fable of Cupid and Psyche' (p19 onward), analyzing the narrative scenes depicted. The classical literary source for the Cupid-and-Psyche story as Fuller would have encountered it is Apuleius's Metamorphoses (The Golden Ass), Books IV.28–VI.24. The classical literary source is Apuleius, Metamorphoses (The Golden Ass), Books IV–VI.